UK Elle September 2023 : Cara Delevingne by Quentin Jones

[vogue28]

Cover #1:

 

[FashionFanatico]

just can't stop laughing looking at this.
Honey had quite a massive hangover again.
Sorry to be mean, but it's all way too forced and obvious with these open boots.

 

[callmejaeden]

Elle UK is going through it with this cover and that google pixel one

 

[Deleted member 116957]

Did a magazine editor really think putting "Cancel This" as a cover-line was smart? Yeah, "cancel this" subscription...

 

[8eight]

Not the best

 

[vogue28]

Cover #2:

 

[Zorka]

CARA DELEVINGNE: 'I FINALLY FEEL AS THOUGH I CAN BE FREE'
Photography: Quentin Jones
Styling: Aurelia Donaldson
Hair: Harry Josh
Make-up: Hung Vanngo
Model: Cara Delevingne



elle.com/uk

 

[tigerrouge]

Not only are those pathetic collage pages not worth paying money for - they're not even worth the fraction of a second of anyone's attention span online.

 

[WAVES]

oh dear.

 

[Drusilla_]

that first cover would almost work if Cara didn't manage to look half-asleep while hanging from a bar with one leg in the air.

 

[Melancholybaby]

So was that tragic footballers cover just a Google ad, not an actual cover? Not that what's presented here is much of an improvement...

 

[FashionFanatico]

First she was a trainwreck and now she morphed into Tom Cruise.
such desperate times....

 

[Lucien112]

"I'm resilient as hell" Girl, WHAT

 

[Phuel]

The hanging shots had such potential. The lines are rather graphically sharp with a great backdrop. Why they went for the messier select that resembles a hamster struggling from falling on a bar rather than the more sleeker one in B&W is typical of the inferior taste of these dire fashion days.

Unfortunately, her dour expression— or is it her trying to be sensual...??? ...Never can tell with her, along with the messy hair is just too much of a recall to her messy period. And it’s more unfortunate that the standard these days seems to be 1, maybe 2 if they’re lucky, good selects, while the rest are random fillers. It’s a whole new generation of “creatives" incapable of telling and producing a strong, solid, and supreme story from beginning to end.

 

[vogue28]

After the Google Pixel-shot cover which felt like total amateur hour, I do feel somewhat compelled to tolerate this! Not the worst duo of covers I've came across, but would've much preferred a little more... joy and aspiration for September as opposed to an expressionless Cara Delevingne photographed hanging in a grunge-looking getup, with a gloomy New York in the background.

The hanging cover instantly took me back to Kate Winslet's ultra-glam August 2009 cover of American Harper's Bazaar by Peter Lindbergh.

 

[Deleted member 1957]

I dont mind the first cover it does have that 90s Peter Lindberg vibe though her face is dead in the shot shes not giving any energy. Also the taglines on both covers arent it.

 

[VogueGirl8910]

Terrible cover story, looks like more a spread from a teen magazine than Elle.

 

[Phuel]

Once upon a time when the new Season’s campaigns debuting in their unleashed glory with the September issues were as strong, supreme and sublime as— if not over exceeded, that issue’s fashion stories. Then came that day when the fashion stories weren’t so strong/supreme/sublime— but the campaigns gave those weaker stories the much needed heavylifting that still made a September issue worth its hype. Nowadays, the campaigns are competing to be as lifeless, forgettable and pedestrian as the few measly/meek/meandering fashion stories that define a September issue in 2023. It’s that pathetic— to see a Prada/Miu Miu/Fendi ad that looks like product shots. Not a whiff of mood, attitude, POV; just merch like a midrange deaprtment-store’s weekly flyer.

If a gun were held to my head and I had to say something positive of this issue; there’s a decent story/advertorial of various brands, each getting a single page/spread promo (which ELLE had done so well with a cast of models in the past) with just one lone model, Lili Sumner this time, in that sort of story that Carter Smith excels at: The Office. That’s the only story with a consistent sense of mood where the styling suits the story. That’s it. The other desktop-publishing stories shot by newcomers resemble fashion students casting and playing dressup with their friends-- and not a one looking like a model. Why pay for such pedestrian efforts when it’s all free on SM?

(…And in a perfect fashion world, if “quiet luxury” is used one more time by these sheep writers, then heads need to roll.)