UK Harper’s Bazaar September 2023 : Soo Joo Park by Boo George

[vogue28]

 

[oaklee91]

Can’t say I like the cover but I like her. So I’m conflicted.

 

[BlueRuin]

Love soojoo but this is rly bad. Her expression is strange maybe because of retouching and the stringy hair is not helping.

 

[Kite]

"September is the BLAND-uary of Fashion" - Candy Pratts Cut-Price

 

[avonlea002]

Boo George should stick to emulating Lindbergh. This is terrible.

 

[tigerrouge]

It doesn't look very "UK Bazaar" so I wonder where this cover shoot has originated from...

The digital copy has appeared on my library list. 246 pages.

The main fashion editorials don't open with the cover story, they start with Erik Madigan Heck, with one of his typical colourful landscape/garden shoots. The Soo Joo Park story isn't as #waitresscore as the cover suggests, but it's weak, there's no way it would carry a traditional September issue. Half the shots are a deliberately blurry mess, which is never a good sign.

And that's it for the main edits?

There are plenty of other features in the traditional Bazaar vein, about art, culture and travel, so it's business as usual on all the other pages. But the fashion section... looking at the Madigan Heck editorial, it feels like Bazaar wanted that to be the cover story, although there are no alternative covers shown on the contents page.

 

[KoV]

Does UK Bazaar typically state which brands the cover star is wearing, right on the cover itself?

“Soo Joo Park wears Prada and Tiffany & Co.” written right on the cover is taking me out.

 

[Benn98]

^I quite like the clothing credits on the cover. This used to be a thing in the 2000s.

Ok maybe not September cover material, but this would definitely be a solid cover for a quiet month. I like it. Cathy Kasterine will always be a top-notch menswear stylist in my mind. You can see that in the stripped back simplicity which takes me back to Tonne Goodman's 90s era. She's just so effortless and I'm obsessed with her work for Esquire.

A better photographer would've lifted this. A different model too, quite frankly. Why Soo Joo?
Was Liu Wen or Fei Fei Sun busy? They have a stronger brand to carry an important September cover in the West. Or maybe Lina Zhang? I believe this might be the first time UK Bazaar is giving an Asian model the cover. And after Gemma Chan covered last year's September cover. Progress.

 

[A.D.C.]

This reminds me of Carine’s atrocious “Icon” covers. Happy for Soo though.

 

[Handbag Queen]

Very lackluster for a September cover.

 

[VogueGirl8910]

What happen to UK Harper's Bazaar, it was one of the best fashion mags with amazing covers, & now, all of them look like a pool clothes catalogue.

 

[kasper!]

She looks painful & uncomfortable on the cover.

 

[Melancholybaby]

The "power of fashion" with this outfit? Absolutely not.

Does UK Bazaar typically state which brands the cover star is wearing, right on the cover itself?

Vogue Italia used to do this every month up until the mid 00s.

 

[vogue28]

A cover line declaring the power of fashion paired with the most stiff, lifeless and drab cover image is downright baffling to me - even more so for a September issue! Not sure what on Earth was going on with Lydia Slater and the rest of the Bazaar team when compiling this for us. I am dumbfounded, to be completely honest.

 

[Zorka]

SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE (HQ)
Photography: Boo George
Styling: Cathy Kasterine
Hair: Hiroshi Matsushita
Make-up: Natsumi Narita
Model: Soo Joo Park



Textless:



UK Harper's Bazaar Digital Edition

 

[Zorka]

GARDEN OF DELIGHTS (HQ)
Photography: Erik Madigan Heck
Styling: Leith Clark
Hair: Franco Gobbi
Make-up: Andrew Gallimore
Model: Julia Banas



UK Harper's Bazaar Digital Edition

 

[Zorka]

Textless:



UK Harper's Bazaar Digital Edition

 

[Phuel]

^I quite like the clothing credits on the cover. This used to be a thing in the 2000s.

Ok maybe not September cover material, but this would definitely be a solid cover for a quiet month. I like it. Cathy Kasterine will always be a top-notch menswear stylist in my mind. You can see that in the stripped back simplicity which takes me back to Tonne Goodman's 90s era. She's just so effortless and I'm obsessed with her work for Esquire.

A better photographer would've lifted this. A different model too, quite frankly. Why Soo Joo?
Was Liu Wen or Fei Fei Sun busy? They have a stronger brand to carry an important September cover in the West. Or maybe Lina Zhang? I believe this might be the first time UK Bazaar is giving an Asian model the cover. And after Gemma Chan covered last year's September cover. Progress.

Not sure if I can feel as optimistic as you do in terms of how progressive the attitude is towards Asian presence in these rags (and other creative industries' of Asians castings overall are…). It’s simply industry politics— and likely economics, that has finally (and reluctantly?) placed an Asian model on the cover of any Western Bazaar. And that it’s a September issue may simply mean that there’s not going to be any more Asians on the covers for a long long long time LOL (That Gemma Vogue cover seems more like a bought placement: Hollywood has a lot of sway over Vogue…) This industry owns a lot to the spending power of the Asian consumers, yet Asians are the least represented If at all) on the covers in these Western rags— and fashion shows. There seems to be this open passive-aggressive resentment by Western editors in general to support Asian presence but can’t exactly exclude those damn crazy rich Asians either, so to the back of the proverbial bus they’re relegated LOL Still, this issue is better than American Vogue/Bazaar/Elle, all of whom have yet placed a sole Asian model on their covers. But that’s typical of the American attitude towards Asians these days: When even the Ivy League openly discriminate against Asian applicants to the definition of open racism, why would there be any support for Asian representation in such a shallow industry as fashion???

Rant aside LOL ... It’s not a bad issue— minus the worst select for a cover. It’s still a meandering shoot with the most basic of styling, but it is competently shot. UK Bazaar seems to be taking art direction from the superior Bazaar France/Italia. Hopefully it’s a sign of how their aesthetic will veers towards from now on, rather than the unbearable, saccharine garden parties and country house purgatory they’ve been marinating in. Although, Erik Madigan Heck and his brand of Alice lost in wonderland is present— and it’s not bad either. It’s predictable and he’s very one-note, but he’s an impressively skilled photographer who’s masterclass of composition and lighting is enough to get a pass. And his professional post-production effects of colour-manipulation and effects-layers smash to shame the amateur student slop of Rafael/Tyler Mitchell/Elizaveta combined. At this rate, Western Bazaar— and that includes Samira’s (since I’m the only one here that likes her LOL) is so much more vogue than all the Western Vogues combined.

(BTW, the traditional bluechip brands campaigns that dominate the front of the magazine are at an all-time low, creatively— outdoing even teh lowest of standards that the most mundane, pedestrian product shots of any given consumer-end weekly flyer.)

 

[avonlea002]

Erik Madigan Heck ed is amazing. He is a perfect choice for this edition. Would love to see an issue filled with images by him and Annemarieke van Drimmelen.

 

[matheus_s]

only two eds for september?