US Elle April 2013 : Nicki Minaj by Thomas Whiteside

[Miss Dalloway]

This is horrible, i don't like anything about this cover, the unzipped jacket is so unnecessary and not something i wanted to see, and the hair is just nasty!

 

[kewkaw]

so tacky, Super no !

 

[MulletProof]

I feel like the part of me that is addicted to bad taste is growing as I get older (wondering what it'll be in twenty years from now, if only I live long enough to know...)

.. .. same here, something about raunchiness that's began to appeal to me in the last years. We'll be 40-something pervs if lucky (plain tacky if not).

 

[liberty33r1b]

omg, sooooo bad! there are not enough words to express how wrong this is.....

 

[penny609]

.. .. same here, something about raunchiness that's began to appeal to me in the last years. We'll be 40-something pervs if lucky (plain tacky if not).

Well, yeah... I guess it's a reaction to the contagious lack of creativity we see from most mainstream publications that makes us literally enraptured everytime we face something raunchy or cheesy. And seeing it now in higher resolution didn't change my mind at all (or if it did, it's only for the best... sigh!), there seems to be so much things wrong on the cover shoot that it ends up looking genuinely beautiful in a totally new way. I'm almost feeling the same looking at the latest Vogue Paris cover: too wrong makes it so right.

 

[MulletProof]

Absolutely. Every time something like this comes out (not full blown tacky but just about enough for now!), I can't hide this grin like when you see someone get away with something that relatively challenges this established (and contrived) line of perfect styling, perfect pose/expression, defined aesthetic, which exists even in publications that parade themselves as the ones that break down these parameters (Purple for example).

I guess I still want 'beauty' as I (unfortunately) subscribe to it (think that Grey cover by Sarah Moon) but when it comes to monthly, less conceptual publications, it's all show time for me unless something really good comes along.

 

[Greenway]

This is so good, she looks so natural and beautiful. The style is on point and its obvious people are saying they don't like it due to the cover subject alone and are nit picking faults.

 

[Srdjan]

What a jacket! I love it. The hair is perfect actually. I love that shade of blonde. There's just something weird about the face, maybe if she closed her mouth.

 

[penny609]

perfect styling, perfect pose/expression, defined aesthetic

Completely spot on. This is exactly what turns me off these days... to the point when someone talks about the "best-posing" model or flawless styling, I begin to scratch the back of my head. After piles and piles of magazines literally stuffed with images of that kind, the first thing able to make my eyes more or less happier than average is random styling, weird poses, awkward expressions... I seriously think I started to treasure flaws and mistakes as the last precious and interesting part of fashion photography (while this being said, I'd love to see, every now and then at very least, some purely beautiful stories that don't even need this tiny bit of analysis to get my brain going).

 

[Deleted member 1957]

one of the worst covers of the year! The hairstyle and angle is not flattering to her facial features the shots wher her hair is more straightened look much better. Not loving this at all

 

[Deleted member 1957]

This is so good, she looks so natural and beautiful. The style is on point and its obvious people are saying they don't like it due to the cover subject alone and are nit picking faults.

I disagree, Nikki is a beautiful girl that they made ugly on this cover.
To think that the person on that elle is this person
pics designscene.com
fashionavecpassion.com

 

[justaguy]

Not a fan and don't really know much about her, but it's nice to see her "normal."

 

[ChrissyM]

She looks really beautiful on that V cover (and not over the top at all), but I actually really like this Elle cover too... i can't help it

 

[Handbag Queen]

We love us some Nicki Minaj! She's the only one with a personality on "Idol" this season, as far as I'm concerned. Great to see her on the cover!

 

[Handbag Queen]

Raunchy. I love you, Nicki.

Me, too!

 

[MON]

The mood is sad but I actually love it. Nicki has grown on me. And her new style is so much classier than before.

 

[Aoedele]

O.M.G. Always thought she was pretty under all that drag queen makeup, but who knew she is actually so gorgeous? She is stunning, so exotic! Look at her eyes, her lips, simply stunning.

 

[fezbatik]

I am admittedly drawn to Nicki Minaj as an artist. You can't deny, that woman thinks in beatnik prose - she is fiercely intelligent behind a crafty facade, and she's totally doing that on purpose otherwise who would 'get' her? In terms of her Elle Cover; come on. If you're going to call it stripped down then you need to literally STRIP it down. Don't give a false perception of the 'Real Nicki Minaj', give us the real girl OR continue to give us the girl you want us to think she is. This in between doesn't give me what I want which is an extreme - one way or the other. My $.02

 

[penny609]

^While I totally understand what you mean and wholeheartedly agree with you somehow (I'm not that familiar with Mademoiselle Minaj yet I had the very same feeling towards other characters that weren't "portrayed right"), I was looking at this cover (and editorial for that matter) from another point of view. It might be "in between" in terms of Nicki Minaj but surely not in terms of mainstream magazine cover and fashion story when you have a look (a quick one only and you might get the whole point) at what's being published these days. Rare are the visuals going, even slightly, off the beaten tracks. So, despite this won't stay in my book as the most memorable printed fashion moment of the decade (or this year or even month to keep it at a decent scale), I'm still relieved we've got some sweet little cheesy and tacky stuff to binge our eyes with every now and then.

 

[Flashbang]

Editorial preview by Mariano Vivanco



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