Quite a departure from Carter Smith's usual aesthetic for an Elle cover shot. I love the colouring of this particular image. The dress/bodysuit, hair and make-up look very nice together and make Amanda look fantastic. The images inside, however, look boring and completely lifeless to me. It resembles a really badly copied Steven Meisel editorial.
I don't know what it is about American Elle but their fashion stories always look the same. They have the resources to produce some great photography and stories for their issues. You have Jessica Miller, Barbara Palvin and David Bellemere within one issue and none of the images stand out. I often question what it is that immediately downgrades the images? The styling? I bet you'd see a difference if the exact same scenario was done at say.. Vogue Paris. David Bellemere's stories for French Vogue have always been attractive. Yet here, Barbara's looks very incoherent and second rate. Joe Zee's styling in Jessica's story just looks as though he's knocking-off Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele.
