That's because it is.
It's the OG, just like American Vogue is the OG.
My point is, despite its history and its resouces, it's not
acting like it. It's generally producing forgettable editorials that make people feel the opposite of inspired, and written content that strives to imitate the tone of Radhika's Vanity Fair. Rather than leading the Bazaar brand worldwide, it's a pale imitation of its former self, and seemingly happy to trail in the wake of what other magazines are doing.
I'm about to flick through this issue online, let's see if I can eat my words... it's 160 pages, the theme is reinvention, as exemplified by Renée Zellweger, according to the editor's letter. Because we're moving into spring-summer fashion, there's a lot more colour throughout the pages, which helps lift the mood of the magazine and provide a little more energy.
The Renée cover story... it is what it is. It's followed by MODERN LOVE, a 10 pg editorial, by Camille Vivier, with Zinnia Kumar and Sade van der Hoeven, which is a hybrid of studio and location shots, the location being Canal Saint-Martin in Paris. Then there's a 8 pg jewellery section, INNER VISIONS, and a piece on the artistic director of Hermès, ending with an 8 pg studio edit, A CUT ABOVE, by Deirdre Lewis, with Abby Champion.
There's nothing here that I would look twice at, and still-life jewellery edits are a dime a dozen in UK Bazaar and Tatler, who have them down to a fine art, month after month.
If I had to pick one word: anaemic. This magazine feels anaemic, lacking energy and drive. But one positive is that it's not childish - the magazine maintains a consistent approach in regarding its audience as having a degree of maturity, and it tries to produce content at that level, which is something I probably don't give it enough credit for doing.