bazaar march 2007 katie holmes, lily d, raquel, magda, coco, tanya, irina, stam, gemm, stam, anja.
bazaar march 2007 katie holmes, lily d, raquel, magda, coco, tanya, irina, stam, gemm, stam, anja.
edit #1 raquel z shot by nat goldberg. brana wolf styles lots of top spring looks. Im totally in love with raquel, i just adore her everytime. however i think goldberg's studio pics here are just good, when raquel & wolf's looks deserve great pics. prada page prob best photo/look. considering how awesome raquel and these clothes are, I think goldberg missed the mark to a certain degree. 7.6 of 10 all for raquel.
* by comparison the Chloe ads in this ish have raquel shot much better, plus anja as her foil & just as hot. whoever shot chloe did better job with raquel than goldberg here.
** and raquel's fendi ads in this ish also shot far better, as great as the chloe with anja.
edit #2 lily d shot by sundsbo. this edit is more successful. lily d is posed with lots of spray painted autop bodies, almost a 70s muscle car theme with bright primaries.
lily, like raquel is among the top 5 girls in the world 2006-07, but based on these 2 HB edits lily looks a bit better here. george cortina styled lots of sexy dresses he did quite well here. best pic dell'acqua dress, but whole edit is really solid & lily d is smokkkin and then some in these dresses. really hot really good 8 of 10.
edit #3 coco rocha & tanya d shot by sorrenti in high style couture & evening looks. melanie ward picked some top elegant looks but i dont like what sorrenti did here. remember the W 'art' ish with sorrenti shooting great models messed up by richard tuttle's nightmare art? well this isnt that bad, but sorrenti tries to turn these excellent girls into living sculpture, and I think they & the clothes suffer for that to some degree. really an edit with coco & tanya d should be much better than this. like the girls & the chalayan & puigh looks, but i think sorrenti's arty attempt overpowers these 2 fab girls & this should be much better. sorrenti still a very schizo fotog to me and I like this much less than what he often does for HB. 6.9 of 10.
* by compariosn, coco has a 2 page balenciaga ad in this ish, and that styling & photography runs rings around sorrenti's half ***ed arty attempt here.
edit #4 magdalena frackowiak shot by lindbergh. now this is pretty cool. lindbergh & brana wolf look 50 years into the future with some high powered metallic looks. lindbergh shot in desert its another high budget & striking edit that hes done many times before, but somehow this works better than his recent HB production edits have been doing. magdalena is really good, blonde bob wig, she reminds me of several girls, incl coco, stam, inguna & rachel alexander, but with her own modern thing going on too. a fresh hot girl like magda here really zips HB up a few notches. plus lindbergh, when he's on like this, is at the top level of photogs anywhere. and brana wolf really went to town with the shiny looks here, and "star wars" like robots, everything's great but the chanel/lanvin page may be best. this is something special with magda & when lindbegh is on like this, he is so so fab. 9 of 10 one of best edits Ive seen in 2007.
edit #5 irina, stam, gemma & freja shot by karl lagerfeld. wow lots of sharp b&w looks styled by brana wolf & KL got major performances from these 4 top top 2007 girls! some people dont rate KLs photos but I sure do! I am loving all 4 girls here & they really relate well, happily energetically, & hot! I might be prone to iri & freja but gemm & stammy are rocking here too. plus great evening looks, this is a quality edit top to bottom. really good. 8. 3 of 10.
* also cool Chanel show pic with tanja d, lily d & inguna backstage with KL. pg 143.
edit #6 william klein shoots portraits of pilati, marc, prada, ghesquiere, kl & elbaz. klein is one of more legendary HB photogs but i think these portraits are less than 1 might hope for - id prefer a models edit. as it is I think KL, marc & ghesquiere are the best... Id rather see klein shoot models. 6.7 of 10.
edit #7/cover: katie holmes shot by lindbergh, edited by posh spice. Im rarely happy with actress edits/covers, but I will say katie looks gorgeous here. lindbergh is a fine celeb photog, but hes SOO much better using his creative zone like in edit #4 above. the clothes are ok its not a disaster but its not a smash either. katie's face is cute but her body looks puffy. armani dress page is best look & slimane pic is best facial pic. cover also good facial pic but actresses just dont rock my world, even by lindbergh. ok celeb edit but youd think hb could have done better, they tried to do something big w/holmes/lindbergh/posh & its Not a huge smash. 6.5 of 10.
* by comparison, ralph has an extended ad in this mag with valentina wearing the same b&w looks that katie wears here, and val in RK is a total home run, while katie's RL look is so mannish, its just dry & unsexy. same looks, totally diff results.
edit #8 galliano portrait + dior retro feature. simon proctor shot it. big letdown, proctor went for a french revolution-big production-liebowitz approach with galliano & its a dud. also dior retro pics should be amazing but its less than your usual hb retro edit. disappointing- thats why they put it far back in mag. 4. 6 of 10.
edit #9 rachel alexander by rich burbridge. brief accessories feature. nice to see rachel but she should be used so much better- she deserves a full fashion edit. burbridge's pics are ok but this edit isnt much. accessory interlude. 4 of 10 rach deserves much more.
edit #10 anja shot by camilla akrans in white spring/resort looks. frizzy hair is a bit off-putting look but otherwise anja is a 10- as you prob know, hopefully you love her as I do. akrans does pretty good resort white wall pics here, although we've seen this kind of thing a million times in hb. pics are good not great. brana wolf's styling solid, she sure did a lot this month. anja's the best thing here, and brana & akrans did pretty well, but its just a good resort edit when anja in the right hands can be a home run bikini resort model. . still i do love anja. 7.3 of 10. for example her tod's pics in this ish rock much harder than akrans', and sinec the edit is resort, it could be much hotter.
* further comparison, julia in boss 4 page white resort looks is far sexier than the way akrans shot anja. whoever shot the Boss campaign simply did a better job with white resort looks than akrans did with anja.
edit #11 dona versace & daughter allegra shot by dewey nicks. nice intimate/candid pics but also not too interesting. 4.4 of 10. do you care bout dona? I dont.
edit #12 sarah ferguson by francois dischinger. total back of book here shows how sleepy these pics are. yes, fergie wields a horse whip. no, no one cares. the henry moore sculpture on the table has more life than she does here. 3 of 10. zzzzzzz
RETRO AMAZING: page 128 has a page of Erte's Art deco covers & illustrations for HB 1915-1936. they are so incredible, so aesthetic, so forward & elegant, they piss over anything in this ish, even lindbergh's top futurism. HB has such an amazing 140 year history, lets see even more reto images like these, and photos, from 19th centuiry to 1970s. 11 of 10 for erte's extraordinary Art deco vision & colours.
* and kate moss 1993 in lingerie by corinne day. kates the best model ever & she was hot out the box as this pic shows. and 14 years later kate's nude longchamps ads sizzle in this ish too.
MODERN GIRLS: caroline trentini looks amazing in prouenza show pic, shes as great as raquel, lily d, julia, anja.
* shopping with irina lazareanu in hot black looks. * misshapes' leigh lezark in white & grey - better photo here for leigh than her vogue best-dressed profile pic.
* sienna miller in cute B&W stripes. * and hilary rhoda holds it down in b&w maxmara.
VERDICT: this is a huge 472 page march HB. I am hearing HB has been gaining ad pages since last fall & there is a brighter vibe over-all to the conception of this ish. Looking at Erte & even wm klein's 20th century images shows how exceptional hb was decaces ago. this is a different HB, a 21st century version that at its best is a more intelligent version of us vogue. there are some encouraging signs here. lindbergh's madga metallic edit was among his best in recent years. karl shot 4 genius girls freja irina, stam & gemm and it was great. lily d, raquel & anja are tip tp girls and they were great, even if sundsbo's lily d pics were the only exceptional images here.
seeing magda, coco, tanya d & rachel was encouraging, hb should be able to ace out vogues model casting in many cases. some mass market moves like katie holmes, sarah ferguson, donatella & even galliano just didnt work out as attempted. still the retro features, shopping, show pics & general feature stories were solid here, a package more satisfying than HB has been in quite a few months. theres enough great stuff here like magda, irina, lily, raquel, freja, anja, tanya, & coco to be very optimistic about the rest of 2007 in HB. Not as great as march W but on HB terms this is actually a pretty smashing march ish. TWO THUMBS UP Well Done.
the Earl of Grey