US Vogue April 2008 : Gisele Bündchen & LeBron James by Annie Leibovitz

[iluvjeisa]

^^Aaah see i like neurotic .

I like neurotic (maybe it's more OCD) when I'm working...not so much for art

 

[Fabulyss]

At the risk of sounding parochial, I highly doubt that most women interested in high fashion are also interested in speed skating, basketball and skateboarding. The subject matter is so off.

 

[L.A.Gant]

Yeah, she does. That's why you have the celebrity covers and Walmart ads.

^Yup, quite true

^^L.A.Gant what i wrote was in no way directed only at you and what you wrote, more like in general. Besides this is whay we are here so people can express their dislike and vice versa.

Oh I know But you did make a very good point and I appreciate it

 

[fashionmuse]

i never expect america vogue's covers to be amazing. its always the same... its so boring

 

[Les_Sucettes]

In the UK, we must follow the US, as latino/a is used to describe someone living in the US and of Southern American descent. I don't ever see it used to apply to a European. They would sometimes be described as 'Latin' as in having 'a Latin temperament' but never 'latino'.

This has just made me wonder, as an aside, do mainland Europeans learn Latin as standard in school/college, I spent years having to learn Latin language, history and culture at school.

This is such a common mistake American media seems to think that Penelope Cruz because she's Spanish is Latina, being Latino has to do with race and refers to Latin America descend and being of Latin America descend is directly related in terms of race with the original inhabitants of those areas and what came of it after all those european invasions. Spanish are as white in race as Americans.
Portuguese, , Spanish, Italians, French are sometimes referred as Latins but never Latinos and only and exclusively because of their language, and indeed also as reference to temperament typical of people from sunny weather that some of this countries also have.

Yes people in mainland Europe do learn about everything related to Latin heritage , but the language I guess only if it belongs to the area of study of your choice.

 

[tigerrouge]

Yes people in mainland Europe do learn about everything related to Latin heritage , but the language I guess only if it belongs to the area of study of your choice.

Ah... in the Irish part of the UK - probably a place the Romans never went near - nearly everyone at grammar school learned Latin for a few years, which was great, but also strange, when you're not the direct descendants of that culture. Being able to speak Latin has, of course, been of great help in negotiating the modern world.

Anyhow, I definitely hope that this 'sport' editorial is going to be composed of several lengthy sections, and not just a small series of shots of supes & sportspeople. There's nothing else for us to do at the moment, until we see, except wait and debate.

 

[kimair]

I think Gisele alone would have been good enough but I guess Anna really has a hard time with a singular model holding her own as a cover - if a model does grace the cover they are typically mixed with props such as "basketball player", actor or other models.

honestly, it's not anna having a hard time with it, it's the american public...
in the end, vogue needs to make money in subscriptions and in newsstand sales...
if you look at the numbers, the issues with models on the cover are always the lowest selling of the year...
in 2005, it was the may cover with liya and in 2007 it was july with natalia (in 2006, the lowest selling issue was drew barrymore in feb)...(info from wwd)

i can think of alot of female athletes that would be great for a vogue cover (the last athlete to have a cover was marion jones btw), but would people in middle america know who the athlete was?

out of all the special issues vogue goes (power, shape, age), i feel it's the shape issue that needs the most help...
i haven't really loved any of their cover choices (gwen stefani?), but they have so much to choose from...
halle berry or cate blanchett (pregnant) or tilda swinton (tall, thin) would have been perfect choices,

 

[iriswills]

...

...if you look at the numbers, the issues with models on the cover are always the lowest selling of the year...
in 2005, it was the may cover with liya and in 2007 it was july with natalia (in 2006, the lowest selling issue was drew barrymore in feb)...

Three of my favorite covers of Vogue... so sad.

Why can't people support the elegant covers (models or not)? Instead of something classy I'm now stuck with a tacky action shot for April. Ugh. I guess I'm one of the few people out there that will buy a magazine just for its cover (even if the content is weak).

 

[iluvjeisa]

honestly, it's not anna having a hard time with it, it's the american public...
in the end, vogue needs to make money in subscriptions and in newsstand sales...
if you look at the numbers, the issues with models on the cover are always the lowest selling of the year...
in 2005, it was the may cover with liya and in 2007 it was july with natalia (in 2006, the lowest selling issue was drew barrymore in feb)...

They're not picking the models that would suit their audience. Natalia's cover wasn't very good at all - she looked cross-eyed and no better than your average 30+ celeb, Liya is one gorgeous woman but her images seldom give off any interesting vibe. Gisele's moment is gone. For this issue they should have used Doutzen. If they had used Doutzen and had a lowest selling issue, I would buy the "models don't sell" argument, but as it is, the appropriate models haven't been given a chance since Gisele 2000. Hilary Rhoda and Doutzen for spring/summer and Sasha/Snejana for fall/winter would have been (and could still be) perfect. It's not a coincidence that they're using Caroline Trentini and Raquel for the editorials all the time - they simply don't want models who can sell covers...

 

[kimair]

They're not picking the models that would suit their audience. Natalia's cover wasn't very good at all - she looked cross-eyed and no better than your average 30+ celeb, Liya is one gorgeous woman but her images seldom give off any interesting vibe. Gisele's moment is gone. For this issue they should have used Doutzen. If they had used Doutzen and had a lowest selling issue, I would buy the "models don't sell" argument, but as it is, the appropriate models haven't been given a chance since Gisele 2000. Hilary Rhoda and Doutzen for spring/summer and Sasha/Snejana for fall/winter would have been (and could still be) perfect. It's not a coincidence that they're using Caroline Trentini and Raquel for the editorials all the time - they simply don't want models who can sell covers...

i think the reason they've used liya and natalia is their overall visibility...
liya has an estee lauder contract where she's seen in every belk's, dillards, macys, etc. across the country...
natalia (was) seen in calvin klein ads all over the place...
and gisele, well she was all over victoria's secret, leo's gf, etc.

hilary's estee lauder contract is too "new" and i don't know if the average american would recognize doutzen from her l'oreal displays...
i don't remember where the models issue from may 07 fell in the sales (wwd only reports best selling and worst selling)...

i still stick by my statement that shaun white/daria would have made the best cover...
white is a household name between snowboarding/skateboarding, and daria has had great eds in GQ and other non-fashion mags...

 

[iluvjeisa]

Well, IMO, the days of beauty to capture the eye of someone looking for a magazine may be upon us again. After many years of reading about the same celebs.....it might be time for people to be interested in a compelling, relatively unknown but oddly familiar, mindblowingly beautiful face

 

[tigerrouge]

I do think people would respond to Doutzen on a cover, with her generically beautiful face atop a body for couture. She can carry off wearing extreme and crazy clothing, but her face would still lure in people who adore pure and simple beauty. She's the best of both worlds. And any public visibility gained from her cosmetics contract could only help.

I say that not being a superfan of hers, but I still find myself responding to old-style beauty, and I won't be the only one. She looks like something from the days of Revlon.

And the quiet confidence of Hilary Rhoda or Daria would work really well, given the right cover scenario, that would bring out their freshness, intelligence, and sense of ease with their athletic bodies. Yes, a Daria/Shaun White cover could have been a missed trick. I can't take my eyes of the lines of her body, it's like nature in action, like the legs of a racehorse or the flow of a cheetah.

 

[Deleted member 1957]

http://www.mediatakeout.com/22296/r..._the_cover_of_vogue___but_check_this_out.html

theres an interestin interpretation

 

[marlasinger]

The King Kong-esque imagery on the latest cover of Vogue is so striking that even bloggers who don’t usually write about race are sitting up and taking notice. Blog Fashionista said: “It shows personality, sure, but the whole “Me, Tarzan. You, Jane,” vibe doesn’t sit well with the french fries we had for lunch.”
Brigitte at Make Fetch Happen wonders “why does Anna Wintour have such a hard nipples for black folks with their mouths hanging wide open on her magazine? Specifically, I’m thinking about Jennifer Hudson’s horribly unflattering cover last year.”
And Chic and Untroubled asks if Anna Wintour is just blatantly ripping off her French counterpart, sans drag queen: “Sure, Lebron could never be confused with the ultra-fabulous Andre J. But look how both covers - featuring black man and attractive model - are so similar in format. Even right down to the cover lines - look how they are both mostly concentrated to the left side.”
What do you think of the cover, featuring athlete LeBron James with supermodel Gisele?

http://www.racialicious.com/

 

[tigerrouge]

If, in general, there were numerous black people on the cover of US Vogue, we wouldn't see anything racist in the shot. It would just be 'one of many different images'. However, because there are so few black people featured, we're primed to suspect racism, whatever US Vogue does, and may see it in a shot where none may have been intended. Is racism in the interpretation or in the intent?

I don't see any similarity between this and the Paris Vogue cover, in any way, other than it's a shot of two people on the front of a magazine. I think the person saying that is trying to come up with a criticism that no-one else is using.

Makes me wonder - if Gisele didn't look like she was trying to run away in that shot, would the interpretations be more positive, even if he was still pulling a face. If it were George Clooney, and the model looked like she wanted to be somewhere else, the sight of it would still make us uncomfortable.

I sound like I'm an apologist for racism, I don't mean it like that, I'm trying to explore the points.

 

[tocceve]

^I agree

people think whenever they feauture someone black they just try to be political correct.
Not everyone is racist...

 

[Tinsley V]

The Vogue Paris comparison isn't even relevant to the argument
I think it's a poorly done cover

And how is Anna appealing to the public with this one. I doubt a lot of woman (or the mass market bla bla) would buy a cover with a screaming basketball player

 

[SnejanaIsMyMuse]

Bottom line ,in my opinion of course ,this cover sucks.There was a perfectly fine photo in the editorial that would have made an extremely good cover shot, but of course the obvious cover photo is never chosen.Instead we are given a stupid shot of Lebron(who pictured normally is a very good looking man) seemingly in a fit of rage ,and Gisele looking confused and scared.In any other magazine this shot would probably be thrown in the "outtakes" pile, but of course not here.I wish we could live in a country where high fashion and style was loved by the masses so we could have covers with models and be able to get away with more creative and beautiful editorials like Vogue's foreign sisters ,but no such luck.

I could go on about how much I don't like this cover and all of the problms I see in American Vogue(like the fact that mainly the only "new" models in the magazine are relegated in the back in the tiny accessories editorial ,or the constant word vomit that clutters every issues cover to the point of beyond overkill).But I won't.There are other, better magazines I can look at to satisfy myself.

 

[harrietcamilla]

When is the mag out? im dying to see a full review

 

[SnejanaIsMyMuse]

Shouldn't it be out now?