US Vogue April 2014 : Kim Kardashian & Kanye West by Annie Leibovitz

[GIVENCHYlover]

Despite what everyone said, it has sold loads of copies. In an era where print is dying, Anna has managed to mantain a steady advertiser and sales flow. She knows how to play her game and doesn't go with opinions of people commenting online, she chooses to lead them instead.

True!

Retiring? Vogue is Anna Wintour, it's her magazine!

frejasfloat.tumblr

 

[loladonna]

There's no way to know so soon how man copies have actually sold. I'm calling B.S. on any numbers put forth.

I would love to see someone like Taylor Tomasi Hill at the helm of Vogue. Shala Monroque would probably make a great stylist.

 

[gazebo]

^already been posted, check out the search button.
models in editorials were: Daria W, Karlie Kloss, Kate Upton, actress Michelle Williams.

Thanks! the editorials are so forgettable I actually forgot i saw them.

 

[kokobombon]

There's no way to know so soon how man copies have actually sold. I'm calling B.S. on any numbers put forth.

I think that all we can know about the numbers (while the issue is still on newsstands) is how many copies were distributed. But until retailers have to send copies back at the moment the new issue comes out, we won´t know actual sells numbers.

 

[honeycombchild]

Grace is taking the credit for their appearance.

"There was a wedding story to be done. And Anna probably had them in mind, because she had been seeing a lot of Kanye, so she said, 'Maybe we should shoot it on lookalikes.' And I thought, 'Why not just do it on the real thing? This is Vogue'," Grace Coddington told the newspaper.

But why did Coddington, the doyenne on taste and style, want to put Kardashian on the pages of the world's biggest fashion magazine?

"I do think Kim Kardashian represents this moment in our culture. I'm fascinated by her, in the same way I'm fascinated by the people I see on the street or the subway."
"I knew going in it would be controversial - I got an envelope from Texas, with the cover ripped up into little pieces inside," says Coddington, who styled the Annie Leibovitz-shot editorial, "but the designers all sent me flowers, so I guess they were happy."The flame-haired 73-year-old added that she was a little miffed that the couple's baby daughter, North, didn't make the cover with them.

Last week it was claimed that American model and actress Kate Upton was supposed to grace the issue's cover, but was bumped off in favour of Kardashian and West.

The Telegraph

 

[vogue28]

Is everyone able to get copies of this easily? My local store usually gets around 15-20 copies and within 2 days, I was lucky enough to get the last two copies from the shelves (my sister also wanted a copy). The guy behind the cash desk told me he's never answered so many phone calls, asking when the April issue was due in.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^ At the place i been buying my magazines for at least 10 years, it is sold out! Also the guy who sells them, who by now i consider a "friend", upon seeing me said; " Let me guess, you are skipping the April Vogue", and went on to tell me all of his regular Vogue buyers are shockingly not buying it! But that people who never ever, even once, bought Vogue before are calling, and reserving several copies. I predict this issue to go over 400K copies sold.

It might have alienated the "Vogue reader", but it sure attracted many more casual buyers, so it will do great, but in long term, they will lose some readers. But i say, the gamble actually paid off for Wintour.

 

[honeycombchild]

I've seen plenty of them around London to be honest. My usual magazine haunts have a few copies left on the racks. Kim does sell in the UK in terms of Grazia and other, rather trashier magazines like Cosmo, so it makes sense that that customer would pick up whatever she happens to be on I guess. Particularly with the cover featuring Kanye, looking like some glorified People Magazine cover.

I imagine the sales will be quite high and will have come from casual buyers, however I suppose it's going to be more about the damage it could have done to the magazine's core readers who are there every month to buy a copy. We'll never find out how many people cancelled subscriptions and didn't buy it which is a shame. I'd love to see that. The effect it has on the long term readers. I hadn't missed an issue in years until this and now to be honest now I have a gap in my shelf I'll be much less precious about buying an issue I don't want. Before now I'd buy it each and every month... now it's an incomplete run I'll be much less bothered about skipping an issue I don't like the content of.

 

[demeulemeester]

All the air and sea freighted copies of this issue was already sold or put on hold from the only specialized magazine store in New Zealand that I always go to. I only just managed to get this issue at a reduced price (only because US Vogue costs NZ$25 here!) at a supermarket where there were very few issues left.

Its such a shame to see many copies of Cate Blanchett's January issue still on the shelves here and knowing that the April issue has sold extremely well.

 

[GIVENCHYlover]

Vogue May 2014

my scan

 

[vogue28]

I understand the points made about core readers. They're the customers who will keep sales at a certain level annually. But what if these casual readers happen to like Vogue and start subscribing? It's reaching out to a whole new audience. There is all sorts of pros and cons which keep canceling each other out.

A subscriber or regular reader of Vogue is clearly devoted. Yet devotion to me doesn't mean canceling your subscription or refusing to make a purchase because of a certain cover subject. Loyalty to me is sticking with something during the thick and thin. Take Vogue Paris' latest cover with Sophie Marceau. It's atrocious but that doesn't mean I'm not going to buy French Vogue in the future. There is always the next issue and the one after that etc etc. American Vogue is back on track with its Emma Stone cover.

 

[honeycombchild]

The casual reader who picked up the issue especially because Kim Kardashian is on the cover however is probably not going to come back for an issue where the cover star is say Cate Blanchett, and where the content doesn't include any reality stars or articles regarding their relationship and such. It's a different kettle of fish. Will the person who bought it solely because of Kim enjoy a shoot and article based around the celebration of Charles James and this year's Met Exhibit? Will this one issue have converted that casual Kim buyer into someone who'll buy every issue?

I've always bought it because I have, for the most part, enjoyed reading it and enjoyed the editorial content however for me the decision to use Kim on the cover goes against everything I believed the magazine was about and against what it celebrated. And for that reason I've not bought the issue. Not because I think the cover is dreadful, I mean, I do, but that's not the reason. I've thought many covers are dreadful before and still purchased them because I want the issue.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^ Everything you wrote, all points made echo my own, well said.

 

[agee]

Kim and Kanye's Vogue cover on course to be a record seller

The contentious US Vogue cover featuring Kim Kardashian and Kanye West could outsell previous top-selling issues starring Beyoncé and Michelle Obama

BY BIbby Sowray | 09 April 2014

Photo: Vogue/Annie Leibovitz via fashion.telegraph.co.uk​

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's US Vogue cover may have been divisive but it hasn't stopped the April 2014 issue from flying off the rhetorical shelves. The edition is on course to out-sell the publication's 2013 best-sellers; the March and April issues, which featured Beyoncé and Michelle Obama, respectively.

The cover was unveiled at the end of March and quickly garnered criticism from Vogue fans who thought it ridiculous that a reality star famous for a sex tape had scored the cover of the world's most famous fashion magazine. #VogueIsDead began trending on Twitter as the unhappy tweets continued to flood in. Naomi Campbell and actress Sarah Michelle Geller were among the famous names who publicly panned the move.

'Media sources' tell Page Six that the issue is on course to sell 300,000 to 400,000 copies - Beyonce's 2013 cover sold 355,397, while Obama's sold 293,748.

Kim, Kanye and their daughter North inside the issue. Photo: Annie Leibovitz via fashion.telegraph.co.uk​

US Vogue éditor-in-chief Anna Wintour was fierce in her defence of the controversial cover decision, writing in her editor's letter: "As for the cover, my opinion is that it is both charming and touching, and it was, I should add, entirely our idea to do it; you may have read that Kanye begged me to put his fiancée on Vogue's cover. He did nothing of the sort. The gossip might make better reading, but the simple fact of the matter is that it isn't true."

Parodies also quickly followed, with a version of the cover featuring Miss Piggy and Kermit in place of Kim and Kanye becoming a memorable meme.

According to Hamish Bowles, european editor-at-large, the best-selling US Vogue issue ever was the April 1992 100th anniversary edition, featuring Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Karen Mulder, Elaine Irwin, Niki Taylor, Yasmeen Ghauri, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell and Tatjana Patitz.

Two of the parodies that quickly spread: Kermit and Miss Piggy, and actors Seth Rogen and James Franco via fashion.telegraph.co.uk​

fashion.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Fotoholic24]

I know most of you are still mad for this cover... And i think im the living prove that you can start to love fashion for covers like this. Ten years ago i was a hard core Britney fan, and when she was at the top of her game she became to apear in fashion magazines. Even if she never was a good reference of style. Now fashion is my passion, and Brit only was part of my teens. You cant say people are not going to apreciate the work that Vogue makes. Maybe not all of them, but im sure some will return for another issue without Kim precense... We cant think that they make the magazine only for subscribers, they want to reach more audience because is a bussines after all!

 

[Luxx]

I know most of you are still mad for this cover... And i think im the living prove that you can start to love fashion for covers like this. Ten years ago i was a hard core Britney fan, and when she was at the top of her game she became to apear in fashion magazines. Even if she never was a good reference of style. Now fashion is my passion, and Brit only was part of my teens. You cant say people are not going to apreciate the work that Vogue makes. Maybe not all of them, but im sure some will return for another issue without Kim precense... We cant think that they make the magazine only for subscribers, they want to reach more audience because is a bussines after all!

You bring up a very good point and I love your story. We never know what will be the thing that brings someone into fashion or catches their interest at first. The kid who picks up this issue because they love Kim can absolutely grow into being a loyal reader or subscriber and a very chic person to boot.

 

[Thefrenchy]

So now we know who we have to thank...

Extract from "Lunch with the FT: Grace Coddington"

She generally does not shoot celebrities and rarely works on Vogue covers, which are celebrity-focused. “I’d rather use models,” she says. “The clothes look better, because they are made for them. And you can ask them to do things you might not ask a celebrity to do.” A recent exception, however, was Kim Kardashian and Kanye West – a celebrity cover for this month’s issue that Coddington not only styled but helped to instigate.
“There was a wedding story to be done,” she explains. “And Anna probably had them in mind, because she had been seeing a lot of Kanye, so she said, ‘Maybe we should shoot it on lookalikes.’ And I thought, ‘Why not just do it on the real thing? This is Vogue.’ And I do think Kim Kardashian represents this moment in our culture. I’m fascinated by her, in the same way I’m fascinated by the people I see on the street or the subway.”
Coddington asked five designers to make bespoke outfits for an unnamed couple, and “they did. I thought they would guess immediately when I sent the measurements but they didn’t. It wasn’t until the fitting they knew, and it still somehow stayed a secret.”
As for the experience itself, “it was fun. [Kim] is very professional. And the baby [the couple’s daughter, North] is very well-behaved. We did millions of pictures and she did not cry once. I got quite upset we did not have the baby on the cover. I knew going in it would be controversial – I got an envelope from Texas, with the cover ripped up into little pieces inside – but the designers all sent me flowers, so I guess they were happy.”

- FT. COM

 

[Ghostwerld]

So now we know who we have to thank...

- FT. COM

Haha. I like you, whoever you are, person from Texas.

 

[Deleted member 45369]

You bring up a very good point and I love your story. We never know what will be the thing that brings someone into fashion or catches their interest at first. The kid who picks up this issue because they love Kim can absolutely grow into being a loyal reader or subscriber and a very chic person to boot.

My very first vogue was the Spice Girls! And I fell in love with it ever since.. You made a great point!

 

[mistress_f]

lmao @ asking for bespoke clothes for designers without telling them they were for kim. guilty conscience much?