US Vogue December 2019 : Phoebe Waller-Bridge by Ethan James Green

[Benn98]

Yes, agreed Lola. I get many on here will always prefer models over actresses (*cough* Ivano *cough* lol), but as long as an actress is packaged as interesting and fashion-forward as this cover, I'll take her over a model time after time.

Betrando is right about the inconsistency though. Kim Kardashian > Taylor Swift > Olivia Colman, three very different women and in the case of Kim and Taylor, arch-rivals. Maybe the idea is to expose their readers to polar opposites.

 

[Phuel]

^^^ It’s not at all inconsistent. There absolutely is a clear pattern to Anna’s cover choices: It’s who will sell to the commoners— and who Hollywood wants to hype to the commoners.

If there’s anything Anna can’t be caused of, it’s being directionless and not understanding her brand. She’s always been consistent with her casting of the most relevant celebrities of the time— to appeal to the widest demographic of readership as possible: Her Vogue isn’t the most powerful Vogue for no reason.

If you put Anna’s Vogue in the same context as American Vanity Fair, which it has more in common with than a traditional high fashion magazine (and American Vogue has ceased o be about showcasing high fashion a long long long time ago), then you’ll clearly understand and even appreciate Anna’s coverstar casting: She will never give the cover to anyone who isn’t trending in the public consciousness— or payed by the Hollywood press machine.

 

[Benn98]

....It’s who will sell to the commoners— and who Hollywood wants to hype to the commoners.....

Tenor

 

[slayage]

Anna is on a roll! Last month’s gooorgeous Rihanna cover and now this... just WOW.

I’m not familiar with this woman whatsoever but I’m definitely intrigued to find out more about her after seeing this!

The cover itself is so precious and almost like statuesque. The editorial is a bit all over the place but that gorgeous shot with the Balenciaga dress redeems everything about it.

 

[Lola701]

I think the inconsistency has to do with a cultural relevancy.
But I think that she has always been consistent in her inconsistency. American Vogue under Anna has always been about BIG out of the world celebrities who spoke to the world or the fashion audience and those smaller or newer celebrities that has a lot of cachet and something that touch the elitist side of fashion and a more mainstream audience.

We are talking about a publication that in the late 90’s had Oprah, the biggest celebrity in America particularly at that time, The Spice Girls who had a big international success or Nicole Kidman, a big star with a kind of niche, elitist cachet that fashion people loved!

This is the same today. Phoebe will speak mostly to an American audience but being on this cover will get her a worldwide exposure as far as social media is concerned. Kim Kardashian is the equivalent of Spice Girls. And maybe a Reese Witherspoon is an equivalent to what Oprah was in the 90’s. She is super big in the US, still famous but to a lesser degree anywhere else in the world...

But I think that the rise of social media and this run for cultural relevancy has forced Anna to adapt.

Vogue Paris obviously doesn’t have to adapt because in France there’s still this glass calling between popular and elitist culture.

 

[Phuel]

^^^ Reese could never be compared to Oprah in any of her eras— even if she had 9 lives to spare, Lola.

I’ve never cared for Oprah, but there’s no denying how influential and far-reaching her brand has been to countless women across the world. Whereas Reese threw a hissyfit when she was pulled over by a LEO in some midwestern suburb some time ago, and he didn’t know who she was even with ID.

And I’d never compare Emmanuelle’s Vogue to Anna’s Vogue. Emmanuelle’s still excites and inspires me and teaches me— Anna’s hasn’t in well over 20 years. I do admire Anna’s branding strategy and her scalpel-sharp business sensibility— however, Emmanuelle’s is still purely elitist HF (as HF ought to be otherwise what's the point), while Anna’s is by her strategy, simply not. Ultimately, both still have much to contribute to the fashionscape.

 

[Lola701]

^^^ Reese could never be compared to Oprah in any of her eras— even if she had 9 lives to spare, Lola.

I’ve never cared for Oprah, but there’s no denying how influential and far-reaching her brand has been to countless women across the world. Whereas Reese threw a hissyfit when she was pulled over by a LEO in some midwestern suburb some time ago, and he didn’t know who she was even with ID.

And I’d never compare Emmanuelle’s Vogue to Anna’s Vogue. Emmanuelle’s still excites and inspires me and teaches me— Anna’s hasn’t in well over 20 years. I do admire Anna’s branding strategy and her scalpel-sharp business sensibility— however, Emmanuelle’s is still purely elitist HF (as HF ought to be otherwise what's the point), while Anna’s is by her strategy, simply not. Ultimately, both still have much to contribute to the fashionscape.

Ohh you got what I meant by the Reese/Oprah thing. It was more in terms of popularity in the 90’s compared at today. It’s not a question of impact or presence...

But Emmanuelle is a stylist first and at heart. She was the editor of 20Ans but she is a stylist whereas Anna is really a « journalist »/editor first.
But what is interesting is that Alt is for example much more « grand public » than Carine has ever been when at Vogue.
Alt has a very French, almost cheesy side...Her obsession for the 80’s is really French in a way because it was the era where both cultures (elitist and mainstream) broke the glass celling. And that’s the era that kind brings all the people together.
But in order for a magazine to be relevant culturally (That’s what Alt is trying to do) she maybe needs a bit of Anna’s coaching.

 

[Phuel]

^^^ I hope Emmanuelle will never seek Anna's influence— in any manner. Gaultier at his best always had a campy/cheesy sensibility that’s very much OTT and larger-than-life, alongside his distinct, visionary and incomparable side. And I would never have wanted him to water-down his sensibility to appeal to the masses (which he sort of did when he had that awful Taget collab). That would be VP if Emmanuelle took advice from Anna’s Vogue: Dumbed down, safe, homogenized, and accessible fashion presentation for the commoners. God, no.

 

[Benn98]

^^^ I hope Emmanuelle will never seek Anna's influence— in any manner. Gaultier at his best always had a campy/cheesy sensibility that’s very much OTT and larger-than-life, alongside his distinct, visionary and incomparable side. And I would never have wanted him to water-down his sensibility to appeal to the masses (which he sort of did when he had that awful Taget collab). That would be VP if Emmanuelle took advice from Anna’s Vogue: Dumbed down, safe, homogenized, and accessible fashion presentation for the commoners. God, no.

Phuel, that's not something which Anna can change right now just as Vogue is in the throes of mass appeal and social media success and celebrities clamoring to be on the cover and some first lady's sour grapes over not given the opportunity to cover and, and, and. I think we can all agree that Vogue is the way it is because of its vast audience. Now we know that the moment you're dealing with such last audience, everything would need to be watered down in order for it to be accessible to as many people possible. Fine. It's a double-edged sword.

I read Lola's comment to mean that Alt could do well to at least try and present VP as less insular and personal as it though it was her own version of CR Fashion Book or Manifesto, and maybe more neutral yet curated by assembling a stronger styling team with a point of view markedly different from hers. If the editor in chief is also the strongest stylist in the magazine and consistently gets nearly all the covers and the most pages assigned to her stories then there is something desperately wrong at that magazine. Even though Carine followed a similarly unilateral vision, her tenure still managed to borne great stylists and photographers and there was a sense of creative freedom. The magazine wasn't filled with the same visual aesthetic diluted in 5 different ways. And that's the reason why VP is out of touch. The styling isn't relevant and literally waits for the fashion wheel to turn until it hits the 80s trend again because that's the only way VP will look 'current', the subjects very rarely speaks to perhaps even the 1% which the magazine supposedly caters to, and the visuals are so predictable that many on here can narrate the theme of an edit purely by looking at the names in involved. But probably more importantly, Vogue Paris doesn't champion new talent and housed in the most important fashion capital of the world, it doesn't navigate or lead the conversation in terms of what visual styles others should adopt. So quite frankly, Alt may as well be running Vogue Czechoslovakia at this stage. She doesn't deserve to be an EIC of one of the top four.

 

[Lola701]

^^^ I hope Emmanuelle will never seek Anna's influence— in any manner. Gaultier at his best always had a campy/cheesy sensibility that’s very much OTT and larger-than-life, alongside his distinct, visionary and incomparable side. And I would never have wanted him to water-down his sensibility to appeal to the masses (which he sort of did when he had that awful Taget collab). That would be VP if Emmanuelle took advice from Anna’s Vogue: Dumbed down, safe, homogenized, and accessible fashion presentation for the commoners. God, no.

Isn’t it what Emmanuelle is already doing?
Dumbed down, safe, homogenized and accessible fashion for the commoners?
How many times do we need to see women in jeans, an endless played out interpretation of 80’s inspired street-style?
How many times do we need to see the same concept of La Parisienne on the pages of the magazine...

VP looks like a lookbook of Isabel Marant and Sandro. You couldn’t do more common IMO...

ELLE and M le Monde are the magazines that counts nowadays in the French landscape. And while Vogue is a beautiful name and beautiful brand, it doesn’t the same impact or a comparable impact to what it had in the past. The real strength is that it’s the only Vogue that focus on fashion...But fashion is part of culture and is supposed to be influenced by what is going on. That’s why M le Monde and ELLE are so good...They are aspirational but you really get the sense of urgency that fashion has...

You talk about Gaultier but that was VP before. Now, the magazine is just a very well executed and pleasant Jeans catalogue.

 

[Phuel]

^^^ Fair enough. The jeans story does get tiring.... (Although VP manages to present the more mundane fashions in a hyper stylized way. Whereas if American Vogue were to do a jeans story, it would just resemble the current GAP website, just with a "diverse" cast). All the same, I sense a real personality in VP, rather than a general consensus of a mood to appeal to the masses, like with Anna’s. Because neutrality/democracy/accessibility is the majority rule in the current state of the fashion industry, which just homogenizes and kills off every damn sense of individuality. So no thank you to slowly killing off a distinct personality (which I find appealing) in VP with Anna’s brand of Vogue.

 

[Lola701]

^^^ Fair enough. The jeans story does get tiring.... All the same, I sense a real personality in VP, rather than a general consensus of a mood to appeal to the masses, like with Anna’s. Because neutrality/democracy/accessibility is the majority rule in the current state of the fashion industry, which just homogenizes and kills off every damn sense of individuality. So no thank you to slowly killing off a distinct personality (which I find appealing) in VP with Anna’s brand of Vogue.

I don’t want VP to be like Anna’s type of Vogue. I just want her, to make the magazine more mindful of her environment, much like Anna did, at her level. VP is meant to be elitist. I don’t want to change that but it has to be out of it bubble...
Just look at their Youtube content. You can’t say that they aren’t taking notes from Anna...But it’s done in a very non-genuine way. It’s hard to engage with what Alt is proposing.

 

[Phuel]

I find Emmanuelle’s “style” of presentation the most genuine of all Vogue editors working right now.

As much as I will always admire Anna’s inexhaustible force of (business) will with how she’s managed her Vogue to be the clear figurehead of the Vogue brand (and her Vogue will be the last Vogue standing when all the others have ceased), there’s no personality there. It’s literally a repository of the current culture’s accepted norms and sensibilities. It’s just a litmus test of what is on-trend, from fashion to social political flourishes. There’s never a real woman behind her Vogue.

With Emmanuelle’s— and in no way do I find her infallible in her direction and choices (even if I halfheartedly stan her just to mess with Benn), there feels to be a real woman behind VP. I understand your frustration with her lack of versatility in her creative concepts. But it’s that brand of an evolving style that I find so much more human and real— as tiresome in its 80s-hyperstylized direction as it may be. And more than the superficiality of fashion, there is a sense of a genuine individual who’s confident in her strength of creative vision for a certain kind of women, and she’s slowly but surely evolving that style rather than jumping form one to another. You may find her selection mundane and common, but it’s her presentation of all these admittedly mundane/common fashion components into a cohesive and always directional high fashion presentation, that I find inspiration in. And it’s the presentation that I’ve always been more attracted to than the actual fashion accoutrements pulled for the stories.

 

[[Piece Of Me]]

YES!!
This cover is everything. I do love it when Anna surprises us, obviosuly I can be very critical of some of her cover choices, but at the same time she still manages to make me very excited from time to time. Phoebe is one of the most exciting talents around at the moment, yet not a household name (only if you read The Guardian, because they seem to have a piece about her every day- not that I am complaing mind) and is perfect for this issue.

 

[Velasco]

Thumbs up to both the cover and editorial! Glorious!

 

[HeatherAnne]

Not sure why people are surprised about Anna featuring a British talent who is over-hyped.

Yep, I said it, over-hyped. Her Lena Dunham type gross everyone out humor does nothing for me. Killing Eve, zzzZZZzzz.

 

[Rigida]

Review (204 pages

Say Anything (13 pages)
Photographer: Ethan James Green
Stylist: Tonne Goodman
Celeb: Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Family Matters (12 pages)
Photographer: Tina Barney
Stylist: Alex Harrington
Cast: Bria Scott & Indira Scott, Tatjana Patitz & her son Jonah Johnson, Yasmin Warsame & her children Hamza & Maya, Helena Christensen & her son Mingus Reedus, Sasha Pivovarova & her daughter Mia Vishnyakova, Grace Valentine & her brother Prosper, Paloma Elsesser & her siblings Sage & Ama.

Show of Hand (8 pages)
Photographer: Zoë Ghertner
Stylist: Camilla Nickerson
Cast: Imaan Hammam & Aicha Hammam

Youth Do (2 pages)
Photographer: Daniel Jackson
Stylist: Jorden Bickham
Model: Caroline Trentini

Bag of Tricks (10 pages)
Photographer: Erwin Wurm
Stylist: Alex Harrington
Cast: Adut Akech & Winniy Akech

 

[Benn98]

Blimey, actually sounds promising. A family issue for Christmas. Keen to see Yasmin and Tatjana's shots. And Helen Christensen back in American Vogue? Never thought I'd see the day.

 

[mikel]

Indeed very promising. Especially the prospect of seeing Imaan with her sister together in an ed.

 

[caioherrero]

I want this issue now!!! Looks good’