Review: 102 Pages
After a few of those dull as dishwater Chanel ads with Penelope, the issue moves swiftly to Anna's letter. It seems they've decided to make this the couples issue. But as she explains, and here I absolutely believe her, Vogue decided months ago on giving Priyanka the cover. I now think it may have been before she got the Allure cover, and subsequent feature in the August issue. And there are definitely two different sittings with two sets of credits. In fact, I'm convinced that Priyanka may have been originally slated to appear on the December cover, but due to the wedding (or Mary Poppins dollars) got shifted to January. The styling for the museum segment? Vogue doesn't go ultra glamorous for January. Anyway, it's as though Anna knew what type of chatter would take place on here because she also explains why she went with Priyanka.
The rest of the couples in the issue consists of Wozniacki and her man shot by Daniel Jackson and styled by Posnick, Erdem and Philip Joseph styled by Lucinda with photography by Paul Wetherell. Felicity Jones join them in the shot. And a NY chef and her partner. The storyline behind these articles centre around how they met.
There's also a fashion story shot featuring the leads from Barry Jenkins' new movie. Quite pleasant and adorable at face value, but essentially very Tumblr/Petra Collins-esque. The entire edit flows very well except one shot of him carrying her under a bridge. Visually that one just sticks out. A qualified photographer would have instantly notice that.
The theatre edit of the month is as usual shot by Leibovitz, and features Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge styled by Posnick. It's a straight-to-the-point portrait image. Since Posnick's departure, I've found myself drawn to these cinematic theatre shots in US Vogue. They're so interesting and dense, actually makes me wish I could see the play.
The long-form beauty story covers (pun intended) the new wave of women who embrace armpits and leg hair. Doesn't come with a styled image, I'm afraid, but a Matisse artwork. The sole fashion edit in this issue is styled by Lucinda, shot by Josh Olins and features Adut Akech. I'm sure many of you can picture what it will looks like just by reading Lucinda x Josh Olins, but honestly, the only part of it that's deja-vu is Lucinda's styling. Otherwise it's such a charming throwback to the US Vogue studio edit template. Loads of smiling, lively posing, some jumping and fierce poses. I think in Adut we may well have a cute update to Trentini, Edie or Karlie.
I feel that with this issue, there are some flashes of a slightly different US Vogue that we've been used to. A Vogue with a more mature sensibility and a marked balance between celebs, artists and society figures which can be gathered from the styling and sujects selected. I like that the direction is so defined. The writing is punchy and done with more care, the selection of edits and images in this issue mostly stays true to the magazine's aesthetic. Kudos to Josh, especially, for removing the grittiness in favour of some gloss from his photography. And for once I actually enjoyed VLife. Still think the title sucks, and the layout could be improved, but for this issue they've decided to unearth some unpublished shots from previous edits. Only three though - Carey from her couture cover years ago, Scatlett Johannson from her swimsuit one where she remarked something cringey on the cover, and I can't seem to recall where Elle Fanning's outtake comes from. Anyway, it was such a refreshing, yet belt-tightening, initiative which added a sense of production value to a section which is mostly filled with candid shots.
With this issue, as low as it is on page count, I'm convinced that with a bigger budget, Anna could still produce a decent issue to silence her critics.
