US Vogue March 2008 : Drew Barrymore by Steven Meisel

[bismarck]

yay! Liya!!! Incomparablely beautiful, as always...

 

[SnejanaIsMyMuse]

I'm actually really wanting to get this now.The content sounds super.

 

[HeatherZ]

I like McDean's ed. The cover is nice, I hate that I do like it.

 

[Suburban Snob]

It looks like her face is melting off or something.

 

[Luxx]

I think this is a very good issue - for any magazine but especially for US Vogue. Editorial content is not the sole judge of an issue for me. US Vogue always has compelling articles and interesting non-editorial content. The People Are Talking About & Fashion Flash sections are great this month, the View Global Glamour piece is full of interesting women and the articles on Stefano Pilati and Benazir Bhutto are great. I don't think a magazine can be judged on editorials alone. There are words after all.

 

[Luxx]

The Bride Wore Ricci
Author: William Norwich
In the beautiful port city of Cartagena, with helicopters buzzing overhead and nine designers for as many bridesmaids, Lauren Davis wore mini, maxi and everything inbetween for her spectacular wedding.



Image Credit | Scanned by Me from Vogue US March 08

 

[miwa]

I totally agree with you Luxx. When people don't like the editorials of Vogue Italia, they immediately say the issue is rubbish. No one ever reads the articles, which are really great. That's mainly the reason why I love Vogue Italia more than Vogue Paris, because of its full content not only editorials.

 

[Luxx]

As much as I love Carol I think this edit would have worked much better had the model selection been different. With an older (or more mature looking since Carol isn't a baby compared to some other models - she just has a very youthful face) with a different model the story would have been more compelling for me. The whole wealthy woman falls for blue collar mover angle that this story takes on would have worked more if the model were say Erin Wasson or Anouk. Or even say Linda Evangelista if they wanted to play up the age dynamics - that could have been quite sexy actually. Caroline seems so young in this for me so it doesn't quite mesh as well.

The Way She Moves
Photographer: Steven Klein
Fashion Editor: Tonne Goodman
Models: Caroline Trentini & Channing Tatum



Image Credit | Scanned by Me from Vogue US March 08

 

[tigerrouge]

That said, I don't read a fashion magazine for its view on international politics, nor do I expect their staff to be experts in such subjects. For entertaining articles, there are plenty in Vogue. Some quite touching first-person articles as well, and lively opinion pieces. But for meaningful articles about wider subjects, I turn to people and publications who have, say, twenty years' experience in the subject and can see beyond this season's trend in both shirts and thoughts, when they're talking.

So for me, there's nothing in any Vogue that I have to read, to be truly informed about the world - so yes, I do dismiss them. I do read them, every one, in any magazine whose language I can read, but I don't attach much weight to them. The purchase of a fashion magazine is a diversion, both in word and image. I'm too stern to see a fashion magazine as an education, not when it's trying to sell you blackhead cleaner on the next page.

In fact, the constant message of "you HAVE to IMPROVE yourself, you imperfect non-stylish non-supermodel" is so strong in a fashion magazine, I think it convinces us that it can improve our minds as well as our appearance. But can it really?

 

[Luxx]

I don't think anyone said that a fashion magazine should be read for educational purposes. No one is looking at Vogue to be their primary source of world news. That would be a mistake. I think what people were saying was that editorial content is not the sole judge as to whether or not a magazine was good that month. Vogue is not going to replace a publication on any other subject matter be it as important as politics or as frivolous as entertainment nor does it strive to but its fashion coverage extends beyond the point of just editorials. I think the magazine is more than just a picture book when it comes to fashion. On the whole I'd have to say that I find the fashion articles in Vogue US (with the noted exception of their pandering celebrity coverage) to be better than the editorials which are for the most part staid and very conservative in terms of styling and execution. I'm not as inspired by seeing Trentini jump higher and higher each month as I am by A.L.T.'s column, Jeffery Steingarten's knowingly ironic food pieces or one of the segments within the View section.

I'd be hard pressed to find a fashion magazine that isn't based on the idea of self improvement - self-satisfied consumers don't do much shopping. If I want mental enlightenment I'll read Keats, if I want to see what Wintour and Co are enjoying at the moment I'll read Vogue.

The Girls Can't Help It
Photographer: Norman Jean Roy
Sittings Editor: Kathryn Neale
Actresses: Leighton Meester and Blake Lively



Image Credit | Scanned by Me from Vogue US March 08

 

[Luxx]

Stefano's article. He's quite a character.
Is Gemma in that group shot or am I mistaken?


A Man of Distinction
Author: Sarah Mower
Photographer: Steven Klein
Designer: Stefano Pilati
Models: Caroline Trentini, Coco Rocha, Raquel Zimmerman, Lily Donaldson & Gemma Ward (?)




Image Credit | Scanned by Me from Vogue US March 08

 

[tigerrouge]

Its when they run articles about people like Benazir Bhutto that gets me - though I don't think its demeaning to any political figure to discuss their dress sense, as presentation is all important in that arena. But what is Vogue going to tell me about any other aspect of her or the context of her work that isn't somehow frivolous? For me, I can't see it.

 

[iluvjeisa]

I don't think anyone said that a fashion magazine should be read for educational purposes. No one is looking at Vogue to be their primary source of world news. That would be a mistake. I think what people were saying was that editorial content is not the sole judge as to whether or not a magazine was good that month. Vogue is not going to replace a publication on any other subject matter be it as important as politics or as frivolous as entertainment nor does it strive to but its fashion coverage extends beyond the point of just editorials. I think the magazine is more than just a picture book when it comes to fashion. On the whole I'd have to say that I find the fashion articles in Vogue US (with the noted exception of their pandering celebrity coverage) to be better than the editorials which are for the most part staid and very conservative in terms of styling and execution. I'm not as inspired by seeing Trentini jump higher and higher each month as I am by A.L.T.'s column, Jeffery Steingarten's knowingly ironic food pieces or one of the segments within the View section.

I'd be hard pressed to find a fashion magazine that isn't based on the idea of self improvement - self-satisfied consumers don't do much shopping. If I want mental enlightenment I'll read Keats, if I want to see what Wintour and Co are enjoying at the moment I'll read Vogue.

The Girls Can't Help It
Photographer: Norman Jean Roy
Sittings Editor: Kathryn Neale
Actresses: Leighton Meester and Blake Lively

The Problem, as I see it, is that they're not enjoying anything. They are presenting what they think reeks of Power with a capital P, and making close to no effort to even thinly veil this fact (unless in the form of a Trophy Wife Trump). Self-satisfied consumers can very well consume a lot - because they have a yearning for something for its beauty or pleasure. Most people are both part hedonists and part neurotics. You can appeal to either side, and I think it's pretty clear what part of the psyche Vogue is appealing to - and has been appealing to ever since the mid 90s.

I don't judge Vogue entirely on editorial content, but if there is a sub par editorial content I will not buy the magazine unless there is a piece of extraordinary interest about art or fashion. I can't say I buy Vogue very often.

 

[iluvjeisa]

I see Raquel, Lily D and Caroline T there (as I'm sure you do too) and then there are two models I don't know, but I don't think either one of them is Gemma.

 

[miwa]

^There's also Coco. I don't think there's Gemma either.

 

[Luxx]

I think they enjoy certain things - the coverage of celebrities and socialites does border on reprehensible but I've found that I enjoy certain columns a great deal. Maybe its just me though.

 

[tocceve]

^^^looks like Milana Keller to me

 

[tigerrouge]

Though to my shame, I often find many an article in Allure that I remember for a while after reading them, such as last month's one where the photographer related his fall into drug addiction when he was reaching his career high.

Perhaps my issue with Vogue articles is that they can't really critique anyone that they know well on the social scene OR depend on for advertising, so there goes even a truthful personal opinion, never mind an article with breadth. They can't be truly incisive, even about things in the fashion world that they know well, so there's the sense that behind the bland article we get, there was a better one that just couldn't be written.

I feel like TFS's Eeyore, with my constant lament of 'this is what's wrong with fashion magazines, the world and everything in it...'

 

[iluvjeisa]

lol, I'll take you on for the title I do feel that Vogue is pretty joyless and expresses more glee and a false sense of superiority than anything else (Yeah, I know, it's fashion so false sense of superiority is the name of the game, but without enthusiasm it's just too boring). But I think you're onto something there, tigerrouge, the social network. And again, as so often is the case, it's networking/cronyism at the expense of fashion and art...

 

[mikel]

love the YSL groupshot! That girl could be Gemma, but her upperlip seems to big somehow.