US Vogue March 2020 : Billie Eilish by Hassan Hajjaj, Ethan James Green, Harley Weir & Nastya Kovtun

[dontbeadrag]

Personally, fashion is going into a very sad direction. All the streetwear, vetements, balenciaga, sneaker trend, off-white, now billie on the cover of vogue in a damn parka, wearing tracksuits and hoodies in the editorial... You can call me old, even though I’m 25, call me old-fashioned, irrelevant and regressive, but I’d happily takes another Nicole Kidman or Blake Lively cover, or to be more relevant maybe some younger actress, but not this.

People are going to eat me up and spit out my bones for this, but I miss glamour, sex, chic, avant-garde, and elegance in fashion, models and actresses with fit or skinny bodies (although people of colour must be included too, no discussion here) promoting health and beauty. Am I going insane, my standards are too high or my thinking is irrelevant? I can’t seem to find beauty in any of the recent fashion happenings. For me, Billie is a nice girl, she has a sweet personality and good music for the young, but her fashion is not Vogue. It is i-D or Dazed 3-5 years ago at best, to be honest.

Vogue and fashion are dead. I find myself every week being sad and starved for beauty and looking at 5-10 year old editorials and covers.

 

[Benn98]

You can call me old, even though I’m 25...

LOL, at the ripe age of pushing 32, I'm also 'too old for these' (*sic), apparently. Bring on the zimmer frame.

 

[tigerrouge]

People are going to eat me up and spit out my bones for this, but I miss glamour, sex, chic, avant-garde, and elegance in fashion, models and actresses with fit or skinny bodies (although people of colour must be included too, no discussion here) promoting health and beauty. Am I going insane, my standards are too high or my thinking is irrelevant?

I want to read a magazine and be able to ache for all the things I'll never buy, never touch and never be.

Diversity would mean giving us new and different types of impossible dreams - not reducing everything down to a level of mundanity so achievable that my own ordinary life already surpasses it.

Why, then, would I need the magazine?

 

[crmsn]

2nd Cover by Ethan James Green:

This particular cover perfectly captures the brand of the magazine as well as the brand of this month's cover star. Kudos to Ethan James, Alex Harrington, and Vogue Magazine! This one's beautiful.

I also like the third cover with Harley Weir. It's not a typical one for Vogue, but it captures your attention because of the neon green color and the unusual photograph. I can't wait to see the print version of it.

The first one, however, doesn't excite me that much. It's all over the place with those contrasting colors.

 

[dontbeadrag]

I want to read a magazine and be able to ache for all the things I'll never buy, never touch and never be.

Diversity would mean giving us new and different types of impossible dreams - not reducing everything down to a level of mundanity so achievable that my own ordinary life already surpasses it.

Why, then, would I need the magazine?

Do you ache though? Looking at this? Here it is not so obvious, not much promotes something to be envious for. I do not feel the “envy pain” neither do I feel the starvation and jealousy of the beauty of an 18-year old girl in some Balenciaga hoodie that any blogger could get nowadays and then return after the pics and vids they took. On the other hand, I do feel the burn in my chest when I see something like Joan Smalls and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in the 2015 issue of Vogue, two beautiful people in some modern expensive house in high-end clothing and not just some cotton hoodies. The other end would go to something like Stella by Steven in the Discipline of Fashion, at least that was thought-provoking, it showed the role of fashion in the lives of some people, the obscure side of it, even though it was not too relevant - not many people wear corsets so tightly they are about to break or tons of facial piercing.
But where has all that gone? Where is the intellectual and weird (not pretentious like here) side of fashion in any way? Why I am thinking “thank god i don’t dress like that” instead of “i am dying to have that life”?

Who feels anything looking at these cover and editorial, excepting Billie Eilish fans?

 

[aracic]

People are going to eat me up and spit out my bones for this, but I miss glamour, sex, chic, avant-garde, and elegance in fashion, models and actresses with fit or skinny bodies

Yes! This! Exactly this.
But unfortunately, that's not acceptable anymore. Women are rarely portrayed in a sexy manner that Mario Testino or Mert & Marcus regularly practiced in Vogue and LOVE (Remember that time supemodels posed naked for like 8 iconic covers? Those were the times) because it is seen as sexist now. No matter the intention, in this age sexiness equals objectification of women and you can't have Twitter and Instagram calling you out for all those crimes against society. It would kill the brand.
I miss the times when instead of 'sustainable' beige fashion in a nature or white studio setting modelled by a no-makeup make-up actress or an Insta model with messy hair they used to go on the most glamorous locations or villas where they'd shoot for days the most fabulous garments of the season on sexy, tanned top models with full face glam and the most gorgeous hair you could never achieve. It was perfect. All they needed to do was open their minds to a more diverse casting but instead they switched up the whole thing.
Anna Wintour explained it best in the opening of ''The September Issue'' when she said ''I think what I often see is that people are frightened of fashion and that because it scares them or makes them feel insecure they put it down. On the whole, people that say demeaning things about our world, I think that's usually because they feel in some ways excluded or not part of the cool group, so as a result they just mock it. There is something about fashion that can make people very nervous.''
People became basic and predictable, too accustomed to this Instagram era of mediocrity and it's a shame because dreaming of bigger things and glamour, that's what made Vogue what it is and what made fashion so special in the first place. Even a hundred years ago. Today, that standard is lost, and so is fashion simply because they made it non-exclusive. I feel you, @dontbeadrag and I understand exactly what you're talking about when you talk about the old editorials compared to now. It feels like a punch in the face when I see goddamn Nigel Shafran's photography in this once great fashion magazine, because to me it feels like mockery of everything I love about this industry and it's so ugly that it hurts.

 

[Benn98]

I want to read a magazine and be able to ache for all the things I'll never buy, never touch and never be.

Diversity would mean giving us new and different types of impossible dreams - not reducing everything down to a level of mundanity so achievable that my own ordinary life already surpasses it.

Why, then, would I need the magazine?

Well, one could argue that for fashion to be as big a business as it is right now where magazine covers are at the forefront of movie directors, it had to make some concessions. One of them being to toe the populist one-size-fits-all type approach. It's all fair and well for the likes of you and DontBeADrag to want to aspire and dream towards a certain look, but the PC gang could argue that by pushing those 'unattainable' ideals, magazines are alienating a certain type of person from the conversation which may lead to said person feeling devalued, depressed, suffer from anxiety, and a laundry list of societal ills. Basically, the equivalent of those Dover mums insisting that all children be given a medal, even if they lost a match.
And as we all know 'inclusive' is the phrase du jour regardless of whether it actually serves a purpose or just aimlesslessly abused to be part of a conversation.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

I actually love all the covers, finally they used a cover subject without changing them in any way.

 

[YohjiAddict]

The Harley cover is my favorite, really risqué. I love ther stare, so strong and penetrating, the ironic gesture of showing such a young subject along side a toy. The green works really good. The worst one is the illustrated one because it's very flat, and her eyes look crooked. The editorial is not it but it showcases her personality perfectly.

I agree that fashion has lost its glimmer and that's why people yearn for the Insta-glamour of Jacquemus, at least it's glamour they must think.

 

[ivano]

I love the first. The second one looks like a sequel to Rihanna's cover (that one was perfection). When I saw the last one, the january issue of Vogue Italia came to my mind, but that's the correct way to sell that kind of cover, in digital, not in print. Kudos Anna, and I'm glad she's working with other photographers and not Leibovitz.

 

[Phuel]

Don’t care for the photographers, Billie, the styling, and Anna’s Vogue in general. However, I do admire Anna’s timing in getting Billie on the cover of her magazine for an important month right on the heels of Billie having just swept the Grammys. Whether Billie was already planned as the March coverstar or Anna had it revised for March to ride on the coattails of a star’s hype, her amazing business sensibility is to be admired.

And admittedly, Harley’s covershot is the strongest one— and likely the strongest imagery she’s ever produced as far as I’m concerned, if only because it instantly reminds me of the legendary Liz and Fabien’s September 1994 Bazaar cover of Nadja by Patrick. Not as good of course— these are basic times after all, but still solid (like a kiddie-sister cosplaying her older sister Nadja’s iconic glare… US Harper's Bazaar September 1994: Nadja Auermann by Patrick Demarchelier

 

[vogue28]

I view these covers as a huge setback after Vogue’s recent success with their Florence Pugh, Stella McCartney, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Olivia Colman and Rihanna covers. I do understand a subject like Billie Eilish would not suit Vogue’s more classical approach, but perhaps they could’ve tried?

My favourite out the four is Ethan James Green’s cover, purely because it resembles Rihanna’s with the hood and overall composition. The rest I could do without...

 

[dior_couture1245]

Billie is so freaky to me.

She went from this cute, sweet, wholesome looking girl to this practically demonic creature out of left field.

I’m not into it. It wreaks of industry executives taking full advantage of a teenage girl and twisting her into something dark and perverse. Aren’t we supposed to be kind of over that? Isn’t that a no-no post #metoo? Or am I missing something?

 

[liberty33r1b]

I don‘t see the point of Vogue anymore, I just don‘t. I mean why do all these editors even go to see fashion and couture shows anymore and sit there and take it all in - and then they produce something like this? they could have just stayed home and simply looked outside their windows I mean everyone on the street looks like exactly like this cover! why even bother?? what‘s wrong with them?

 

[MON]

4th consecutive month of US Vogue using a fresh face

Phoebe
Cardi, Greta, and Stella (sans Ashley)
Florence
Billie

Let that not be left unnoticed

 

[Lola701]

Ethan and Harley did a great job and I’m sorry but that 16 years old did a wonderful job! It’s superior to what Farnieti tried to do for VI.
It’s good and surprising, plus the timing is right...
I wish it was more elevated tho.

But it feels very « trying too hard to attract that millennial potential customer ».

 

[MissMagAddict]

Billie Eilish is just Grimes for people born after 2000.

 

[SLFC]

This is just stunning, they've provided something colorful, but its still got that vogue touch. Just love it.

 

[Melancholybaby]

Some people here are too old for these

And who are the products featured in Vogue marketed to? 13 year olds?

 

[Scotty]

Billie is so freaky to me.

She went from this cute, sweet, wholesome looking girl to this practically demonic creature out of left field.

It's because she's practically an industry plant who went through a manufactured image overhaul in 2018.