US Vogue September 2020 by Jordan Casteel & Kerry James Marshall

[8eight]

I love this. I find it refreshing for a Vogue US cover.

The September issue of Vogue US has to be wrapped in mid June so this issue has been put together at the height of the Covid 19 infection rate in the US.
I can't even imagine the struggles that the team at Vogue had to go through to get the issue ready so I am fine with this, considering the circumstances.

REALLY?
InStyle managed to do pretty well and they don't have as much pull or sway as US Vogue and Anna.
If she wanted a mega star in a big advertisers dress on the cover, she could have made that happen.

 

[Lola701]

Times are changing, but this sudden wake of black power is hypocrite from a magazine who took almost 70 years to put a black women on the cover, even they've tried to be diverse and hype, this is a proof that magazine business is dying and sadly what they should have done 40 years ago to promote diversity and culture now is seen as another try to sell magazines.

I get what you are trying to say but it’s a little bit easy to say that. Editors and magazines just don’t do what they wants... There are many things that influences the decisions in that industry.

But isn’t it part of the evolution of the society?
Vogue (or at least US Vogue) should be one of the publication in the forefront when it’s time to reflect changes on the society!

It’s logical for a magazine that was created in 1892 to only feature a black model 70 years later. From a historical point of view, it makes totally sense.
The sad reality is that they couldn’t have done this 40 years ago. You don’t simply « promote diversity » to a publication like Vogue.

Remember that « Fashion » became mainstream with the rise of social media. Before that, it was just a bubble of fashion people and entertainment people and the only way for them to have a feedback was through the sales of their magazines. Behind the scenes, talents should have been more supported and the black people in the industry also had that responsability but the concept of « diversity » as it is understood today needed a social context as a support.

What is happening today is more a question of relevance than a question of sales. In terms of demographic, the audience of Vogue (and I add all the editions of Vogue in the mix) is not black. Editors now feels a responsability to the society, to their staff (for those who have black people in their staff) And they needs to not be tone deaf.

 

[KoV]

the clothing in the painting is Off-White

 

[honeycombchild]

Only the two covers. What a shame this all is. I much prefer Marshall's, but I'm in love with neither.

 

[KoV]

the dress she’s wearing in the painting is Pyer Moss

 

[Marc10]

I much prefer Kerry James Marshall's cover. But in the painting as cover game this month, Vanity Fair won by a landslide.

 

[Kite]

I like these a lot.

I’m glad it’s not a basic Tyler Mitchell portrait of Naomi blah Blah. Atleast it’s something!

And it’s more interesting than that dullard, moody sad cover of British Vogue and the ‘we cba with Hope’ application on the others (cough FRENCH VOGUE cough).

it’s colourful, eye catching, supportive.

I hope they don’t go back to another picture of Emma Stone or Blake Lively or whatever looking doe eyed and boring.

 

[dodencebt]

I really like these. I would've preferred an actual black woman in front of a photographer's lens, but I'm not unhappy. Kerry James Marshall's painting works so much more as a cover, though. It looks so rich and.. finished.

 

[TZ001]

 

[KoV]

^ I wonder why Vogue is only pledging to hire more Black freelancers. I mean that’s great, I’m sure it will mean a tremendous amount to those freelancers, but it also means you’re less accountable because they’re not actual Vogue/Condé Nast employees.

 

[Vision Ruan]

I don't appreciate these two covers at all and I can't believe Anna, who used to be so picky about what the cover looks like, even approved the cover.
I HOPE these these things like illustration covers ,blank cover, long distance shooting will soon stop.

 

[tigerrouge]

That made me look up the stats for the UK - which are from 2011, so nearly ten years out of date - but the official census listed black people as comprising 3% of the population, with Asians at 7%.

 

[SRank]

This is actually gorgeous. Of course, for September I would prefer a conventional glossy photograph and etc, but this really turned out to be really great.

Kerry's cover is all that I was anticipating from those other illustration/painting covers from the past months: it's effective, flawlessly done and it actually looks fresh.

 

[PowerDroid]

REALLY?
InStyle managed to do pretty well and they don't have as much pull or sway as US Vogue and Anna.
If she wanted a mega star in a big advertisers dress on the cover, she could have made that happen.

Totally makes sense, if you think that InStyle did pretty well. I happen to think that InStyle is forgettable, at best.

Vogue US's standards are higher than InStyle's. They wouldn't hire those type of photographers that InStyle hired, take a look at their portfolio and you'll know why. It's cringeworthy, even for LA standards.

US Vogue has a very unique way of working. The September cover takes months of planning and preparation. Maybe that's not synched with the times, as everything has to move fast nowadays, but that's the Anna W. way.
At the height of the pandemic celebrities cancelled confirmed shoots left an right, photographers and stylists got stranded, Conde Nast had a major freak out about liabilities related to Covid19, people stopped traveling. I am sure Vogue had its September cover organized and ready to be shot and it all got cancelled. It just couldn't happen.

I guess Anna W has a limit to how much she's willing to compromise and risk, and managing Vogue US comes with 10 times as much pressure than managing InStyle, hence the decision to use art instead of pictures.

 

[MDNA]

So what about the creative landscape for Asian people? Diversity is great but hopefully it’s not a “beginning” for more mediocrity, because you should hire people for their talent rather than seeing skin colours or checking passports.

 

[MON]

It actually looked better in high quality?????

 

[Handbag Queen]

They couldn’t have black models and actresses on the cover to make their points? If I wanted to see paintings on magazine covers I’d buy Art in America. All time low for US Vogue.

 

[Flamingjune]

It does. Maybe deadlines are stretched a little during these times of uncertainty but production wise the September issue used to be wrapped by mid June. Same for Bazaar US. Even after receiving the retouched finals images there's still plenty to do before the issue is sent to the printers.

Magazines are struggling reconciling budgets, imagine if Vogue US had to delay the issue. It would be a disaster for the advertising department. It's not like an independent magazine, it a huge American corporation. If the issue is not out on time people gets fired.

The issue is not even out, let's see what they were able to put together.

You are very right actually. This issue came out extremely late than usual. And two weeks ago, there was another huge layoff at Conde, especially in the marketing department. I wonder if it has anything to do with this.

 

[SLFC]

They couldn’t have black models and actresses on the cover to make their points? If I wanted to see paintings on magazine covers I’d buy Art in America. All time low for US Vogue.

Yeah no kidding. If this was my September issue and had to celebrate black talent, I would tap Anok Yai, Joan Smalls, Adut Akech, Leomie Anderson, and why not Danielle Harrington, and then why not put in a kamala harris interview. Unfortunately its not a perfect world.

 

[Lola701]

A bit disappointed in a fact that it’s illustrations but it’s beautiful. I think the colors will translate well IRL.
It is a special issue and I must admit that those drawings will maybe make it more special than a beautiful girl in a beautiful dress mainly because the colors here are quite amazing.

Now, we need great content! Actual people, actual clothes!

So what about the creative landscape for Asian people? Diversity is great but hopefully it’s not a “beginning” for more mediocrity, because you should hire people for their talent rather than seeing skin colours or checking passports.

It’s necessary but is it time to have a war on representation. We can just appreciate that without coming with the « What about those? ». Black Americans took a stand for their representation, Asians should be inspired too...

And I’ve said it earlier, the need for representation from Asians American is legitimate but let’s not act that Asians people don’t have a voice in the fashion industry in general!