Vogue China February 2024 : Du Juan by Margaret Zhang

[crmsn]

weibo / vogue china

 

[Chipmetrai]

no

 

[TerraVera]

is this a kiss and make up cover for du juan after the controversy last year with margaret's model-cover-hoarding non-compete rule? is margaret being the photographer suppose to make the scar from the punishment heal and feel better?
context: Margaret Zhang Branded Disrespectful to Chinese Market by Huasheng Media Founder Chuxuan Feng

in the grand scheme of things, there was no need to suppress her cover. du juan is a great model; she would've done well for vogue china, regardless.

on that note, how does vogue china measure up in the chinese market as compared to harper's, elle, marie claire, and cosmo? do covers and/or issues featuring margaret's photography sell well? like queen mother aka edward enniful or farneti, is vogue more self-promotion or a pet project (no shade) for her?

anyways, the cover would be elevated if she was in motion - riding the motorcycle - instead of the typical, rudimentary pose on the motorcycle. a positive: i like the way the light hits her face.

 

[Urban Stylin]

Looks like an outtake from a 2010s Estee Lauder shoot

 

[OllieJE]

Could it be more amateurish?

 

[ERIKIMISUN]

VOGUE China February 2024

Photography : Margaret Zhang
Stylist : Vivienne Sun


weibo

 

[Rigida]

is this a kiss and make up cover for du juan after the controversy last year with margaret's model-cover-hoarding non-compete rule? is margaret being the photographer suppose to make the scar from the punishment heal and feel better?
context: Margaret Zhang Branded Disrespectful to Chinese Market by Huasheng Media Founder Chuxuan Feng

in the grand scheme of things, there was no need to suppress her cover. du juan is a great model; she would've done well for vogue china, regardless.

on that note, how does vogue china measure up in the chinese market as compared to harper's, elle, marie claire, and cosmo? do covers and/or issues featuring margaret's photography sell well? like queen mother aka edward enniful or farneti, is vogue more self-promotion or a pet project (no shade) for her?

anyways, the cover would be elevated if she was in motion - riding the motorcycle - instead of the typical, rudimentary pose on the motorcycle. a positive: i like the way the light hits her face.

That's what I wonder as well. Because I noticed since Margaret took helm the ad pages in Vogue China decreased. So any Chinese TFS member here maybe can tell whether other Chinese fashion mags like Bazaar, Elle or Marie Claire also struggled with ad pages or is it just Vogue China?

 

[Phuel]

Whatever issues they may have with her, one factor is very consistent: She’s a sh!t photographer with absolutely no understanding of narrative flow nor storytelling. No AD can stitch her random imagery into a solid cohesive whole: What a nightmare when she shoots. Would love to be a fly on the wall and witness how the team thinks about her amateur work. What an insult to lead off the lunar New Year with LMFAO

 

[marsnoop2]

That story makes no sense to me whatsoever, not gonna lie though I kinda lived for Margaret being dragged in that article . . .

 

[Bertrando3]

WHAT THE HELL ???
This cover is a pure garbage.
The styling is ugly and makes no sense.
There are images in b&w that would have worked much better as cover options.
If I were Du Juan I would be pissed to get this result after spending several hours posing for MZ.

 

[TerraVera]

where is the storytelling? it doesn't make sense. is this supposed to be about a maverick fashion editor proving how different she is from the crowd? i'll be blatant: is this margaret shooting about herself? 👀

either way, what is this?

oh du juan deserved better. instead of exhibiting her talent, margaret used her to project herself (margaret) into the shoot for an (poorly edited) autobiographical editorial no one asked for or ever wanted.

sorry that du juan had to capitulate to this mess. at least she's able to maintain her record for most vogue china covers.

 

[kasper!]

What is the theme of main ed? What a gigantic mess!

 

[caioherrero]

The December 2022 cover that she shout is one of the best Vogue China covers ever.

 

[crmsn]

I kinda wanted her to look at the camera on the cover. There were also better shots on the main ed
that should have been on the cover, especially the androgynous ones with red gloves.

This isn't exactly bad as what other people perceive (mostly by the Chinese readers who were very
harsh on Margaret for calling this a budget-friendly cover since she photographed it herself),
but it could have been executed better.

Caio was right: Margaret's December 2022 cover is one of Vogue China's best. It's the reason
why I started collecting this edition.

 

[Hafyiez wafa]

 

[crmsn]

Review:
212 pages | 10 editorials

SENSE OF TOUCH (16 pages)
Photography Chien Yun
Styling Yi Yang
Edited by Julie Yang, Wang Yan
With Yang Shengjie, Liu Hu, Yico Liu

IN THE MOMENT (22 pages)
Photography Margaret Zhang
Styling Vivienne Sun
With Du Juan

A NEW MOON (18 pages)
Photography Peter Ash Lee
Styling Alvin Yu
Edited by Lily Zhou
With Sandra Oh, Laufey, Stephanie Hsu, Peter Ash Lee, Yumi Nu, Awkwafina, Chloe Magno, and Sora

GOODBYE, VOGUE HOUSE (14 pages)
Photography Sean Thomas
Styling Dena Giannini
With Emily Ratajkowski, Adwoa Aboah, Irina Shayk, Adut Akech, Karen Elson, Mona Tougaard, Edward Enninful, Sacha Quenby, Giselle Norman, Kai Newman, Nyagua Ruea, Ajok Daing, Grace Coddington, Jonathan Anderson, Dana Smith, Victoria Fawole, Tony Batalha, Jourdan Dunn, Alexa Chung, Stephen Jones, Erdem Moralioglu, Riccardo Tisci, Shakira, Precious Lee, Munroe Bergdorf, Emma Thynn, Sarah Burton, Richard Dennen, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Gemma Chan, Kim Jones, Mika Schneider, Evie Harris, Shivaruby, Hannah Motler, Penelope Tree, Jean Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Robin Muir, Stella McCartney, Alva Claire, Riz Ahmed, Lulu Wood, Ugbad Abdi, Hamish Bowles, Cara Delevingne, Georgia Palmer, Simone Rocha, Jan Baiboon, Avanti Nagrath, Julia, John Groger, Vanessa Kingori, Emilia Wickstead, Saul Nash, Marco Capaldo, Priya Ahluwalia, and Ronnie Cooke Newhouse

HELLO, BEIJING VOGUE HOUSE (14 pages)
Photography Julian Song
Styling Echo Xiao
With Jinghan Fan, Chen Huijia, Li Tian Jia, and Pan Haowen

HER GESTURES (10 pages)
Photography Yang Yi
Styling Mia Zhang

IT'S OUR TIME (14 pages)
Photography Hu Jialing
Styling William Song
With Xu Lian, He Zhi, Huang Yan, Zhao Jian Min, and Liu Min

THE WATER FRONT (12 pages)
Photography Lachlan Bailey
Styling Kate Phelan
With Karolina Spakowski

UNPLUG (18 pages)
Photography Lei Ting
Styling Leon Tiu

SPRING HAS SPRUNG (20 pages)
Photography Leon Tu
Styling Mia Zhang

Beautiful issue that goes back to early 2000s. I personally love the Unplug editorial for its depiction of the Y2K era.
Hello, Beijing Vogue House is also a solid, vibrant editorial.

 

[Vision Ruan]

That's what I wonder as well. Because I noticed since Margaret took helm the ad pages in Vogue China decreased. So any Chinese TFS member here maybe can tell whether other Chinese fashion mags like Bazaar, Elle or Marie Claire also struggled with ad pages or is it just Vogue China?

I don't buy them but I flip through them at the city library sometimes. Vogue is pretty much on the same level in terms of ad pages with other magazines. But ELLE and Bazaar, even Marie Claire produce prettier images and have more exciting cover choices. Also the days when people prefer a thick 500-page magazine are gone. There's enough interesting things on the cell phone.

 

[vogue28]

Criminal to think Margaret Zhang had Du Juan and this is the end result! Some of Du Juan's Chinese Vogue covers in the past have been flawless but this is amateur and lackluster beyond belief. There's just not one redeeming quality to this - even that stunning Christian Dior jacket looks out of place.

It's Du Juan's 20th too which only adds insult to injury...

 

[Phuel]

Interesting you find this issue worthy of Angelica’s better Vogue, crsmn. I find it the worst of Angelica’s forgettable fillers LOL

For every solid issue Marge offers— like January's, she’ll follow it come with an absolutely juvenile, slop that’s typical InstaGallery/blogger fodder. This is that issue. Just intolerably mediocre— like the first-draft ideations of a class project conjured by 1st-year media students' idea of fashion and aesthetics based on algorithms from their socials: The stupid posing and pedestrian compositions are unbearable. It’s all very gen-Z— which is a preference of course, but will those children pay for this when it’s so easily accessible on any given social??? Maybe one decent image of the women on bicycles in “It’s Our Time” out of an entire issue… Marge simply does not possess the creative stamina as an editor. Why she isn’t replaced with one of the competent editors of GQ China, is really the power of Anna dragging the Vogue ship down rather than admitting she may not have backed the most competent editor. With even Vogue Korea slipping, Vogue’s time is over.

Here are the 5 original fashion stories.

















Vogue China February 2024

 

[ivano]

Is this a real one? Look way better than the main cover