Vogue France December 2024/January 2025 : Loli Bahia by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott

[Royal-Galliano]

"9 Femmes" has such a stellar cast and pretty good execution (for nowadays standard, at least) of the fashion street photography! When it comes to Vogue France, I think that of everything that has been done so far, this is the closest to the gold standard of the former Vogue Paris.

i totally agree with you. but it still feels like a wasted opportunity.

despite the impressive cast, it looks as if they only had 15 minutes for each model since there are far more prestigious jobs than shooting for vogue these days.

 

[avonlea002]

Oh great, so as if his work for Gucci wasn't awful enough, now Anthony Seklaoui will also pollute magazine pages with bad editorials.

 

[alwaysademo]

Anthony is not a good photographer. He had all those great girls and that is what he comes up with. Plus let's not forget what he did to Solange for Gucci!

But isn't that the point? Having goddesses and give them 5' each? Like that's so chic. God forbid they gave a Luigi & Iango treatment, what a drag to even think about.
9 Femmes is nice. Almost Carine-esque, a Miss Vogue typa ed, designed to lighten things up. Anja on the verge of breakdown. Jess Miller reminiscing about the catwalk in broad daylight. I think Anthony did a good job here with this little handheld blur effect. VP-coded right inside Vogue France, clin d'œil.

 

[audace]

The cast is good in 9 Femmes. The M&M edit very obviously tries to go back to the former greatness they had at VP. It is very "Fatale" VP March 2014 coded. Nonetheless it lacks the polish. The composition and the postproduction is slight off, it just does not seem as refined , even in the studio shots. M&M are slowly losing it, even in their good ones for like M Le Monde recently, they are good, but it just does not seem M&M anymore, more like a parody.

It is similar to Meisel these days, where it is clearly Meisel, but something is just off and lacks the oomph. It is eerily similar, both of their trajectories in contemporary fashion imagery.

Makes me almost glad Weber and Testino got cancelled, I miss them, but they are not tarnishing their glory with subpar work.

 

[blueorchid]

Makes me almost glad Weber and Testino got cancelled, I miss them, but they are not tarnishing their glory with subpar work.

Testino already tarnished his glory with tons of subpar work. Him being cancelled was a welcome relief in terms of photography alone.

 

[Alien Sex Friend]

Alastair styling is bad executed in Loli Editorial, however basically I love his styling but this elegant vamp isn’t his trick at all and just by adding sheer embroidery gloves and dramatic combo of black with red won’t make Loli or anyone else femme fatale. Here Alastair is just playing on a terra incognita. I mean carone roitfeld or Karl templer wouldve executed this perfectly.

Second street editorial with fabulous casting and cool yet simple styling is just spoiled with clumsy photographer who Seklaoui is. Yet it’s still the best issue out there since October 2021. Standards are so low nowadays especially for monthly publications, we are not waiting anything good from them.

 

[tigerrouge]

Even if the spirit is willing, it's going to be hard to recreate Paris Vogue on a Primark budget, unless Conde Nast is going to increase the spending. At this point, would any edition get permission to start outshining the US one?

 

[vogue22]

9 FEMMES
Photography: Anthony Seklaoui
Styling: Alastair McKimm
Hair: Olivier Schawalder
Make-up: Mark Carrasquillo
Models: Natasha Poly, Cameron Russell, Caroline Trentini, Iselin Steiro, Isabeli Fontana, Erin Wasson, Joan Smalls, Anja Rubik & Jessica Miller

Imagine having 9 of the most talented and successful models of the 2000s and instead of using them for a group cover and cover story by Mert & Marcus, you use them for a cheap street style editorial shot by a nobody.

 

[alwaysademo]

^They've done that a thousand times. Off the top of my head I can think of the W spread 2015 and some campaigns.. it's a passé concept. The idea is give the new girl of the moment a major photographer and the established girls a young lensman to work with, that way they lift each others' profiles and it works, Loli looks stronger and the 2000s girls look lighter, more now.

 

[Alien Sex Friend]

I just watched a video of 9 femmes and it has not Parisian but NY vibe which I hate and it’s so beaten up, but you can at least see the styling and faces, out of 21 photos you don’t see faces at 9 of them, I barely recognize Trentini at 5th picture, I have to read the name, because I though it’s Snejana. Erin doesn’t even have any clear shot and she looks good in real life, I follow her IG. This movement and blur doesn’t do any favor to the way you see girls not to their outfits. You can barely see clothes and faces.

 

[vogue22]

^They've done that a thousand times. Off the top of my head I can think of the W spread 2015 and some campaigns.. it's a passé concept. The idea is give the new girl of the moment a major photographer and the established girls a young lensman to work with, that way they lift each others' profiles and it works, Loli looks stronger and the 2000s girls look lighter, more now.

Actually no, we haven't seen a group cover of the 2000s girls on a major edition of vogue in a long very long time.

 

[alwaysademo]

My point is, those 9 femmes should appear new, now, not as a model reunion thing. What you want is strictly nostalgic, but this understated approach is more fun and surprising. imo ofc.

 

[MModa]

^They've done that a thousand times. Off the top of my head I can think of the W spread 2015 and some campaigns.. it's a passé concept. The idea is give the new girl of the moment a major photographer and the established girls a young lensman to work with, that way they lift each others' profiles and it works, Loli looks stronger and the 2000s girls look lighter, more now.

Good thinking.

 

[alwaysademo]

Thanks.

 

[vogue22]

And why shouldn't they appear as a models reunion thing? I cant even recall how many times we've seen 90s supermodels doing comebacks on covers and campaigns and have to act like it's so fresh and exciting.
It's not as often that the 2000s girls are celebrated outside of TFS and that's mainly because they aren't as famous outside of the industry as the original supers.

 

[blueorchid]

Paid their dues? Once again, we're treating Vogue covers like the Make-a-Wish-Foundation. How is Mert & Marcus' photography any better than a nobody photographer these days, btw?

 

[vogue22]

I'm not necessarily fond of M&M's current photography but even on their worst day i would have a hard time naming 5 new photographers (Carlijn aside) that are on their level right now.