Vogue Italia May 2009 : Sasha Pivovarova by Steven Meisel

[masquerade]

I'm a little tired of this Moroccan drag theme that seems to be popping up ever since the Supreme package. The package itself was stellar but now everyone has jumped on this bandwagon. First time around it seems intriguing, second time around it seems amusing, third and fourth time it just seems like the same old boring cultural appropriation that fashion falls back on every other season. It's amazing. Finding an Arab high fashion model is this impossible struggle yet dressing up a girl from Moscow as a Bedouin is high art. Lazy. Lazy. Lazy.

And then six months from now it will be all about the indigenous people of Australia or maybe the Kayapo tribe. How chic!

Wake me when this is over. Meisel has a gift but I just find this sort of thing so prevalent in fashion and so goddamn boring.

Thank you! I don't get the praise for this. I like Sasha too, but just because she got a cover doesn't mean its automatically good. A lot of people seem to just be happy about her existence and not the actual product.

As for the cover itself, I am just not feeling it. Thematically, it is very similar to the Supreme showcards and the Eliza cover which was just a month ago. And frankly, I think the Eliza cover worked better. The tone and ambiance really captured the concept. It felt romantic and timeless. This cover doesn't achieve that IMO. The makeup and hood make Sasha almost look like a boxer, not a wanderer from Morocco. Also, the flowers look a paint brush a 4th grader would use on photoshop to create their Jonas Brothers wallpaper. It just doesn't look professional. It looks hastily done and cheap.

I know Supreme didn't invent photo shoots based on Arabian nights, but they did revitalize the subject and make it popular again. Of course, the recent trend of harem pants also plays a role, but these eds are similar not only in content but in style too. The saturated colors, the obviously artificial sets. I do think that the inside photos are better than the cover (the flowers really bother me). I just think the ed fails at what it is trying to do: a romantic portrayal of this middle eastern imagery (after all, odalisque's were sex slaves). In the end, I think that Supreme did it better and Meisel did it better with Eliza.

Also, just a pet peeve I guess, the ring she is wearing on the cover is so obviously too big for her. I guess it's a styling error but it ruins the illusion to see all that excess space around her finger.

 

[chanels]

Beautiful cover and editorial... Shame I'll have to wait another month to get it though!

 

[vogue28]

The cover is nice, but I'm not really crazy about it

My thoughts exactly. I'm only in this thread for the ride.
I'm not feeling Sasha's editorial yet. But I look forward to seeing Eva's.

 

[clocked]

can't wait to get this, WAY better than Eliza's bohemian-thing cover

 

[Manuva]

can't wait to get this, WAY better than Eliza's bohemian-thing cover

I actually preferred Eliza's cover. Sasha looks bored and lifeless, and to be quite honest she looks generic here; something that Sasha can never normally be accused off.
All the cover art around the cover is okay, but it seems like VI are trying to make whats actually a very dull cover an interesting one.
The inside editorial isn't much better either, both Sasha, Meisel and VI should have done so much better than this. It looks half done, the execution just isn't there.
In fact, the whole thing looks like outtakes from what should have been a much stronger shoot.

 

[SlovesNY]

Wow, love it! She looks good. But not feeling the flower thing...

Same here... It looks like cheap wallpaper to me

 

[kevinnn]

aside from the use of photoshop's default brushes, I think that a different model would have made the cover a little more bearable

while Sasha is very striking and can capture emotion in photographs really well, I wish they would have picked a model that looked a little more innocent and naive to kind of have the feeling of wandering and being lost

the other shots in the ed are nicer than the cover though, wish they would have picked one of those instead

 

[tocceve]

^Nimue Smit would have been a fantastic choice.

I still can't get over how they ruined the cover. I can't wait to see HQs from art+commerce without those stupid effects.

 

[vavavinny]

I don't love it. The flowery swirls are beyond cheap and make the whole thing look like a scrapbook entry. If they would have eliminated that element, it would have been a successful cover. Sasha looks superelegant and feline. She can even make the mediocre styling look superb ! The whole Moroccan Orientalism theme is so had, especially in this case where it is SO literally done. I would have preferred to see something more modern with exotic styling than this total odd throwback. I have a feeling that all of this Orientalism is coming from the very Eastern Louis Vuitton Spring 2009 collection....

 

[XavierRaphael]

I love the graphic art.

 

[vavavinny]

Sasha's edit is MUCH better than the cover. I LOVE the gorgeous saturated colors. So stunning! But still, there is nothing at all contemporary about the shoot. It is very dated. Right down to the poses. It looks like a Vreeland Vogue shoot on acid.

 

[pipoca]

"Moroccan Holiday" HQs




extracted by me from style.it

 

[mackos]

I'm not sure if I love the idea of studio shots mixed with the photos from real world, and I guess I don't. They could have at least shot the whole thing outside, now it's a bit weird and not only a little bit boring.

 

[stefanelle]

I'm also not such a big fan of the flower pattern on the cover, I'm kinda bored with it already. I love Sasha's editorial and the Supreme showcards inspriartion in it though The colours are so strong, that's gorgeous!

 

[XavierRaphael]

Finally an issue worth buying for 50$ Canadian!
The editorial is so well done, I could care less if it's already been done.
The colors are so vibrant and the styling DEAD on!
I'll surely be getting this!

 

[AD011620]

there is one thing... to me Sasha always looks good even more GREAT but is this cover good? No! I think all these "themes" that Meisel is playing around with for Vogue Italia become a bit boring.... and all these photo copies of famous paintings and themes... let's do just fashion for a change... I miss good FASHION editorials... with models showing clothes but not acting... some simplicity... I like acting but it is bit overwhelming these days... and if we want arty stuff there is an awful lot of arty+fashion magazines... anyway....

 

[tigerrouge]

The editorial is half-made of landscape clippings from Casa Vogue... it looks like Sasha was dressed up and shot against a cardboard background, and the landscape inserts were added to create the atmosphere.

Did they decide an actual location shot would be too much of a cliche? I think it would have been something to behold.

In theory, I like that Meisel is exploring an Arabian/Moorish theme in recent issues, but I haven't been inspired to keep him company on where he's going with it.

 

[mikel]

^If you want models just showing clothes, if you want some simplicity you should buy US Vogue. Meisel has been shooting for VI for 20 years know, you can't expect him to only shoot 'boring' studio eds. I don't see why it's boring that every month he comes up with something different... It's boring if he's doing the same thing every month!

 

[XavierRaphael]

Took the words right out my mouth^

 

[tigerrouge]

But there IS nothing experimental in the actual photography for this editorial - there are models wearing clothes against a very sparse background, that's it.

The landscape inserts have been added in the page layout stage, and if Meisel is directing this sort of collage design, to be honest, there are people out there who are much better at it.

Meisel is a master of studio photography, not putting silly effects on the front cover. I don't know why his Vogue Italia editorials are going this direction, his work doesn't need it (or shouldn't). Maybe he's bored with himself.