Vogue Japan October 2023 : Mona Tougaard by Hugo Comte

[ERIKIMISUN]

 

[matheus_s]

Hmmm ok

 

[fenty]

STUNNING I love seeing fashion through Hugo's lens and Mona looks amazing

 

[FashionFanatico]

Looks like Meisel on a budget for me.
And the obvious lightening of Monas skin tone just makes me angry.

 

[GivenchyAddict]

I really don’t like this girl… but this is the best since Tiffany is the HOC.

 

[Benn98]

I'm also getting budget Meisel vibes, and it's definitely 'budget' because neither Meisel nor his successor Ethan would ever retouch their work in such a sloppy way. Just look at the artifice in the last shot. Don't know why they'd lighten her skin (if it's true, I don't care for this model so I don't know for a fact) because it made everything look beige, and not in a glossy way.

I will say that the cover composition is perfect, and if I have to reach, the fur hat makes it quirky. Something the Japanese will appreciate.

 

[ERIKIMISUN]

I'm also getting budget Meisel vibes, and it's definitely 'budget' because neither Meisel nor his successor Ethan would ever retouch their work in such a sloppy way. Just look at the artifice in the last shot. Don't know why they'd lighten her skin (if it's true, I don't care for this model so I don't know for a fact) because it made everything look beige, and not in a glossy way.

I will say that the cover composition is perfect, and if I have to reach, the fur hat makes it quirky. Something the Japanese will appreciate.

I agree too.
I don't like the color of the pictures.
I think the cover page is the best among all of them.

 

[kokobombon]

When I saw the title my first thought was that it was great that a woc was on the cover of an eastern asian magazine as they´re infamous known racists in general but after seeing the cover and specially the editorial... jesus, the skin lightning also, not her best work posing wise imo but overall I´d take this over what we´re seeing in other Vogues.

 

[mikel]

Indeed budget Meisel. But also 90s Demarchelier for Vogue Italia. I’m getting shades of Yasmeen Ghauri.

 

[lanvinray]

Better than their September issue for sure

 

[Ivancica]

She reminded me a bit of Jourdan Dunn on the cover.
Oh - how I wish it was Jourdan Dunn.

 

[onlooker]

The lighting made the photos look...old?

 

[badgalcrush]

Ed is ok cover choice is terrible

 

[avonlea002]

I don't see any Meisel in these pictures.

 

[bluebanter]

they've totally flattened out her bone structure w/ that lighting and retouching.

 

[FashionFanatico]

who think it's chic to wear a dead animal on the head?

the extended white-washing of her roots leaves a bad aftertaste too.

 

[tigerrouge]

I like it because this girl has been gifted with those high fashion proportions I never tire of seeing, but her capacity for facial expression is never on the same level.

Speaking of Jourdan Dunn, when I was going through my magazines the other day, I realised that we might have seen Jourdan slightly more often on Shulman's covers than Edward's so far (Summer supplement cover of Jun 2009, actual covers Nov 2008 and Feb 2015 vs Nov 2019).

 

[oaklee91]

Love everything. Especially the yellow, so friendly to the eyes.

 

[Deleted member 141523]

I hope they're back to the old VJ glamorous identity now.

 

[Phuel]

They didn’t “lighten” her skin as some insidious white-washing rejection of her natural complexion LOL Her skin is lightened as both results of the entire shoot being brightened by overexposure, and as a result of Hugo and/or whoever was hired to retouch the selects, being unskilled, inexperienced and more than typical of these lesser days, just lazy to actually retouch with finesse. It's amateur retouchers overdoing it with PS’s Dodge tool; a tool often used as an easy way out to erase unwanted blemishes/wrinkles/lines quickly. Unfortunately, when used on dark/darker skin, it will inevitably lighten the complexion, and as @bluebanter noted, the telltale signs of the heavy-handed Dodge tool use is that her bone structure is flattened to a pancake dimension LMFAO

The shoot is dated mid-2000 catalogue-fodder, but this is admittedly the best covershot VJ has produced since their rebranding. Then again, is it that hard to beat out Uniqlo catalogue product shots?