Vogue Philippines October 2022 : Ica Dy by Koji Arboleda

[oaklee91]

Wadidaw!!!

 

[Bernie Flood]

Are they featuring mostly Filipino designers?!

this giving me some Vogue Taiwan vibes. I like it

 

[crmsn]

They are.

Yes, it's also giving me Vogue Taiwan. As much as how most Filipinos loathe this edition for featuring non-Filipina looking models on their first two covers (that I totally disagree with since Chloe Magno looks like a typical Filipina to me), their cover editorials have been strong. I hope they keep up their momentum.

 

[Phuel]

The cover select is so awkward. Her raised arm just looks so… mangled. It’s simply a poor cropping. Wished they at least had kept the cover along the lines of the inaugural issue: Classic and effortlessly glamorous shot on location.

Vogue isn’t even Vogue anymore these days. And a new, smaller Vogue could have had that opportunity to showcase their region’s talent and distinct vision. Instead, this just looks like an extension of Mega Magazine— oddly, even down to the monochromatic pink color-palette of both issues’ October covers. Weird.

The coverstory is solidly shot and produced— both artistically and technically; a tad way too much CGI for my preference but it's skillfully implemented. And that’s a rarity these days in the era of technical-incompetence and the absence of a creative eye, and all in the name of representation and new guard etc etc. Just unfortunate that as beautiful as the visuals are, there’s no fashion that's remotely aspiration on display: It would make a compelling campaign for Ica’s dance troupe tho. There’s such a disconnect between the coverstory and the filler fashion content. Had it been an issue that’s a tribute to dance— both classical Western and classical native in the Philippines, with the fashion stories carrying that concept, it would have showcased the country’s diverse talents, and fashions. The best story is a feature on Olivier Theyskens.

 

[Bertrando3]

I don't like her arm like this and so huge on the cover but the face/pose/colors are working very well for me

 

[crmsn]

my snap

I just finished reading this issue. Phuel pretty much explained some pertinent points above. Like last month, this issue features more articles than photo shoots. I'm kinda disappointed that it just has three editorials inside, but what a great cover story. I've seen Koji's works before, and I must say that he's the perfect choice for this particular concept.

I couldn't care less about In the Loop as it looks substandard, but Chameleon is surprisingly times better in print. It's gorgeous!

One more thing: I hope that the colors they chose on their Contents pages are purely coincidental as they've been panned enough for not featuring tan-skinned girls on their pages.

 

[Bernie Flood]

They are.

Yes, it's also giving me Vogue Taiwan. As much as how most Filipinos loathe this edition for featuring non-Filipina looking models on their first two covers (that I totally disagree with since Chloe Magno looks like a typical Filipina to me), their cover editorials have been strong. I hope they keep up their momentum.

The EIC of Vogue Taiwan is the editorial director of Vogue APEC

 

[Phuel]

One more thing: I hope that the colors they chose on their Contents pages are purely coincidental as they've been panned enough for not featuring tan-skinned girls on their pages.

Very curious how the next few issues have to offer in terms of their castings.

Without getting into Asian cultures’ long, deeply-ingrained discrimination against their own darker-skin population, I’m genuinely taken back that the Philippines team didn’t seem to have had the foresight to push such representation front and centre with their Vogue (more so especially since Filipino representation is next to zero in any other Vogues or any other Western fashion publications). Here is the opportunity for them to showcase the diversity of modern beauty standards of their country— and they… just didn’t. Hopefully it’s just fashion people being fashion people (… being dumb), and not a deliberate act of furthering the old status quo. ...Cuz being “diverse and inclusive” really should start with your very own people.