W Magazine January 2011 : Emma Stone and Garrett Hedlund by Inez and Vinoodh

[[J.]Oliver]

Just got my copy w/ Emma.. I realllly hope that I can find the issue w/ Garrett as well!

 

[mikel]

Lara's ed looks too dark.

Great to see Rineke Dijkstra in W.

 

[saann]

Rineke Dijkstra makes these girls look very special in a subtle way. I enjoy photographers that challenge me to see things differently & I'm happy to see her work in W.

W just keeps getting better & better. Tonchi is doing an amazing job.

I agree, it looks like he's finally found his place. The eds are really great and I think he should get credit for thinking outside the box with the cover choices even if they're not the best. and kudos for W for giving Emma Stone her first major fashion cover

 

[fincher]

girls look so cute. love the pic of Chloe.

 

[PoppyAzura]

Rineke Dijkstra makes these girls look very special in a subtle way. I enjoy photographers that challenge me to see things differently & I'm happy to see her work in W.

W just keeps getting better & better. Tonchi is doing an amazing job.

Agreed. W seems to be finding it's footing. Will def. pick up this issue.

 

[LesFauves]

Part of the problem with their cover choices is that, in some ways, they're a little ahead of the curve. Consider their September stars. Jennifer Lawrence was getting raves back then for her performance, but now she's almost a lock for an Oscar nomination. She would have been a smart choice for a January or February cover. Jessica Chastain, another September cover girl, has a lead role in the hotly anticipated Brad Pitt/Sean Penn/Terrence Malick movie "Tree of Life". Too bad it doesn't come out until may. I loved the two people on their October cover, but it would have been smarter to put them on the December or January cover, since the film is just now getting alot of buzz and they both have a shot at Oscar nominations. Emma Stone is a good choice, but why didn't they make it coincide with her hit movie Easy A or wait until the release of Spiderman, when she'll possibly become a household name. They're giving Rooney Mara the February cover. Smart, since she's about to be a big star, stupid because The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo doesn't come out until next December. Pre-mature choices.

Totally agree--thanks for articulating what I couldn't Their features department is KILLER at picking people to shoot, but the timing is absolutely horrible. Vogue actually has the best timing in terms of coordinating a movie release with a cover. So, what Tonchi is actually doing is priming these stars for OTHER magazines to then sell a lot of issues. And then the Kim Kardashian/Katherine Heigl choices were just random...

 

[Wolkfolk]

Really disappointed by Lara's ed, but the rest looks so good.
I especially love Spring Awakening, the styling is genius. And I love how they captured the girls in Little Women.

 

[antlox127]

I'm really loving this issue. I have started to appreciate the approach, after hating it.

 

[agee]

^^ W has a pitifully low circulation, that is not a situation that Tonchi created, it is what he inherited. I don't know if he has the option of getting access to these folks when their blockbuster movies hit and if he does, that means that the studios and publicists are going for a saturation strategy, so that actor is going to be on several other magazine covers and can W compete head-to-head with Vanity Fair, InStyle, Vogue, GQ, Cosmo, Glamour, People, Tatler, etc? I think that his options are to be ahead of the curve or behind it and he has chosen to be ahead of it.

The circulation issue is a valid concern and it depends on what the expectations of the suits are at Conde Nast, do they want W to be a prestige magazine a la Vogue Italia, because its circulation is piddly too (although my guess is that based on recent moves Franca is being told that she needs to boost her numbers) or a mainstream lifestyle and celebrity publication with a little fashion and artsy stuff thrown in. I suspect that he is hoping that his instincts in picking the next big thing are correct and then banking on people at some point realizing that those nobodies that he keeps putting on the cover are future somebodies and they will start buying the magazine because there are enough people out there who want to be the ones to say that they rented whatever obscure movie that the latest IT Boy / Girl appeared in and liked IT Boy / Girl before they hit it big. so the strategy seems to be next big thing plus naked Kim Kardashian and Heigl and Child and W occupies the cool niche in the Conde Nast portfolio.

 

[tigerrouge]

I suspect that he is hoping that his instincts in picking the next big thing are correct and then banking on people at some point realizing that those nobodies that he keeps putting on the cover are future somebodies and they will start buying the magazine.

Indeed, although you'd like to think that an editor wouldn't be spending their time hoping that people might get a certain impression over time - that's like being paid to do a lot of wishful thinking while money flows down a drain.

If any magazine were trying to sell themselves as such, I'd expect an active campaign to reposition the publication in people's minds, so that there's no mistake about what they're supposedly missing out on, by not rushing to get W every month.

We might pay attention to the press releases or the behind-the-scenes documentary - because we're interested in magazines in general - but to the average person passing by a shelf that's full of 101 other titles, have they grasped what W is now doing, and why they should be picking it up?

I like the way they've gone for young Hollywood, but the magazine needs to be unequivocal in its message about what it now represents - and to employ a smart publicity strategy through various means - to really wake people up to what agee is describing above. Get that right, and they won't need to resort to using a nude celebrity to ensure that someone notices the magazine.

 

[holaloha]

disappointing issue for me. The editorials really stink.

 

[AutomneRoi20]

Part of the problem with their cover choices is that, in some ways, they're a little ahead of the curve.

W ? Ahead of the curve really ? I don't understand how a fashion magazine that has accepted so easely to become Hollywood's device to maintain a dying star system can be considered ahead of the curve ! Every year now, it's reported in the movie press that there is no star system anymore, that audience will prefer a 3D animation, or a big action movie where actors are just extras than to support a bona fide star ! If you really are ahead of the curve, stop using actors to sell your magazine month after month ! IMO the fashion industry sells its soul to the movie industry. I love movies (well good ones) but i hate the intense marketing to get the best box-office the first week-end ! To win the race, the studios need a massive coverage and that's how they repeatedly use fashion magazines (between other medias). Tonchi's W is another proof of that, and yes, in term of timing, they're at the end of the list !

 

[KoV]

W ? Ahead of the curve really ? I don't understand how a fashion magazine that has accepted so easely to become Hollywood's device to maintain a dying star system can be considered ahead of the curve ! Every year now, it's reported in the movie press that there is no star system anymore, that audience will prefer a 3D animation, or a big action movie where actors are just extras than to support a bona fide star ! If you really are ahead of the curve, stop using actors to sell your magazine month after month ! IMO the fashion industry sells its soul to the movie industry. I love movies (well good ones) but i hate the intense marketing to get the best box-office the first week-end ! To win the race, the studios need a massive coverage and that's how they repeatedly use fashion magazines (between other medias). Tonchi's W is another proof of that, and yes, in term of timing, they're at the end of the list !

I think I outlined pretty clearly that by "ahead of the curve" I meant that in terms of celebrities, they put them on their covers before they're truly famous. Whereas Vogue US would NEVER put someone on the cover unless they're already a Movie Star. I'm saying that W under Tonchi has had some great people for their covers, but that they were features months or even a year before they're going to make it really big.

As for the thing about Movie Stars being a thing of the past, frankly I think it's a load of BS. When people try to generalize about what audiences like, they usually end up proven wrong. For example, now forecasters are saying that 3D was over-hyped and overused and audiences no longer want to pay the extra $. Then they'll come up with examples (The recent Narnia Movie) of 3D movies that underperformed to support this point. The problem is, there's also alot of 3D movies that are big hits. These statistics can be used to suit the agenda of whoever is speaking. Similarly, people hailing the end of movie stars can cite a Julia Roberts movie that wasn't a big hit, but what about a recent Sandra Bullock movie that WAS a big hit? What about every movie Will Smith has made in the last decade? What about the movie "Valentine's Day"? There's so many examples to support both side of the argument, but to me, Movie Stars are just as powerful and popular as ever. A fashion magazine with *insert random model* will never sell as well as a fashion magazine with *insert random movie star* on the cover. The public is still clearly fascinated with celebrity.

 

[masquerade]

The covers are drab but I love the contents so far. Little women and Major Tom look, well, major

 

[5nap5hot]

I&V= dreadful

 

[AutomneRoi20]

Movie Stars are just as powerful and popular as ever. A fashion magazine with *insert random model* will never sell as well as a fashion magazine with *insert random movie star* on the cover. The public is still clearly fascinated with celebrity.

I don't agree but i don't live in the US, i don't know how fascinated people are with actors there (It could be like England and the royalties) but the Sandra Bullock movie for which she had an academy award didn't even came out in France on theatres, no distributor wanted it ! I think movie stardom nowadays is just maintain by hard marketing. Anyway, i guess it's not the right thread to talk about that, is there any thread like "is fashion industry being spoiled by movie industry" or "movie industry and fashion industry a dangerous affair", or something like that ?

 

[VogueGirl8910]

I like the Lara's ed.

 

[tarsha]

New York Magazine about these covers...

W’s Strange Covers Continue

Since Stefano Tonchi started at W, covers have included a beleaguered-looking John Hamm, a lesbian almost-kiss, Kim Kardashian naked, and Katherine Heigl holding her tutu-wearing baby. For January we have two more odd covers: Emma Stone wearing a fringed bustier over a T-shirt and Tron star Garret Hedlund wearing leopard pants, nipples ablaze through his top. These images might be different from all the other major fashion magazine covers on newsstands, but they're starting to feel different just for the sake of being different.

Meanwhile,i there's plenty of good stuff inside the issues, like fun stories about Roberto Cavalli's eccentric table decorations, or in the new January issue, a shot of Joseph Altuzarra wearing a dress he designed that's been making its way around the blogs. And yet these covers make the magazine feel like it's trying to be weird, like a Numero or a Purple, but in a mass way. There's a reason fashion people's fashion magazines are not mass. If W put the kind of covers many magazines save for subscribers on the newsstands, they'd be different enough.

nymag

 

[Lanbim Cord]

^i REALLY don't get the hate about those leopard pants,it looks so awesome on him...and talking about the nipples...who cares?

 

[Pedro]

Jesus! what's going on with the design of this magazine? awful! it's hard to believe that Joseph Logan once worked for Vogue Paris under Fabien Baron direction...

I have the impression that the Lara feature was shot in a studio, anyone feels the same?