It’s that time of year again…time to get your wrists in training for the semi-annual trek from the mag stand.
The March issues are upon us.
The magazine industry has been under a lot of fire lately and the relevancy of tomes such as Vogue in particular, are in question.
Being part of a global fashion village (more than ever before – with the prevalance of blogs and social media), I thought it would be interesting to compare international Vogue covers this month, to see how each country attempted to captivate us in print, for Spring.
Notice that both Vogue Spain and Vogue Brazil used different photographers but the look is quite similar – earth tones, dirty blonde hair, page composition – heads covering the same letters in the deck.
Vogue Portugal used similar tones as well, but punched up the monochrome with contrasting text and went for a striking, action-packed shot of Kasia Struss. Orange and yellow are big colours for Spring and those are the perfect shades of both.
US Vogue went for all-American girl, Tina Fey for their March cover girl. She’s a great choice, but choice of photo is bland and boring for such an interesting personality.
Using one of the inside editorial shots – and dare I say it – in black and white (!) would have been revolutionary on this side of the fashion ocean.
Imagine this image of Tina instead, with a red deck and white and blue teaser text. (Anna, call me?)
It’s no surprise that both the Italian and Paris Vogue editions opted for full-on glamour and minimal text to capture our attention. I have to say, though, that I am getting slightly tired of Meisel covers for the Italian mag.
Rose Cordero rocks the Paris issue, however, and the colours are spectacular. Bonjour burgundy lips!
Also note that both the Brazilian and French issues highlight the army green trend for Spring.
I couldn’t get over the similarity of these next two shots – taken by different photographers.
Spain cover girl, Anja Rubik appears again for Vogue Nippon – just not as classy or natural. I found both this and the Vogue Russia covers tasteless and tabloid-like.
Abbey Lee Kershaw also shows up on Vogue Oz – with a friend in tow.
Such a great use of colour and fonts on that one.
Vogue China brought two friends, and so on, and so on…for a cover entitled Fashion Forward.
[If you are having a deja vu from this cover, I’ll tell you why soon.]
British Vogue is always fashion forward, in my humble opinion and this month is no exception with girl of the moment, Alexa Chung.
As always, the look is rock star, edgy and something about their covers always says we can’t be fussed to make it perfect – but it usually is pretty close to perfect.
It’s a busy cover, but I’d still pick it up because the clothes (minus the shoes!) are well, perfect.
My fave Vogue cover this month? It has to be Vogue Germany by a mile. It’s retro and modern at the same time.
Black and white with a (literal) splash of colour is a wonderful combination and it captures that feeling. You know the one – where your eyes meet it on the mag stand, you pick it up (a fresh one from mid-pile of course), it’s the one for you and you have to take it home to bed this instant!
That doesn’t happen much with mags any more these days. A girl can’t be too careful…with her mag dollars.
[To those of you who noticed that the object of my constant affection, Vogue India was missing from this post, the March issue isn’t out yet. Indian Standard Time and all that. Look for it in this space as soon as the magazine-walla delivers it.]
