STACY LOMMAN : NEW YORK - Luxury Apparel

STACY LOMMAN : NEW YORK  -  Luxury Apparel

2.21.2011

Gaga for March Vogue... Sort Of, But Not So Much!

Ah, March magazine time is here!  I can remember when I first discovered Vogue.  I could not wait to dive into those pages and get lost in the world inside.  I had a ritual.  I am not patient, so I had to do a quick flip-through to get a peek at some of the content so that I knew what I was in store for the next hour.  Then, I settled into a comfy position on my bed and turned the magazine over and started with the back cover.  All of the fashion spreads are at the back of the magazines anyway.  And years ago, fashion magazines chose fashion models, not actresses to grace their covers -- imagine that!

*Alexa Singer
 looks pretty and she's not polluted with captions
I particularly love the grocery sticker on the upper corner... $2.84! 
But, perhaps the best part is the back cover -- a cigarette ad!

Choosing to feature Lady Gaga on the cover of the March issue of Vogue is a nice break from an actress.  I'm sick to death of the same faces month after month on my favorite fashion magazines.  I swear, if they had put Kate Hudson on the cover, I think I may have boycotted American Vogue forever.  And by forever, I mean a few months because after all, it's VOGUE and I am loyal to the end.  Anyway, I buy the March and September issues without fail, but this time I was especially drawn in by the cover.  Gaga's soft and drapey ivory dress, ivory skin and powdery pink, sharply bobbed wig sits so beautifully atop the minty green-grey textured ground -- kind of Tamara de Lempicka meets Marie Antoinette.  Sublime.

March Vogue's beautiful cover shot by Mario Testino

Okay, so far so good, right?  Well, unfortunately for me, that's pretty much where the goodness ended.  First of all, the huge caption on the cover, "574 Pages of Showstopping Spring Fashion" is a lie (or a clever ploy to sell a magazine).  The entire issue is 574 pages -- the "showstopping fashion" starts on page 469!  So, we have to get through 468 pages of advertisements, fragrance inserts, a few articles nobody takes the time to read, more advertisements, a few pages of celebrity pix, more advertisements... Perhaps the worst offender is Tommy Hilfiger who purchases huge real estate in every magazine in the world.  This issue contains six full pages of Tommy's preppy country clubbers on a tennis court, by a pool, on the golf course.  And he paid for the extra thick, crispy pages so that the magazine keeps automatically popping open to that spot.  Annoying!  I usually rip them out and throw them away along with the subscription cards that fall out like confetti.

Christy Turlington looking divine in Louis Dell'Olio for Anne Klein - Vogue, March 1986

I managed to flip through the first 468 pages at lightening speed anxious to get to the "showstopping fashion."  Let's just say, March Vogue did not blow me away.  Have I just become too jaded after years and years of reading countless magazines?  Am I expecting too much?  I don't know, but I was truly disappointed to see a spread with Amber Valletta dressed like a glam Italian housewife with big hair posing like a statue... if I've seen it once, I've seen it a hundred times.  I didn't really notice the clothes, although, the photography and colors were quite pretty.  On to the "Punk'd" section.  Not bad.  It is what it is.  Freja Behar in Givenchy... perfection.  Next up, Karen Elson in the woods.  Again, I feel like I've seen this type of shoot over and over again.  Some of the clothes were nice.  Lovely photography.  The baby goats were cute.  The last section, "Rebel Rebel" was, at least, a nice selection of pieces photographed simply to showcase the garments. 


Left: Freja Behar in Givenchy as featured in March 2011 Vogue
Right: Gorgeous Christy Turlington on the pages of March Vogue, 1986

Finally, that brings us to page 513 which marks the end of the showstopping fashion.  Gaga's article starts on page 514, followed by Burberry's, Christopher Bailey and a few more articles.  Oh, then there is a tiny section at the end featuring some printed spring dresses.  I almost didn't notice it.  I suppose if I would have started at the back of the book, like I used to, I would have been much better off!!

*5.19.10 -- correction the cover model is Alexa Singer, not Isabella Rossellini as I previously thought.  Thank you Marc for bringing it to my attention!

8 comments:

  1. i am so opposite of you...i won't flip through it at all...i start from pg 1 and move through it page by page...do you read the last page of a book as well?? haha...

    i ahve to agree with you...i thought it was just me...and my mass consumption of fashion magazines...but i've been feeling like there is nothing new as well...and WAY too many advertisements...i want more fashion...is that too much to ask for?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was willing to lug any Vogue with me all day, not minding that a French and Italian mixed with our own September issue would way about twelve pounds. It's become too institutional for my taste and yet advertising revenue, the same old same old, is up. How fresh can a 7800.00 ensemble really be? The photography, unless it's one of Grace's decadently extravagant other-worldly (we don't loll on green grass in cream silk do we) is so usual. Neither stark and demanding or gently loving and somehow the attempts to be cool, rather like Barney's Designer Floor, is stilted and off. Vogue doesn't need to do cute - it's Vogue. Celebrities lack that thing that top models have - the ability to wear fashion.

    On the other hand, loving the little intimate portraits and interviews in Interview again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love this! I'm really OCD. I must read every page, in full, startig from the first page. Longing for the pretty spreads. And, natch, I care as much about the price of the pieces as the gorgeousness or lack-therof. I love screaming out: OMG, those leggings are 3000 bucks!

    I also love it when I recognize the pieces by designer. That isn't something that happened very often when I was a younger reader.

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOVED the cover, was bored by everything inside. Maybe I'm just jaded?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I just walked into my office to see it sitting on my chair. The cover is gorgeous, and Gaga of course, can wear it. But I thought The September Issue really hit home the fact that most celebrities can't carry a cover. Supermodels are supes for a reason, they make everything look amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have not bought this issue - but I have mostly been reading their very well designed site online. The massive advertising does drive me a bit crazy!

    ReplyDelete
  7. So, it's still waiting for me in my stack of to be read glossies...Should I pass?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I still haven't looked at the issue, but I'm all ready to approach it with your viewpoint in mind. I'm surprised the page count is so high, given the current climate and how many advertisers cut back on their insertions, but I can now assume that Tommy Hilfiger is responsible for the thickness of the issue! LOL>>

    ReplyDelete