Jezebel
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mag hag
5 Possible Reasons Why Women's Magazine Sales Are Plummeting
Over on Portƒolio's site today, Jeff Bercovici reports that many of the major women's magazines sales are down for the first half of the year. And not just by a little bit: We're talking double-digit numbers. The newsstand average of Glamour dropped 10%; Marie Claire fell 11%, Vogue and Teen Vogue both slumped 15% and poor O, The Oprah Magazine tumbled 16%. We can't claim to know why these publications aren't doing well and losing hundreds of thousands of readers. But we can venture an educated guess! Some theories, after the jump. More » -
MagHag
Guess what? That "LeBron Kong" issue of Vogue bombed on newsstands, Portƒolio reports. The issue sold 350,000 copies, well below last year's average of 452,000. Hopefully the powers that be won't decide that black people don't sell issues. Seriously: Could it be that Vogue readers don't care about LeBron James? In any case, the issue with Gwyneth Paltrow looking like a zombie robot sold even fewer copies: 310,000 — making it the worst of the year so far. Perhaps Anna Wintour really should outsource her job? [Portƒolio]
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the best of both worlds
Is Tween Titillation More Offensive Than Casual Racism?
First Miley Cyrus spoke out about her pictures for Vanity Fair, saying she was "embarrassed." The famed photographer Annie Leibovitz defended her shoot, saying I'm sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted... The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little make-up, and I think it is very beautiful." Then, "sources" close to Miley's father Billy Ray Cyrus swore that Billy Ray left the shoot before the seemingly-topless pictures were taken and never would have allowed them. Next to chime in? Michael Roberts, the fashion and style director of Vanity Fair, who styled the shoot. "I'm European. I come from London, I lived in Paris, and I just find it extraordinary that this has been blown up like this," he tells WWD. "The whole kiddie porn prurient angle seems to be worryingly sour grapes from other magazines that didn't get a picture like this..." Oh, the "you're just jealous" argument. A classic! More » -
rag trade
Frances Bean Cobain: Modeling For Chanel?
- Frances Bean Cobain is rumored to be the next face of Chanel. That's hot. And also crazy. Oh, Karl. [Vogue UK]
- Louis Vuitton has postponed indefinitely its "China Run" car rally, which was originally scheduled to take place in late May with a route from Chengdu and Kunming. Reason? Um, it's not exactly cool to be supporting China's blatant disregard for human rights right now and France is all pissed re: the Olympics etc etc. [WWD, sub req'd]
- Also, Yohji Yamamoto wants to teach China about Peace and improve relations though the country and his native Japan through his new Yohji Yamamoto Fund For Peace. This will mainly involve fashion shows. Of course. [WWD, sub req'd]
- Also China's on the warning list for counterfeiting shit. Oh, China. [WWD, sub req'd]
- Tommy Hilfiger, ambiguously racist? Says the designer, "[W]e feel that with our European-influenced approach, the sophisticated and higher level of quality and fashion somehow reaches the type of people who represent the brand very well... Ten years ago it was positioned with a lot of red, white and blue and a lot of logos and you would look at these street kids wearing the clothes as billboards." [FT]
- Frances Bean Cobain is rumored to be the next face of Chanel. That's hot. And also crazy. Oh, Karl. [Vogue UK]
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MagHag
Mainstream media outlets have picked up on the controversial "LeBron Kong" Vogue cover. Magazine analyst Samir Husni believes the photo was deliberately provocative, adding that it "screams King Kong." (It's Kong's 75th anniversary, interestingly.) He notes: "When you have a cover that... brings those stereotypes to the front, black man wanting white woman, it's not innocent." In the Guardian, Michael Eboda asks: "Are the critics trying too hard to find something that is not there? Or when [photographer Annie] Leibovitz peeped at James through her viewfinder did she decide to reconstruct the stereotypes of the old movie poster?" (Meanwhile, a tipster sent in a piece of WWI propaganda that also invokes the Vogue cover, click the picture to see. ) [USA Today, Guardian]
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body issues
Is Fashion The Sports Of Chicks? And If So, Isn't That Kind Of Scary?
The obvious implication of putting Gisele and Lebron James on the cover of Vogue's "Shape issue" is that fashion is the female equivalent of sports. Well, no, scratch that, it's not so much the implication as the explicit premise: "Gisele Bundchen," the story explains, is "the Lebron James of fashion modeling." As Vogue premises go, it's actually a fairly logical one. Modeling and athletics are the two fields wherein one can preposterous financial returns primarily on the basis of one's genes, and by genes I mean "bodies," and bodies are what the "shape" issue is about. Sure, the ideals are different: as Gisele points out, Lebron's foot is the size of her calf. In sports you have to work and train and psych yourself up and psych your opponents out and in modeling you basically have to deprive yourself of food and snort coke. But what's really so different about the two things? Since we all have to wear clothes, sports are arguably more pointless, unless you look at it as just sort of the "pornography" of warcraft — though don't we have videogames for that now? Whatev. It didn't totally hit me until I saw the whole Annie Leibowitz-shot spread, which matches up models up athletes and supermodels. More » -
maghag
Is Vogue's "LeBron Kong" Cover Offensive?
Have you heard? There's a black man on the cover of the April 2008 Vogue. (Richard Gere and George Clooney are the only other men ever to be on the cover, reports Time magazine.) Vogue does not have a history of embracing African-Americans on its covers. Back in November, Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici pointed out that while 4 out of 12 covers of Men's Vogue had black men; when Jennifer Hudson hit the cover of Vogue last March, she was only the third African-American celebrity to do so, though the magazine was founded in 1914. But on the cover of new issue, Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James seems to be embodying ugly stereotypes about black men: The wild, savage, white-woman-obsessed beast. More » -
rag trade
Holy Itshay, What Is That Big Black Man Doing On The Cover Of Vogue?!
- Gisele appears on the cover of the April Vogue with...Lebron James. This is may seem like an historic event on par with, say, a black president, but that would belie how far we've come as a nation, revealed by the dead-first comment reacting to the news on our brother blog Deadspin: "That cover would have been much more fantastic if he had been dressed a la Andre french vogue. Oh Anna, Anna, Anna." Our take: Lebron probably exercises more influence over footwear and apparel sales than Anna Wintour and Gisele and Karl Lagerfeld combined. If Vogue really wanted to think outside the (heh) box, they'd make over Lebron's mom. [Deadspin]
- Christian Siriano update: found backers for his clothing line, had a fit meeting with Victoria Beckham yesterday, taping Leno tonight, and is slated for an Ugly Betty cameo. Surely nothing like this could end in anticlimax and obscurity? [WWD, 2nd item]
- Karl Lagerfeld on the just-opened Chanel Mobile Art pavillion: "It's a building, but also an object at the same time. It's like a sculpture you can walk in." [WWD, sub req'd]
- Reese Witherspoon is the face of the new U by Ungaro fragrance, being licensed by Avon. Do you care? You so care, don't you. [WWD, sub req'd]
- Gisele appears on the cover of the April Vogue with...Lebron James. This is may seem like an historic event on par with, say, a black president, but that would belie how far we've come as a nation, revealed by the dead-first comment reacting to the news on our brother blog Deadspin: "That cover would have been much more fantastic if he had been dressed a la Andre french vogue. Oh Anna, Anna, Anna." Our take: Lebron probably exercises more influence over footwear and apparel sales than Anna Wintour and Gisele and Karl Lagerfeld combined. If Vogue really wanted to think outside the (heh) box, they'd make over Lebron's mom. [Deadspin]
