I find that British Vogue is not that consistant (in my opinion anyways.) I find the content normally is lacking and the shoots aren't all that inspiring to me (although the last two issues I have found them enjoyable and deffs marked down a lot of pages when it came to the editorials.) As for American Vogue, Anna you might be the don and I know celebs sell, but I dont want Gaga or SJP pon mi covers. Victoria Beckham and Cheryl Cole are bad enough. ANYWAY. Yeah. Back to what I was supposed to be blogging about. I pretty much LOVES French and Italian Vogue. Why? Because visually they draw me in more, theres so much more imagery, fuck the fact I cant read the text. The publications have the best and most respected and influential photographers and stylists working for them.
Now the stylists, the stylists/styling is the subject of my post, I apologize for my ramblings. Now earlier this year saw the departure of Carine Roitfeld as French Vogues Editor in Chief and saw Fashion Director Emmanuelle Alt step up to the plate as the new editor. Now I am a big big fan of Carine's Work pre French Vogue and during her time there, the work she did when she was a freelance stylist is just as cool. Her style is very sexed up and parisienne and your guaranteed nip action a lot of the time, but I like how she puts her own twist on things and how she takes risks like using unknown faces (AKA: Saskia De Brauw, who was spotted by Ricardo Tisci and put on Roitfeld's last issue, now the bitch shooed Abbey Lee from her spot as the Versace campaign girl for A/W. Nice one Carine...nice one.)
So when it came to her departure and someone filling in her place I think it was always going to be hard as she was so daring and controversial at times (Roitfeld's Dec 2010 issue using child models caused outrage and lets not forget the Andre J cover FIERCE!) When it came out that Emmanuelle Alt was to take over, reading blogs the main questions seemed to be what impact Alt would have on the magazine, and how she would put her mark on French Vogue.
I was eager to see as her style is very different from Carine's, it is more relaxed, effortless and rock n' roll (She was the stylist for Isabel Marant and Balmain before taking on her role as editor in chief...) So when I got her first issue as editor, looking at the editorials I was rather disappointed with hers it was in my eyes too predictable as she had picked out clothes from designers she used to work with and I felt it reflected her own personal style too much. Second mistake was the choice of outfit for her debut cover. Alt had picked out a Dolce & Gabbana that had already been featured on eight covers on less respected and less profiled magazines. For me her editorials didn't get much better and in her last issue I thought the only thing that saved the issue was the shoot Joe McKenna did, it made me think that it wasn't a complete waste of my money.
But this August issue I was surprised, I saw images created by Alt that I really liked. The one that really stood out for me was her first one out of the 64 page spread that was put together by her self and other respected stylists Melanie Ward and Suzanne Kelleret, was of Freja in Chanel A/W photographed in black and white with a little motley crew in tow. I feel her styling stood out the most and was the most consistent when it came to the amount of strong, well styled images. The only thing is that the styling was still just a little too reflective of her own, and Freja is an obvious choice for a rock and roll look, with her being compared to looking like Jim Morrison with her androgynous looks and her boy like body. But it seems Emmanuelle Alt is maybe feeling a bit more confident and slightly coming into her own a little bit.
I think my first opinion of her when she first took over was a little too quickly formed and irrational. I didn't stand back and think about the fact she had to take on the role after someone so influential and someone who had been at the helm of the magazine for ten years previous and who had been responsible for its turn around and becoming the influential publication it is today. Hopefully this will progress continue and Alt will eventually become more confident and continue to smash out images like the ones in this months Vogue over time.
