Extreme Close-Up: Interview’s Cover Conundrum

Interview’s August cover of Marion Cotillard hit the web yesterday, and while there’s no doubting it’s a beautiful image (it’s pretty difficult to make Marion Cotillard look bad), it strictly conforms to Interview’s standard cover composition: a tight shot of a woman’s face in a black, white, and red palette.
Including Marion’s cover, Interview’s past three covers, Megan Fox, Madonna, and Carey Mulligan all follow this basic composition. Out of their nine 2009 covers, six are female close ups in white, black, or red. We can’t help but wonder, why?





Interview markets itself as a hip celebrity magazine, founded by Pop god Andy Warhol and John Wilcock in 1969. Its Andy-approved covers ranged from poloroid-esque snapshots of celebs holding strange objects on a white background, to brightly colored pop portraits. Interview has attained an iconic status, not only from its heritage, but also because its unconventional format makes it a fun and insightful read. But nowadays Interview is veering further away from the realm of pop culture into women’s fashion mag territory.



Six of Interview’s 2010 covers so far are women, and nine of their ten 2009 issues were women as well. We know girls rule, boys drool, but we’d like to see some guys get the Interview cover treatment. The number of guys covering Interview is dwindling, down from three in 2008, to one in 2009, and so far only Jay-Z in 2010.

Also we’d like to see someone on the cover looking maybe just a little happy to be there. Less whitewashed doll face, a little more this please.

Why Do the Clothes in the Victoria’s Secret Catalogue Look So Tarty?

For years I have been flipping through the clothing section of the Victoria’s Secret catalog and wondering, “Who the hell styles these clothes?” I cannot hold my tongue anymore and must ask this question aloud.

I got my weekly VS catalog in the mail yesterday. While absentmindedly looking for underwear on sale, I stopped to actually look at the pictures of the clothes. I have a few thoughts.

Victoria’s Secret may possibly be the only company that can make cargo pants look slutty. But if you look beyond the stiletto heels and stretchy bustiers that they’re inevitably paired with, they are kinda cute! And they’re cheap! I just find it difficult to get past all the cleavage to actually look at the individual pieces.

I understand that VS is primarily a lingerie company. But I think they’re doing a disservice to the clothes by having the models pose with their T&A up and out. It feels a bit icky and makes me to turn the page. The company has some nice trendy basics–like burnout tees—but the styling makes everything feel a bit cheap and slightly off-trend.

A bit of restraint, a few less embellished bustiers, and some Jenna Lyons-style layering would make me look twice.

Do you buy Victoria’s Secret clothes? And how do you wear them?

HypnoLangsing – The Introduction

HypnoLangsing – The Introduction: "HypnoLangsing? Can you be hypnotized to be slim? I bet that’s the question running through your mind right now when reading the title of this post right? Well I’m going to tell you the answer to that in a while, I promise. Just read on. I first heard about HypnoLangsing from a friend about a [...]"

Will Flats Ever Replace Heels?

Will Flats Ever Replace Heels?: "There seems to be no end toward the debate whether women should choose a pair of heels or flats. Many pros and cons are thrown by the heels and flats lovers alike. Which pair is actually more appropriate for women to be used on daily basis? You can probably say that I’ve been taking sides [...]"

Easy Beauty Tips to get rid of Dark Circles

Easy Beauty Tips to get rid of Dark Circles: "Get rid of the dark under eye circles and refresh your skin with simple and easy homemade beauty tips."

Natalie Massenet shows us how Net-a-Porter works its magic

LONDON, United Kingdom — Natalie Massenet wowed them. Thousands of people tuned in for our second FASHION PIONEERS event — literally from all corners of the earth — joining the 200 strong sell-out crowd packed tightly into the stadium seating theatre in Net-a-Porter’s 44,000 square foot headquarters in West London. Throughout the evening and afterwards, questions and commentary came in quickly via our hashtag #BoFLive, reflecting on all of the inspiring things Ms. Massenet had to say.

The discussion touched on all the hot topics from the Net-a-Porter hive and beyond, including Mr Porter, the Richemont acquisition, bloggers vs. editors, the outdated fashion cycle, and more. But the undoubted highlight of the evening was the unveiling of the Net-a-Porter iPad application — a global BoF exclusive — via a 3 minute film screened to both livestream viewers and the live audience. As the announcement of the iPad application’s launch was made, a few enterprising audience members were already downloading the application, which had just been added to Apple’s iTunes store.

As for the BoF editorial team, we are still in reflective mode — there was a lot to take in from the rich discussion. So while we compile the edited highlights of the 60 minute conversation with Natalie (thank you for your patience!) and compose our thoughts on the key takeaways, we wanted to share an exclusive video which was screened at the beginning of the night’s festivities, providing a sneak peek behind-the-scenes to see exactly how Net-a-Porter works its magic, in the voice of its inspiring founder. (Email and RSS Subscribers, you can see the video here.)

We will be posting a video with the highlights of the interview next week, so stay tuned! And thanks again to our wonderful streaming partners who helped to make the event a global one, the amazing team at Net-a-Porter, and of course, Natalie Massenet.

Fashion Pioneers was brought to you exclusively by The Business of Fashion and was filmed by Pundersons Gardens