3 photos in galleryI just never think of Vogue as trying to target people who want to make their tendinitis sexy. … Wait, hang on, that might be exactly what Vogue‘s target demo is. Never mind.
Loading ...[Photos: Vogue]
Fug File: Vogue
Fug or Fab the Cover: Keira Knightley
Loading ...Fug file: Fug The Cover, Photos, Hot Right Now, Vogue, Keira Knightley
Well Played Cover: Lady Gaga
You guys may think I’m insane for this, but I have to say, this is super effective for me.
I know we get cranky about covers where the subjects don’t really look recognizably themselves, but here’s why I think that’s an asset here: 1) We’ve gotten to the point where who the hell KNOWS or REMEMBERS what Lady Gaga even looks like anymore; 2) I have complete and total Gaga fatigue, and I don’t think I’m alone in that; 3) seeing her on this cover made me interested instead of eye-rolly, because the silhouette is so striking, the color is majestic, and I don’t think I’ve seen her like this in a long time. I practically forgot she even HAD a face. It makes me faintly curious about her again, which I never thought would happen, and that is about the only way you’re likely to get me to pick up a five-pound magazine and bring it home. Sure, it hasn’t WORKED — the odds of me actually doing that are slimmer than her waist in this picture; I only barely have patience for free weights in the gym, and I have enough doorstops — but they got me about as close as I was going to get, by convincing me maybe there was something to see in here that I hadn’t already looked at a thousand times. Mission accomplished, I think.
Fug file: Fug The Cover, Well Played, Vogue, Lady Gaga
Fug the Photoshoot: Glee
Dear Conde Nast:
[Click here if you want to see this in its ginormous glory.]
I understand the intense drive to Use the Magic of Computers to create a photo that Is Perfect. But you know that the over-reliance on Photoshop in the place of what used to be called JUST TAKING AN AWESOME PICTURE has turned photos like these into Frankenstein’s Monsters, right? No one’s legs are properly attached. People’s heads are just cut from one shoot and plopped into another. Like, Chord Overstreet back there? It looks like you just grabbed a rejected pic from his Teen Vogue shoot and pasted it into this one. Not a single person in this shot looks like they were ever in the same room as any other person in this shot. Dianna Agron is missing a leg and looks like a robot. Ashley Fink is a floating head in a top hat (no comment on the fact that it’s somewhat suspect that the plus size girl is stuck in the back where we can’t see her body at all, except I totally just made that comment). (And LOTS of comments on the fact that apparently Naya Rivera and Amber Riley were unable to make the shoot, which was then apparently not rescheduled to accommodate them. Look, I get that coordinating a shoot like this is probably a logistical clusterf…er, fiasco, but I also would just like to suggest that Vogue would be well-advised to be sensitive to the fact that they aren’t exactly known for featuring women of color and it might be in their best interests to make an effort to highlight the diversity of Glee‘s cast. Especially because Vogue is becoming increasingly obsolete for the sort of woman who used to read it regularly: AKA people who like outfits in general but who aren’t Eating-Breathing-Sleeping Fashion. You guys, when the economy is in the toilet, and the toilet is ON FIRE, maybe you shouldn’t even pretend to care if pretending to care takes the form of a feature called “Steal of the Month” and a “steal” is often, like, a $200 tee shirt. A $200 tee shirt IS NOT A STEAL WHY ARE YOU EVEN PRETENDING YOU KNOW ABOUT DEALS? MY GOD.) Anyway. Where was it? Oh, right: this picture! It’s SO manipulated in post that it doesn’t even look real, and because it doesn’t even look real, it utterly lacks charm. Slight imperfections are what make group photos charming — why do you think people post their old class photos on Facebook?
In short, Y’ALL NEED TO GET A GRIP AND PUT DOWN THE PASTE FEATURE.
Thank you for your kind attention,
Jessica
Fug file: Fugs, Fug the Photoshoot, Glee, Hot Right Now, Vogue
@lzbtheiae 
Fug or Fab the Cover: Rihanna
This is the first time in a long time that I’ve looked at Vogue and thought the cover was compelling. The “I Love to Have Fun” pull-quote feels like it ought to be on the cover of Seventeen, but Rihanna is killing it in that dress and — as Tyra would say — she has mastered the art of the smize. In fact, I assume Tyra is reading this issue at home (eating nachos and wearing a caftan, because in my imagination that is how Tyra rolls off-hours) and talking about smizing RIGHT NOW.
[Photo: Vogue.com]
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