Vogue September 2011

To many, Vogue magazine has become a fashion bible; the coveted September issue that will guide the fashionable inclined through the trends to style salvation. Of course I enjoy reading the September issue just as much as the next self proclaimed fashion blogger and enthusiast. However, this year's issue was anti-climatic. 

To be frank, I didn't grow up with the Kate Moss model mayhem. I've read enough tabloid websites to know her past and the excitement and somewhat surprise over her decision to get married. But, reading a 5-6 page article that described in full detail her wedding, right down to the food, as the cover story is just kind of uninspiring to me. Especially her dressed up in a demure, renaissance inspired dress on the cover. This is September 2011?

Anna Wintour write's in her Editor's Letter that she believes "Experience . . . counts for everything." So it seemed only natural to her to place Kate Moss, an experienced, albeit boring, model on the cover.

The angelic wedding party.

Vogue magazine is supposed to inspire it's readers into fashion, guide it's readers through the popular trends, and exemplify the progress fashion is making. How does Kate Moss exemplify that? Does she exemplify beauty? Sure she does. Does she exemplify experience? Absolutely. Does she exemplify forward fashion? No, I think not. She is everything of the past, and nothing of the future, which her entire wedding piece was about, recreating the Great Gatsby.

The dress as pictured with creator,  John Galliano.

Although the fashion is divine, and the pictures are down right gorgeous, I believe that there must have been a better cover story out there. I even feel as though Vogue may have missed the story altogether. Moss had recently fashion exiled designer John Galliano design her dress, stating "She dared me to be John Galliano again." Although I do not condone or agree with Galliano's very public and very racist comments, I felt very compelled by his story of how he made Moss's dress, and what he has been going through as a designer who has been blacklisted within the fashion community. I might have felt more inspired at an experienced designer who is overcoming something difficult in his life. 

I just have a bone to pick with Wintour's "experience counts for everything" comment. Sometimes, experience doesn't count for everything. Sure, having experience in something gives you a kind of expertise or credential that might not be there if you didn't have the experience. But let's take Wintour's experience, 23 years as Editor in Chief of Vogue magazine, and yet she can't seem to use her experience to give us a better cover and story.


Isn't inexperience what makes fashion fun, exciting, and new? What inspires the "experienced"? I think it's time someone less experienced takes the reigns at Vogue.  

RB.