The Death of Fashion and the Fashion Model

When I saw Paris and Nicole on the cover of Harper's Bazaar, I was so upset I canceled my subscription. At least now I know I'm not alone in being offended and disappointed at seeing these fake-tanned, blond-extension-wearing, jailbirds on the cover of a magazine that had been an inspiration for me for many years. There's a great column today in the LA Times fashion section, Image, by Booth Moore, explaining how truly clueless Bazaar was when it put skinny celebutantes on the cover.

It's one thing to see Paris and Nicole on the covers of the rag mags, like US Weekly, but PLEASE spare me their presence in a real fashion magazine. I know fashion can get a little out of touch with reality, but this was just over the top. What has happened to the days of fashion when you saw the faces of Gisele, Karolina, Kate, and Liya? Those were the fashion magazines that got me through all those years at Parsons, tearsheets and all.

Now almost every fashion magazine features a singer or actress on the cover - Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Keira Knightly, etc. The poor fashion models have lost the coveted cover shot! They are doomed to the back pages of the mags in the fashion spreads. Give me some Jacquetta Wheeler on the cover please and look like a real fashion magazine à la Italian Vogue. I can live with a celebrity on the cover as long as it's a celeb with style, like Scarlett Johansson, but spare me the Olsen twins or Paris and Nicole. Vogue, in fact, by putting a curvacious Jennifer Hudson on the cover, was so refreshing. She may have added to the death of the fashion cover model, but at least she's a respectable style icon in the making.