Vogue

In todays lecture, the poignant question asked while discussing fashion photography, editorials and art direction was, " Is fashion editorial art or fart?". We started by looking at how Vogue, as one of the most well-known and respected magazines, influenced visual culture through its approach to editorial fashion and how the style changed to reflect the culture of the time. 

The first fashion story is from a February 1984 edition of Vogue. The model on the front cover looks playfully out at the audience with a neat and dainty smile. The Vogue logo has been printed in a hot pink to highlight the spring feeling and sits across the top of the magazine. Within the magazine I have selected a purely black and white editorial piece about affordable summer fashion. For Vogue creating a piece about affordable fashion, with items ranging between £10-£40, contradicting the ideal that Vogue only advertises to the wealthy. I think that the use of black and white photography within this editorial makes the model seem more reachable in terms of young women being able to identify with her in that time period and the mixture of styles presented opens her up to a wider audience, as she wears simple outfits that can be dressed up and her poses are used purely to display the clothes that she is wearing which is why she looks so wooden. 

The second fashion story I will look at is from a February 2019 edition of Vogue, featuring Emma Stone. Emma Stone is a well-known actress with much celebrity due to the success of her films.  The front cover uses bold colours and keeps the iconic Vogue font. The way the actress is posed on the front cover displays to the viewer a powerful and serious individual. Within the magazine itself the editorial piece Emma Stone is captured in a grungy lighting, with what appears to be a more natural and comfortable way of posing. I feel that the photography has links to that of Corrine Day, who was a photographer for Vogue in the 1990s and whose work had a more realistic quality, moving on from the polished glamour of the 80’s. 

Overall, from looking at two Vogue editorial pieces from different time periods and cultural influences, I have been able to recognise the way that Vogue changes to fit with the movements of the time and how in someways it has become more inclusive, but on the other hand it has become immersed in the publicity of celebrity, rather than having the sole focus of bring fashion to the people.