Cathy Horyn's review of September Vogue

[Faust]

I really like her writing sometimes, it takes skill to be at once dimplomatic and critical. Check out the blurb on Undercover and RO!

LINK

August 16, 2007, 9:34 am

Big Mama: The New Vogue

Vogue?s September 2007 issue. (Mario Testino / Vogue)

The September Vogue landed on my desk, or rather, on the floor. It
came in a freight box. It?s very fat: 840 pages. Sienna Miller is on
the cover of this super-duper issue, photographed by Mario Testino in
Rome during the Valentino festivities. Though I can?t comprehend her
appeal, apart from an American pixy-sportiness, she looks great in the
clothes, mostly feathered things. My favorite fashion piece is Grace
Coddington?s revisit with Kiki de Montparnasse and French café society
in the ?20s and ?30s, photographed by Meisel. The clothes are right
this season for a Jazz Age revue, especially Galliano?s and Chanel?s.
(And perfect timing for ?Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and
Gerald Murphy,? a great collection of essays and photographs of the
period from University of California Press.)

Sarah Mower?s profile of the makeup artist Pat McGrath was
informative and fun (?How do you accurately encompass a phenomenon as
vast, protean, fast-moving, subtle and super-talented as Ms. Pat
McGrath??) And Carolyn Burke?s article about the friendship between
Jacques Henri Lartigue and Richard Avedon was a surprise.

Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton (more Marc), Prada and Proenza Schouler
get lots of credits, with some as well to Rodarte, Thakoon and, of
course, Balenciaga. But a criticism of the book is a dearth of the
offbeat and young. Where is Undercover, or Rick Owens, who had such a
sophisticated fall collection, or the new London designers? Did I
overlook Jil Sander? The looks shown in the issue convey a sense of
authority and judgment, but the labels have a duty roster feel. Maybe
the work of the other designers will be more represented in the next
issue.

September Vogue is as much about the ads as the editorial. Gucci?s
red lipstick and Veronica Lake hair, put with fur and gold
chastity-size belt buckles, made me think of property rights. I liked
Saint Laurent?s ads?more subtle and contemporary than last season, and
with a slight nod (I felt) to the early YSL ads by David Seidner. Prada
is all socks and bushy things. Calvin Klein?s ads really show you the
clothes without being banal. Vera Wang?s snowy Russian campaign just
raises a ?Wha?? Brooks Brothers took out a 24-page portfolio that
announced, on every page, that it was established in 1818. It?s about
time Brooks recognized its prime mystery ? I know that?s what its new
owners have been working toward. I liked the fact that the ads sound
authoritative. However, the models manage to look merely pompous,
especially the guys (big problem), and inspire disbelief. They look
more self-involved than glamorous and successful, and obviously have no
real connection to the child in the pictures. Just bad casting. The
portfolio also includes Thom Browne?s Black Fleece line for Brooks.

[laika]

Re: Cathy Horyn's review of September Vogue

It's very good, isn't it? There are some great posters over there, although it's a serious time commitment to read through all the comments. I have learned a lot, though.

[nqth]

Re: Cathy Horyn's review of September Vogue



This is what WWD writes:

OPEN SEASON: The great democratization of criticism promised by the Internet is in full swing, even on blogs run by major media organizations. The New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn's mid-August review on her blog of the September Vogue was full of unenthused praise ("great," "informative and fun") followed by a criticism that the issue lacked "the offbeat and young....The looks shown in the issue convey a sense of authority and judgment, but the labels have a duty roster feel."

But that was nothing compared to the thousands of words of heated comments by readers that followed, many excoriating the magazine for being stale, out of touch, racist and elitist. "Cathy, why are you even reviewing [Vogue]?" wondered one reader. "Perhaps they should be reviewing you?" But another confessed that despite its misgivings, "I read it faithfully.... Vogue is Vogue. You know, if God let some typos into the Bible, you wouldn't stop reading it just cuz, would you?"

In a follow-up post last week that responded to some of her online buddies, Horyn delivered a rather backhanded compliment: "If I admire Anna Wintour for one thing, it is that she runs Vogue as she sees fi t."

A Vogue spokesman told WWD, "We're always very interested to hear what Cathy Horyn has to say, and in this case, her readers as well."

Horyn's Washington Post counterpart, Robin Givhan, also tackles the new fashion commentariat in the September issue of Harper's Bazaar. "Fashion has become like sports, with its own version of the Monday-morning quarterback," she writes. "Mostly, all the chatter is good for the industry. The average person, too often estranged from fashion, is taking ownership of it." She adds that given her job, "you'd think my initial reaction to the democratization of fashion criticism would be horror. How dare these self-proclaimed citizen journalists trespass on my turf? But no. I didn't protest. I launched my own show-season blog."

As Vogue prepares to launch its own Web site, that approach may be more relevant than ever. ? Irin Carmon