If you have watched the documentary “The September Issue” last year, thanks to the fashion Empress and EIC Anna Wintour, you probably already know every steps it takes to create the iconic and every women’s most expected issue of their favorite glossy magazine. Not only it takes drama in Wintour’s office and André Leon Talley to start his weight loss diet, but it’s also 6 months of sweat and tears, lots of unpaid interns sacrificed on the altar of Fashion, assistants burnt out, hours in the pre-prod room, hours in the post-prod room, gazillions of $ spent, months of travels around the world and around the clock, etc.
Ok, I may be exaggerating a bit too much. I must say, for many in this industry it’s like giving birth to a baby, a big baby of 500 more pages made of glossy paper and just speaking Fashion. Fascinating. Since a child, I’ve always been fascinated by Fashion magazines, flipping the pages and staying amazed by the artistic pictures in the second part of the issue. Moved by the creativity it takes to design these clothes but also the work of the photographers to create the iconic picture each is looking for. But the September issue is not the result of an industry’s tradition, it has been created years ago by Vogue as a pure marketing tool to attract more sales and more advertisers. And now, all the publications are fighting to win the biggest revenue race, it’s like a way to stay “My magazine is the best out here”. So what’s the ingredient to make it a “Hit”? Of course the cover. No matter what the content is, customers will buy the cover. And that’s the reason why most of the time we see the biggest stars of the current buzz – the ones that are the most “bankable” as we like to say. Nonetheless, even if this September issue tradition is irrelevant in my opinion, it does sometimes reveal quite some trends and good surprises you would not expect.
After spending an hour collecting all the most interesting covers of this month, here is my top 5 of the best September issue covers:
#5: Musically, Lady Gaga is unquestionably talented, but I’ve never believed the pop singer was legit in the fashion world despite her extravagance and curiosity to experiment. On the other hand, Nick Knight did an amazing job to create a cover that will make you feel like obtaining a candy box.
#4: Simply chic. Greg Kadel did a great job at immortalizing the model Constance Jablonski doing the perfect wink. This cover has a potential to be iconic.
#3: Kate Moss is still one of – or even- the best model even after 20 years in the industry. This is my third best cover for, actually, being the only one to talk about trends. And just the idea of Kate Moss being naked underneath a Burberry military-trench is outrageously sexy.
#2: This could have been a flop, but it turns out so well that it’s second best cover. Conceptually “risqué”, this cover is just another proof that Sweden is becoming more and more influential in the industry.
#1: Despite the blatant marketing stunt. These 3 covers are simply grandiose.







































































































