What seems more Us Weekly, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian cover Vogue’s April 2014 issue
Here at YCB, we like to keep our fingers firmly on the pulse of what you need to know, and over the weekend we have watched a major story unfold across social media. If you haven’t already seen or heard, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have been unveiled as US Vogue’s latest cover stars; the inside spread also features a cameo from baby North, now how many babies can say they were in Vogue in their first year of life?
Shot by Annie Leibovitz, the cover and the accompanying feature shows the couple in a slightly more demure light than their usual ostentatious nature, with Kim wearing a wedding dress, very minimal make up and her hair in a sleek chignon, while her rapper beau wraps his arms round her waist. Pictures aside though, the real question is: what made Anna Wintour change her mind?
Rumours of a Vogue-Kardashian team up circulated some time ago, with little comment from cyberspace, yet when the cover shot dropped there was a social media backlash that no one saw coming. Anna Wintour is no stranger to controversy herself, but despite this she turned around Vogue and changed the way we look at fashion, famously using a pair of $50 denim jeans on her first cover at the helm in 1988. Jeans had never seen the cover of a high fashion magazine before, but her forward thinking brought print into a new age and just recently Emma Watson was photographed for the cover of US ELLE in a double denim ensemble. Almost thirty years on, the influence of Anna Wintour is still incredible evident in the industry, and she’s about to do it again with this notorious Kimye cover. This cover is also the first cover of US Vogue to feature a hashtag, again showcasing Anna’s ability to push Vogue into the future of (social) media dubbing Kimye #worldsmosttalkedaboutcouple. Defending her decision in her editor’s letter, Anna describes the magazine as ‘featuring those who define the culture at any given moment, who stir things up, whose presence in the world shapes the way it looks and influences the way we see it.’. These days in celeb-land, the Kardashian-Jenner-Wests are the power players of the moment and by featuring them on the cover, Vogue is somewhat giving them their 15 minutes of fame in the fashion world, and they are keen to make it last.
Rumour has it Kanye ‘begged and begged’ for Kim to feature on the cover, and Anna Wintour has shot this down, citing Kim’s ‘strength of character has helped her create a place for herself in the glare of the world’s spotlight’. Anna Wintour is quite possibly the most powerful woman in fashion and she can pretty much say no to whoever she wants, meaning she had no general obligation to put the couple on the cover. If Anna Wintour considers the Kardashian-West clan Vogue appropriate, who else might we be seeing gracing the pages of the fashion bible?
The issue hits newsstands on March 31 and with a feature on the ‘Rise of the Social Media Supermodel’ the dynamic duo on the cover couldn’t be more appropriate as Vogue explores new digital territory with the help of fashion’s most influential characters.
