THE VOGUE disaster

"seductive" Iris Strubegger on the cover of German Vogue,
naturally not a word about her in the magazine -
that would have cost some journalistic effort, and
that's definitely not on the radar of the magazine's, uhm, "editor"

... I'm sorry but this time round the DISASTER that German Vogue is month after month after month really makes me want to comment. You know, to cut a long story short (and the same goes for Vogue Paris, naturally), when you pick a former "fashion director" (more often than not, in the case of a glossy magazine, that will be the stylist in charge of the fashion editorial spreads that define a title's characteristic "aesthetic"...) as future EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, you're just not in for a good MAGAZINE - as in: a periodical publication that doesn't only consist of IMAGES but also contains some WRITTEN STORIES that surpass the length of a DOUBLE PAGE and transport an overall editorial vision. I mean, I don't know where Christiane Arp thinks she is taking the magazine (I can tell you and her: to meaningless and endlessly boring realms) but it has nothing whatsoever to do with magazines like US VOGUE or (American) VANITY FAIR (or even British or Spanish Vogue, as for that - I do actually like Spanish Vogue a lot!) which are excellent examples of how a magazine can content those readers that are looking for beautiful images as well as INTERESTING STORIES. And yes, dear "editors", these readers still exist and I even think that those people who actually bother to go to the newsstand (or send in a subscription-postcard) and buy a magazine instead of just browsing through the latest pick-and-mix of fashion news on the web are exactly the same people that want to READ comprehensive, intelligent, witty articles. Hello? Yes, that IS an option. Instead of being presented with one-page-features about the latest must-haves blah blah blah. You know, I'm not particularly keen on being fed endless "news" about celebrity weddings BUT let's just take the September issue of German Vogue and of American Vogue as an example: both feature newly wed supermodels on the cover and whereas Kate Moss is presented in a portrait in the American version, German Vogue, uhm, "forgets" about Iris Strubegger's wedding? I mean, OF COURSE Mrs Arp had to clear some space for the obligatory two pages dedicated to KARL LAGERFELD in German Vogue (believe me, he's in there every month, sure as hell - more often than not as the "talented" photographer that he is, ahum). Clearly, Condé Nast's directory board must know the reasons why they go for people like Arp or Emmanuelle Alt, or even Sozzani in Italy (I think that Vera Montanari does an excellent job with Mondadori's flair magazine in Italy by telling the stories that the "artsy" industry magazine, Vogue Italia, leaves untold), maybe it's easier to leave the advertising clients satisfied with plentiful beautiful colourful images galore, but come on... And I don't say that everything Juliet Joan Buck (recently taken on board by Dasha for Garage magazine) does or did was good, but I think that the editor-in-chief of a renowned magazine (such as French Vogue, in Buck's case) should have a far-reaching vision for a lifestyle magazine, and one that does go beyond the fashion spreads and trend pages a fashion magazine OBVIOUSLY has to contain. It just shouldn't be all about that, should it ...