Hits and Misses: Magazine Covers of October 2023
After the massive and overwhelming hype which surrounds the September issues, October can often feel like a non-event in terms of buzz. However, that is perhaps not the case this year. Vogue Japan managed to wow us with a stunning and striking Mona Tougaard cover and Phoebe Dynevor dialed up the old-Hollywood glamour (to great fan fare on our forums) for US ELLE. In stark contrast, Vogue Taiwan’s offering for the month has left us speechless (in the worst way possible) and Bad Bunny felt just a little too much out of left field as a Vanity Fair cover subject.
We’ve rounded up the best and worst of what the newsstand had to offer this month, complete with running commentary from our unfiltered forum members. See which covers made the cut – and which didn’t, below:
HIT | Vogue Japan with Mona Tougaard by Hugo Comte
“STUNNING! I love seeing fashion through Hugo’s lens and Mona looks amazing.” [fenty]
HIT | UK Harper’s Bazaar with Saoirse Ronan by Agata Pospieszynska
“Saoirse’s cover is pure heaven!” [Velasco]
MISS | UK Vogue with Lily Gladstone & Leonardo DiCaprio by Craig McDean
“Dreary, dull, drab, lifeless, boring, bland, uninspired, lackluster, lifeless etc. etc. What a non-event of a cover.” [WinstonH20]
HIT | US Cosmopolitan September/October 2023 with Halle Bailey by Lenne Chai
“I’m kinda loving the green-on-green art direction, which instantly took me back to Cosmopolitan covers from the 80s.” [vogue28]
HIT | US ELLE with Phoebe Dynevor by Mark Seliger
“Beautiful cover! Period editorial done right. It’s stunning and Phoebe looks gorgeous.” [WAVES]
HIT | US Vogue with Kate Winslet by Annie Leibovitz
“A win for me. It’s different, it’s kinda cool and off and most certainly unexpected, which I like. Also, Kate. Very much here for Kate.” [honeycombchild]
HIT | Vogue Italia with Isabella Rossellini by Zhong Li
“Isabella looks great. I love this portrait, the hair, the makeup, the styling and that confidence in the eyes as well as the glamour she oozes. Such a cultural icon and a great woman. Good cover!” [Bertrando3]
MISS | Vogue Spain with Amber Valletta by Alex Webb
“Speechless at how bad this is.” [liberty33r1b]
HIT | Harper’s Bazaar France with Amelia Gray by Karim Sadli
“I love it. I never use this word, but this cover is so CHIC. It’s shocking to see beautiful covers amid all of the mediocrity coming from various Vogues around the world.” [NYLA22]
MISS | Vogue Brazil with Maryel Uchida by Mariana Maltoni
“Trash.” [A.D.C.]
MISS | Vogue Taiwan by Manbo Key & Chien-Wen Lin
“Wrong in every way.” [FiLeReD]
MISS | Vanity Fair with Bad Bunny by Szilveszter Mako
““Do regular VF readers care about Bad Bunny?” [Rigida]
HIT | Vogue Thailand with Zoe Saldaña by Thomas Whiteside
“I knew for 100% fact that I would love this, when I saw Thomas Whiteside’s name attached. The two covers are GORGEOUS, love every single element.” [vogue28]
MISS | US Harper’s Bazaar October 2023 with Margaret Qually by Amy Troost
“When I saw Margaret Qualley’s name, I imagined a nice portrait. Of course… Samira Nasr would never.” [blueorchid]
MISS | Vogue France with Malika El Maslouhi by Malick Bodain
“”Ceci n’est pas une couverture [this is not a cover].” [tigerrouge]
HIT | Town & Country with Diane Lane, Demi Moore & Chloë Sevigny by Ruven Afanador
“Great cover! It’s so OTT, so perfectly Town & Country and so brilliantly executed from all those involved that I couldn’t possibly complain. Always a pleasure to see Demi Moore!” [vogue28]
MISS | UK ELLE with Florence Pugh, Ncuti Gatwa, Gemma Chan, Tema & Suki Waterhouse
“The color grading and the over-saturation make my eyes burn. Some photographers have such a heavy hand on their retouching. These cover feel very amateur.” [GivenchyAddict]
HIT | Vogue Australia with Kylie Minogue by Alique
““Kylie delivers as always. Madam Padam is a better print model than most current top models nowadays.” [Wintergreen]
HIT | Vogue China with Zhang Zifeng by Annie Lai
“Dreamy!” [fluxxx]
HIT | Tatler with Ruth Wilson by Luc Braquet
“I’m a BIG fan of Ruth Wilson, seeing her on Tatler is a nice surprise.” [tigerrouge]
MISS | Vogue México with Sofia Vergara by Norman Jean Roy
“It looks like a Good Housekeeping cover coming from a photographer whose aesthetic looked like Annie Leibovitz’s. A waste of Sofia Vergara.” [crmsn]
