I heard a lot of gossip that Rihanna would be getting the cover of Vogue’s September issue, but as it turns out, not so much. The September cover girl is… BEYONCE! Which makes sense, I guess, except that she’s not really promoting anything these days? I mean, did they give her a cover just to promote that stupid faux-vegan diet thing? As for the cover… yeah, I totally think Beyonce is a beautiful woman, but this cover makes me think that Anna Wintour sort of hates her. Right? This is not the best cover. Wet hair and cheesy Photoshop does not look “strong”. Thankfully, Vogue has not released their full cover story yet because – and let’s be real here – that would be way too much Beyonce on a Thursday morning. Here’s the preview:
What do we want from the glamorous, powerful women we call divas or icons or cultural forces? We want them to want—and in our names get—everything they possibly can. Success in work and love. Sexual pleasure. Money and power. We want them to embody multiple fantasies. We want them to make us believe that exciting realities are just around the corner.
It used to be that the great pop stars with fashion and style gave us small variations on one grand theme. Tina Turner: minidresses and honey tresses. Janis Joplin: boas, bangles, and bell-bottoms. Cher: spangled striptease getups with mythic Third World touches. Nowadays fashion isn’t about the grand theme, it’s about juxtaposition, and it’s filled with allusions to movie and art history; to music and dance styles; to iconographies of race and ethnicity, religion and gender. Madonna opened the door to this collage approach. Today we see it in the wigs, masks, and sculpted costumes of Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj, the restless dazzle of Rihanna’s couture choices. And, of course, in the music, dance, decor, and looks of the ultimate streamed collage: Beyoncé.
I’m actually wondering… do you think Beyonce actually sat down and gave them an interview? She hasn’t done a sit-down, face-to-face interview with any journalist in more than a year, right? Even when she was promoting her faux-vegan diet thing a few months ago, she only deigned to answer a few questions via email. Beyonce is all about controlling access to Beyonce and Beyonce is all about not doing interviews. Maybe THAT is why the cover is so bad – Wintour was pissed that she gave Beyonce the September cover and Beyonce didn’t do a sit-down interview.
Beyonce did give Vogue a “interpretive” video. It’s difficult to watch because Beyonce is such a fart-sniffing artiste and she thinks that everything she does is brilliant (because her Beyhive enables her).
Photos courtesy of Mario Testino for VOGUE.
The cover is meh!
I know right? I just want to sit her down and wash all the grease out of her hair. Why such an uninspired cover photo?? Surely there must have been better ones.
The hair is just terrible!
And if she didn’t give an interview, well… I kinda hope she flops, because the whole “I’m above you dirty peasants” thing is getting old now.
At least it looks like her hair. She usually wears her hairhat .
@Denisemich Uh oh, somebody been listening to Tommy Sotomayor.
@v4real, I don’t know who tommy is.. ..I just googled… I don’t listen to conservative radio
Tommy Sotomayor is a YouTuber who says despicable things about Black women behaving badly. He was the one that came up with hairhats to describe weaves.
She is the most overrated pop star ever. She is bland, boring, fake. Everytime I see Beyawnce I’m thinking PR, PR, and more PR.
PS Taylor Swift is right behind Beyawnce.
All of the pop stars have PR, and attention seeking.
I Agree the cover is really bad at all and the way she sticking out her chest looks awkward.
It may not be great, but it’s a lot better than her recent pap shots, when she’s busting out of her dress..looks like a different person…but I guess that’s what photoshop is for.
Its better than Katy Perry! good god, the idea that katy perry represents high fashion is like saying Lady Gaga represent PETA.
The cover is really bad. She looks like she’s posing for her life, but it reads as thirsty instead of empowered.
right? she just looks REALLY uncomfortable but oh wait, here’s “sexy, sultry face”
She needs to go away for awhile.I thought awhile back she said she was going to take a break but she is still over the place.Ugg.Talk about overload.
Nah. Lackluster cover.
Why did they angle her head in exactly the same way in every photo, pulling her chin in?
You know what, Beyoncé is becoming kind of JLo-esque, in that she only has one pose for photos (to be fair, JLO is 10+ years oldr and she has that 1 pose for the red-carpet), which involves pulling her chest forward and her ass backwards to show her “curves” and I’m sick of it. I love my girl Bey, but at this point, I can’t even go through her photos on Instagram without rolling my eyes. She should stick to singing and performing, at which she is AMAZING, and even acting (i like her in movies), but the whole try-hard posing isn’t cutting it for me anymore. She’s 34 she doesn’t need to show us the same sheer-sexy clothing I’m-sexually-empowered-independent-woman schtick every single time.
Try going androgynous. Dark haired. Red hair. avant-garde. whatever. Just change it up a bit girlfriend.
+1 Astute analysis!! She needs you on her team as an adviser/consultant.
Oh hell yes!
She looks so much better with the darker hair.
Ditch that brass blonde B!
Clearly Anna hates her and who would want to be on Vogue after a kartrashian?
I just can’t get down with the wet hair look. She looks pretty in the wacked out artsy fartsy video though.
The wet hair is just awful, I can’t think of a worse choice. They ruined Emma Watson’s look with bad hair recently too…what is up with Vogue’s hairstylists?
I think this wet hair is a thing now lol
Beyonce is just someone who I don’t believe as a fashion icon. There always seems to be a lot of effort in her choices or how she approaches clothing and carries herself in them. IDK, how else to explain it. For example, this cover. She is posing so hard and it just looks awkward. Why is she arching her back so hard?
Also, even if she gave an interview it’s not going to be interesting. She’s way to controlled and conscious of every word she says. Not in a thoughtful way, but in a “I must be prefect all of the time” way. She used to have more spunk back in Destiny’s Child, but I guess this is what happens when you reach icon status.
@Jinni, agreed. Even though the hive will come for us. If you catch street style shots of her she just seems to grab pieces that are nice individually but she seems to force them together to make outfits that are too over the top, or with a shoe that doesn’t really suit or clothing that really doesn’t flatter/enhance her body/shape. I always want her to do well as far as clothes are concerned but she misses. Also the MET costumes never say trailblazer —there is too much emphasis on wanting to impress us with her body/shape and not enough on highlighting a personal style that goes with her personality, music, colours she can carry off well, etc. Enough of the look at me am naked!
Also, it’s o.k if you are not institutionally educated. But there has to be a viable/worthwhile and valid substitute for lack of classroom teaching. Most performance artists now did not get traditional education. But they travel a lot and have vast experience with different countries, people, cultures, settings and emotions. Bey’s people should let her sound off more on these things if they want to send a message that she is interesting, has arrived, etc.
It is quite boring, the entertainment industry rhetoric—too much bling, my superior motherhood experience, my look, my make-up, blah, blah. Tell us more about the adventures you are having all over the world, so you can encourage your fans to do more with their lives and to want more than a drop top — help them to aspire to more non-material things ( as opposed to aspire to be just like you, the vein artist)
@saywhatwhen. I am believer of education, because that is a human right. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. And I would love for my black people to get off their ass and go to some trade school and better themselves. I went to do a trade and it did wonders for me, I got myself employment and I work my way up, and now I’m in community college. I know things are hard but that is what a trade school is for, and I’m sure they are some trade with little finance will get you there. As for these pop stars. I agree with Rihanna, that they are not babysitters, so I would be surprised that any other pop star/actors would come to say anything about education or anything that is worthwhile, so all they do is promote and pr things thoughtless and pointless. The Hat is why people need to wake up and lookout for themselves and stop looking up to their popstars.
You can be a Icon and not boring.SHE is boring and I would never call her a Icon.
The cover is blah, and vogue just feels stale.
It feels like I’ve seen images like this already.
NOOOOOOOOOOO!
I really was hoping for someone…..fresh?
put her on the march music issue and call it a wrap.
smh @ nuclear wintor
Yes, Anna can go home now. If this is what you give us Wintour, step aside for someone more youthful, exciting, less indebted to the sycophants. Please don’t ask to be dead and buried at Vogue.
Well said. Won’t our needs to go. Vogue is suppose to be fashion was has become tabloidy. September has ALWAYS been THE fashion issue. It should be covered by someone actually IN FASHION.
Put Tom Ford on September’s cover before Beyoncé. A model or a designer!! Good lord. Clearly the last true fashion magazine is WWD. More industry than anything but at least there is actual fashion & not fluff & ads
Wintour…. V V bad metro autocorrect
God, of all the cool things they could have done with Beyoncé…and they end up with this? Real missed opportunity.
That’s how I feel. She’s an incredibly beautiful woman and it’s like they reined that in with a series of photos that look the same, and not the best I’ve seen of her.
They got the hair color and make up right, though.
Beyoncé the sweater girl in angora, jeans, and bare feet would have felt fresher than these tired images.
She has a quality in her bare-faced natural look that can’t be beat. It’s that same realness that Marilyn Monroe had in the photo with her robe.
Hi haters!
Black women on the cover of Vogue makes me smile
It does not make me smile when the Vogue people make one of the few black women they allow on the cover look so drab and dull.
How are people haters when all everyone is says is that Vogue stlyed her horribly.
Actually many of the comments are from people who say they dont like Beyonce .That is what a ” hater” is.They think she is overrated, they don’ t think she is talented, she is not fashionable, she is uneducated,she can’t pose,etc
Stay pressed ,haters
For people who are confused with the term
“hater” google it
Have you ever been into a Beyonce post on this site…?
@ Colette
Only a handful is saying that the other just think the cover is bad. I know what the term hater means and it get thrown around to much.
@ Bns
You can’t judge this post and comment on past ones.
@Colette:
Just because someone is not a fan of a person, does not make them a “hater”. They just aren’t a fan. People can have differing opinions without being labelled “haters”.
Absolutely. Jessica. I am frankly pretty indifferent to Beyoncé, and clicked on the thread because I was curious why she seemed to have the Kimmy Kat- face and looked more like Zoe Kravitz than Beyoncé. Hatred is a whole different level and offering fair criticism should not be characterised as being a hater.
Ugh, the dress looks like it’s from her mother’s hideous fashion line (I’m sure it’s not), the styling is awful and that video…for while now it’s seemed to me Beyonce is just half-assing everything she does, knowing there’ll be plenty of people who’ll call it brilliant artistic vision anyway. Editing together a bunch of badly shot, grainy, boring home movies is just narcissistic garbage, not art.
What a friggin waste of a Sept. cover! Isn’t it usually reserved for women who are like BIG into fashion? Ingenues and the more fashionable models or it girls, or whatever?
Yes, I agree. I miss the September Issues of yesteryear.
Lourdes Leon.
Willow.
Kendall
Zoe Kravitz.
Any of these new ladies would’ve been fantastic!!!!
I am all for new faces getting attention but, what have Willow or Lourdes done to merit having a cover on the September issue of Vogue?
I don’t even think the other two deserve one either, but they at least have legit careers in entertainment so I can understand them being in a Vogue mag but even they wouldn’t make sense on the cover of the September issue as the main feature.
I am thinking of fashion. Lourdes with her nose ring and long grey hair is stylish and happening to me. Willow is stunning. All the ladies I mentioned are happening. They are styling and right now. They are bringing new attitudes. This is why I suggested them.
How are Willow or Lourdes Leon happening? They are nothing more then celebrity kids. Now Kendall and Zoe Kravitz are out there but are no were near the level of being on the cover of Vogue by themselves.
Willow?
I don’t want any diva getting anything in my name, Vogue. Specially when this empowerment is all about money, looks, money, sex, money…
Beyoncé on the cover of a September issue? I don’t think so. She’s not a fashion icon, she’s a fashion victim. Did she give them an interview? Does she have anything to say worth listening to?
I watched that video (with the sound off so as not to attract my preschooler who is off tv for now). It looks like someone from the early 90s went on vacation with her SO and, without ever having seen pronography, decided to make some. I should note that I have never actually seen pron, either, but this has that cheesy feel.
it was bad.
That hair is dreadful. And that getup she’s sporting makes her look like a Vegas stripper from the late 80’s.
Yikes. I think she looks beautiful on the cover. Somewhat different that how I’ve seen her before. But I don’t follow her closely, so maybe they aren’t doing her justice? In any case, the cover caught and held my eye, which is the point…
Um….who does Anna like anymore?
Either Anna is flipping off her Conde Nast bosses or this type of look is what sells. Other than the Serena Williams cover, can you name 5 issues in the past 3-5 years that have been visually interesting?
Drowned rat on the Vogue cover? September issue?! What a hack rag.
What is wrong with her left arm in the second picture with the full black outfit? Photoshop error?
Is it me or did she have another nose job ?
Beyonce has charisma and magnetism in spades. It would have been nice for Vogue to choose a photo that captured that. But aside from a weird photo choice, why all the complaining about Beyonce? She’s a better choice than Sienna Miller or Blake Lively.
I love everything about the cover except the hair.
I would have prefered Rihanna on the cover, she has something that Beyonce misses… a personality.
I think Beyonce is a terrible public speaker, and that’s why she shuns interviews with humans… someone can grammar check her emails for her, and make her sound a little more interesting, a little smarter. Didn’t we hear that she dropped out of school at a ridiculously young age? Regardless of your need for algebra and geometry, school is also good for honing your public speaking and writing abilities. I think Beyonce really isn’t very bright, or her self-esteem is crippled to the point that she doesn’t think she can pull off an articulate interview — one that won’t be edited to death. She is a terrific performer, no doubt, but really that’s all.
I glanced at this cover and thought it was tyra banks with her ANTM instructional face shot with chin down and the eyes looking up.
Awful video. Promography instead of pornography.
Also been trying to articulate how I feel about Vogue. As an up and coming young professional in the 80s I was getting into fashion. There was Harpers Bazaar and Town &Country( for the beautiful jewelry ads and guest list on the polo circuit )and then at the top was the artistic and editorial Vogue. Even the physical charactor of the magazine pages was alluring and special.
And then Kim K. Ihave heard the explanations about how actresses are the new models and how greatly it seems that they have a profound effect on modern fashion . Doesn’t work for me. Vogue was fashion and not about the models who can wear these clothes and keep the emphasis on the clothes and photography and design? There were tabloids that I liked and many pictures of celebrities on the cover like there are now. But not Vogue. Vanity Fair is a good example of a classy magazine that manages to do both.There are tons of magazines that have coverage of the Kim Karnauseum as well as others. But there is (or was) only one Vogue.And the train left the station before the the first shots of Beyoncewere taken.
I guess it’s an alright cover, although I would much prefer her looking fresh and beautiful. The wet, desaturated thing ain’t cuttin’ it for me. But Vogue’s had a run of really blah covers for a while now. I blame Kim.
Why anyone gives Wintour the time of day amazes me and why she hasn’t been fired is even more amazing!
Wet, stringy hair, try-hard posing & boob flowers. A trifecta of fug.