Jessica Chastain covers the December issue of Marie Claire. I’m a fan of hers, so I am happy to see her booking a major magazine cover but this image leaves me so underwhelmed. She looks super washed out and pale and I mostly hate what she’s wearing. Still holding out for when Harper’s Bazaar or Elle books her.
You can read the sort of odd cover story here and see the rest of her shoot (which is generally more inspired than her cover shot) here.
Image via Marie Claire
Miley Cyrus scored the September cover of Marie Claire. While I will never be ok with Miley — who is 19 — covering a fashion magazine that is targeted to adult women, I have to admit that this is probably the best she has ever looked. Her hair looks great, the beauty styling is lovely and flattering and she’s wearing a gorgeous dress. It’s a good cover especially for MC but I’m still sad that they picked a teenager for the biggest issue of the year.
Image via Marie Claire
Kristen Wiig is on the cover of August’s Marie Claire. I’m really happy to see Kristen score the cover of a major women’s magazine BUT who did that styling? Because it’s terrible and unflattering.
Image via Marie Claire
While I wasn’t the biggest fan of Blake Lively’s Marie Claire cover (her second for the US edition,) I have to admit that the spread inside is pretty stunning.
Image via Marie Claire
Blake Lively is on the cover of the July issue of Marie Claire. Her hair looks gorgeous as always, but otherwise there is very little that I like about this image. Her red coat dress isn’t suited to July and the cover is an uninspired mix of red and blue which… I guess… Independence? Boring.
Image via Marie Claire
Kristen Stewart is on the cover of the July issue of Vanity Fair. Correctly or not, I always use a VF cover as a measure of Hollywood megastardom. VF’s editors have to be confident that their cover choice will appeal to a slightly more male audience than Vogue’s and their median reader is 44.
Kristen is promoting ‘Snow White and the Huntsman,’ for which she also booked three international Elle covers and a shared Interview cover with costar Charlize. When a star books more than one cover for the same movie, the bigger magazine typically gets them first and then the magazine with less cache gets them the following month. For example, Sarah Jessica Parker booked Vogue’s June and May covers in 2008 and 2010 respectively to promote the SATC movies and she covered Marie Claire’s July ‘08 issue and June ‘10 issue for the same films. Interestingly Kristen appeared on the Elle trifecta in June and VF in July. I guess three magazines trumps Vanity Fair.
I like the image of Kristen. She looks slightly awkward as always but I think it works to give the photo a mannequin-esque quality. And her makeup is exquisite. A preview of her cover story is here.
Image via Vanity Fair
Jessica Alba is so Photoshopped on the June cover of Marie Claire that for a minute I wondered if this was Alyssa Milano. Also that dress screams fall.
Image via Marie Claire
Here is the rest of Zooey Deschanel’s cover spread in Marie Claire magazine.
Images via Marie Claire
Following her recent Allure cover, Zooey Deschanel booked another major magazine with the May issue of Marie Claire. I really love this image of Zooey and I’d like to see her on Elle next.
Image via Marie Claire
I’ve been avoiding posting about this cover because it irked me so much when it was first released. Jessica Simpson is a best seller for Elle and they wisely put her on their cover as much as possible. It’s quite a scoop that she confirmed she’s having a girl in their pages but I can’t get behind this nude cover.
Jessica follows her former rivals Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears who posed for similar covers of Marie Claire and Harper’s Bazaar respectively. And of course they’re all paying homage to the now-iconic image of a nude and pregnant Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair shot by Annie Leibovitz. Interestingly Jessica’s photo is an exact replica of Demi’s down to the yellow cocktail ring on her middle finger.
However, Demi’s cover was controversial when it was first released but it’s been over 20 years and the trend just feels tired and boring at this point.
Image via Elle
