Cover Conundrum

I think I've been placed on a subscription list to Tiger Beat or BOP by mistake.

I opened my mailbox, expecting the February issue of Harper's Bazaar, and out popped the cover of a magazine with Miley Cyrus. Surely, that couldn't be my beloved Bazaar, I thought. The subscriber cover (not the one featured at right) was elegant and understated, though. Fashionable, yet modest. I liked the cover. I was just surprised to find another Teeny Bopper on the cover of a serious fashion magazine. I would expect this sort of thing from In Style or Elle (especially since she already appeared on a cover) or Glamour, but not Bazaar, which continues to surprise me with their young cover choices and even younger contributing writers.

I remember reading a Letter to the Editor in Vanity Fair one month where a reader said that the magazine needed to wake up and smell the money and realize that the youth of America is where the money is right now. Perhaps the same ideal has been infiltrating Harper's Bazaar lately. Is that the state of fashion journalism in America right now?

I would really love to get back to seeing models on the cover of fashion magazines. Remember those days? When you pulled out a shiny new issue of Vogue from your mailbox and Karolina Kurkova or Carmen Kass were on the cover? Sigh. Boy, am I nostalgic for those days. Instead, we are left with Twilight stars, Milley Cyrus, and Cate Blanchett month after month after month...

How about Chanel Iman on a cover?? She's been one of my favorite models for months now, mostly because she is just so captivating and gorgeous. She looks perfect in everything she wears. Her looks are original and unique (even more so than Lara Stone and Karlie Kloss, in my opinion). Why can't we have Chanel Iman on the cover of a major fashion magazine without there being a silly theme?

I'd take beauty as a theme over Miley Cyrus and other teen stars any day.