Cathy Horyn Can Make Tomato Sauce or Read Vogue

I really love Cathy Horyn's take on the September issues of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. In her August 20th blog post entitled "Big Sisters," she wrote that Vogue can be as "strange and dense and rueful as a novel" while Harper's Bazaar this time around is replete with "confidence, clarity, and directness." Quite a stark contrast, I would say! I definitely agree with her that Bazaar put forth a stellar September issue. The articles were readable, the editorials were whimsical and unique, and the subscriber cover was the most artistic cover I can remember in years. Well done, Glenda Bailey et al!

Maybe Horyn didn't give the September issue of Vogue a fair shake, though. Her main criticism of Vogue (not just the September issue), while undeniably veracious, is that the publication puts too much emphasis on class and, well, snobbery. She cited a quotation from an article featuring Charlotte Casiraghi by Vicki Woods that had Casiraghi "snootily" instructing the author to search for the name of her (Charlotte's) boyfriend on the internet if she wanted to know his name so badly. This was just one case in which Vogue seems to favor society and privilege above anything else (as Horyn mentioned in her article, Casiraghi was still "portrayed in the photograph as a class act"). I think Horyn is correct in pointing this out, but Vogue wasn't the only publication to have an article devoted exclusively to socialites and privileged European fashionistas.

Derek Blasberg wrote an article titled "The New Fashion Flock" for Bazaar in which he provided the readers a guide to who is filling the front rows at fashion shows these days. I'll give you a hint: these girls aren't plebians. They're young girls from uber-wealthy and privileged European families, much like Charlotte Casiraghi. Bianca Brandolini d'Adda, Eugenie Niarchos, Tatiana Santo Domingo (OK, she's not from a rich European family), Margherita Missoni, et al. So, I'm not sure if Horyn's criticism of Vogue was entirely fair since Bazaar has kind of been guilty of doing the same thing lately.

I hope Cathy Horyn will put off making that tomato sauce until after she has read both magazines completely.