The last time we saw Gigi Hadid on a magazine cover, it was the February 2021 Vogue, and she looked like she’d given birth all over herself. So this is an improvement over a bloodbath? But otherwise… The thing is, from her interview, Gigi seems engaging and warm and bright (I liked this turn of phrase, in talking about how she’s challenged her desire for constant control: “Skydiving is probably pushing it to the max of responsible idiocy”). This cover reflects none of that. I just want to plonk a lollipop in her mouth to get her to close it. I keep wondering who they had in mind with this hazy-eyed, slack-jawed portrait. Maxim readers? If you love Gigi, it’s definitely not her at her best. If you love fashion, well, she’s wearing a mostly unseen catsuit with an inexplicable belt, so that’s a loss (that she’s wearing the late Virgil Abloh’s line Off White is a lovely tribute to her friend, but honestly, you could have told me this was Michael Kors and it would’ve tracked. Why not pick something more iconically, identifiably, Abloh?). It’s basically only a winner if you are in search of thick, beachy hair. She looks like she’s pressed up against a wall and ommm-ing in anticipation of an imminent Rapture, or just came home from a long, exhausting night of work and was about to cuddle up and watch the Olympics on her DVR but then accidentally got spoiled on Twitter.
