What a thrilling surprise to be greeted with this morning! Vogue’s February cover is LEGITIMATELY GOOD and VISUALLY COMPELLING. I am delighted! (They’ve also pulled off the neat trick of featuring an actress in a very hot property who also used to be a professional model, which is probably the ideal profile for a Vogue cover subject.) This is eye-catching! It’s festive, yet also stylishly apocalyptic, which feels au courant! If I made you guess, you might have thought this was British Vogue, which is a huge compliment! It’s using a new font, which is always fun for us font nerds. What a thrill!
The editorial shoot that accompanies the profile is quite editorial (which is apt and appropriate for Vogue), and said profile, by Monica Kim, is very well-done; a pleasurable mix of model-y logistics and personal background (plus the Vogue-y habit of telling us what everyone is eating and wearing at all times, which is definitely a cliche of the publication but one I personally find entertaining), and certainly worth your time. Hoyeon Jung, who I thought was great in Squid Game, comes across so likeable — hardworking, sincere, and extremely well-liked — and it’s really nice to spend a few pages with her.
And once you’ve done that, come on back and let’s play our favorite game — not Squid Game, you will live through this one! — and make our predictions for the next ten months of Vogue cover subjects. You’ve got two gimmes — this cover, and January’s Olivia Wilde one — but the next ten are up for grabs. (I would have predicted that February would have been an Olympics cover, so I’m already wrong.)
