Harper’s Bazaar still prints physical issues, so sliding a nipple — even a blurry one — onto the newsstand when you’re not typically placed in the Visible Nipple section feels very bold. Certainly it will get attention? It’s also such a curious photo. Zoe Saldaña is wearing this Saint Laurent dress (a quieter cousin to the one Emma Corrin wore to a premiere), lying down on a carpet in a photo they turned 90 degrees to make it look like she’s doing a Six Merry Murderesses vamp against a wall. She’s absolutely seizing focus, even amid all those colors and shadows, and the nipple is almost, almost, beside the point. It all fits the theme of her claiming the her moment (I see you, Person at Harper’s Who Was Dying To Make a Center Stage Reference, and I respect you for not resisting). And at a time when print is a moribund industry, it’s audacious.
But between the fuzzy “wall” and the way the light hits the sheer stretch-lace and gives it a kind of Muppet-y texture, everything around her face has the aura of being a tiny bit blurry — even though it isn’t — and I think that in turn is highlighting the sizable airbrushing job they did on her face. And I absolutely, on first, second, and third glance, thought she was removing her underpants in the shot — when in fact, the blue bunched up piece is just the lace trim om the dress. Overall… bold for a cover, but like a Bachelor/ette contestant, I don’t know if it’s here for the right reasons.