Harper’s Bazaar has just released Carine Roitfeld‘s third feature as the glossy brand’s Global Fashion Director. The former Paris Vogue editor tapped Karl Lagerfeld to shoot the story — “Singular Beauty: An homage to the diversity of women” — which will appear in the September Issue of all 29 editions of the magazine.
A quick survey of the 25 women featured in this ambitious editorial:
- Scarlett Johansson: 28-year-old American film actress
- Liya Kebede: 35-year-old Ethiopian model
- Linn Arvidsson: 25-year-old Swedish model
- Dakota Fanning: 19-year-old American film actress
- Lily Collins: 24-year-old British film actress
- Carmen Dell’Orefice: 82-year-old American modeling legend
- Ondria Hardin: California-born 16-year-old runway model
- China Machado: 83-year-old Portuguese-Chinese modeling legend
- Soo Joo Park: 23-year-old Korean model
- Candice Huffine: 28-year-old American ‘plus’ model
- Ashleigh Good: 21-year-old New Zealander model
- Xiao Wen Ju: 24-year-old Chinese model
- Erika Ervin: 34-year-old known as the ‘World’s Tallest Model’
- Grimes: 25-year-old Canadian musician (who wears the $68,000 Saint Laurent dress we’ve marveled over on tFS)
- Zoë Kravitz: 24-year-old actress daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet.
- Karen Elson: 34-year-old British model/musician
- Lily Donaldson: 26-year-old British model
- Liberty Ross: 34-year-old British model
- Kenya Jones: 20-year-old daughter of Quincy Jones
- Gabourey Sidibe: 30-year-old American actress
- Chiharu Okunugi: 20-year-old Japanese model
- Tilda Lindstam: 20-year-old Swedish model
- Lisa Verberght: 17-year-old Belgian model
- Angel Haze: 22-year-old American rapper
- Chrishell Stubbs: 21-year-old British fashion model
We love seeing so many non-white models cast for such a major editorial and this spread truly features a broad range of ages, body types and ethnicities. Still, it’s worth pointing out that with the exception of Sidibe, the women represent a conventional standard of beauty and an upper-class milieu — “Gabourey Sidibe among ‘Bazaar’ beauties,” was USA Today’s foul way of putting it. This editorial is unlike most of what we see in fashion magazines and a step in the right direction, but that in itself is sort of depressing.
You can see the full feature and a behind-the-scenes video here.
