As editor of Vogue China, make no mistake that Margaret Zhang has supported an immense wealth of Chinese talent when it comes to handpicking subjects for the magazine’s front covers, with covers over recent months having featured the likes of Zhang Zifeng, He Cong and Chu Wong. Zhang takes a break from Chinese talent this month, in favor of Canadian talent in the form of modeling royalty Shalom Harlow. Fresh from the cover of Vanity Fair Italia, Shalom poses for photographer Ned Rogers in the chic November 2023 portrait cover image, decked out in a grey dress from Shanghai-based label Oude Waag, with jewelry from Cartier to complete the look – the two pieces selected for the occasion by stylist Dena Giannini.
Yet upon checking out the cover, members of our forums believed Shalom deserved far better. “I was so excited when I saw Shalom’s name. Good god, this is awful. Fashion Canada could do better,” said blueorchid.
“WTF, why do they always pick the worst pic for the cover?” asked balmain1914.
Urban Stylin wasn’t exactly jumping for joy either, critiquing: “The cover looks like a catalogue that you receive in the mail that you didn’t ask for!”
“Shalom looks beautiful but I agree with everyone else: they could have chosen a more dynamic cover image, here it looks like she’s waiting for them to get ready so then she can start posing…” voiced Bertrando3.
“See, that’s the problem with nostalgia. It appears to be a very tough task for the new generation of creatives to draw out the greatness of supermodels’ peak career moments, so everything just seems to fall flat. And it’s usually not the models fault, because we all know what they are able to deliver,” aracic chimed in.
“It looks like a jewellery supplement cover but I’m here for Shalom,” kokobombon enthused.
Vogue28 disagreed with the majority, reasoning: “In all honesty, I don’t mind the sight of this cover whatsoever. Given the current state of affairs, this feels like a win! We’ve got Shalom Harlow, there’s no signs of weird post-production, there’s a strong sense of poise and glamour… I honestly cannot fault this.”
Are you a fan? Did Shalom deserve better? See more and join the conversation, here.
