The September Issue

Every year, millions of fashionistas (almost all women, and some men) wait patiently for Vogue magazine’s “September Issue”. This year was no different, with the industry’s “fashion Bible” touting “916 pages of spectacular fall fashion for all”!

And of course I was one of those millions who purchased the September issue with a certain level of expectation that there would truly be a wide array of “fall fashion for all”, meaning fall fashion that anyone and everyone could afford.

First let me say that the issue didn’t even begin until page 76, which showed the first “table of contents”. Yes, I’m saying that there were 75 pages of advertisements. The TOC continued on pages 160, 178, and 194. In all, there were 252 pages of actual Vogue contributions, whether it be writing, styling, or whatever. The rest of the pages were advertisements… 664 pages of advertisements!

Yes, I like to look at advertisements like everyone else, but I purchase a magazine because an article (or articles) caught my eye. I subscribe to several magazines and as most of you know from several of my past posts, I read a magazine from cover-to-cover… literally!

This September issue of Vogue possibly weighs up to three pounds, maybe. So purchase two issues and use them as home weights! Just kidding… maybe.

I’m not in an uproar about Vogue photoshopping the cover photo of Lady Gaga.

How many magazines do you think they’d sell if they didn’t photoshop every single cover photo? Maybe they need to try that, just to see how we respond to a non-photoshopped cover of a celebrity or model. Let’s see their skin discolorations, their imperfections, their pimples, their freckles.

Ooooohhhh… CHALLENGE!!! I’m issuing a challenge to all magazines that photoshop the individual(s) on the cover… go six months without a single photoshopped cover and let us – your readers, your subscribers – help you decide what is naturally beautiful!

Now on to specific contents in this issue itself…

I really enjoyed Ann Patchett’s eulogy of her beloved dog, “the constant, ever-devoted Rose”, who was “allover white with one ginger ear, a gingered spot between her shoulder blades.”

Patchett addressed their relationship with such intimacy. “I want to tell you that Rose was an extraordinary dog, bossy and demanding of attention, comforting in her very presence,” Patchett wrote. “By explaining her talents and legions of virtues, though, I would not be making my point, which is that the death of a dog fit me harder than the deaths of many people I have known, and this can’t be explained away by saying how good she was. She was. But what I was feeling was something else entirely.”

Patchett explained how she came about owning Rose and said, “Sometimes love does not have the most honorable beginnings, and the endings, the endings will break you in half. It’s everything in between we live for.”

I also enjoyed Jonathan Van Meter’s interview with the lovely Lady Gaga, and the photographs taken by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott were beautiful. I really think that Lady Gaga is not only a musician and singer, but she is an artist and she is always thinking about her fans.

Van Meter writes that “Gaga’s musical abilities are fairly well documented at this point, but there are still great swaths of people who can’t see past the freaky costumes, dismissing her as a lightweight or a carnival sideshow — somehow not the genuine article.”

Lady Gaga replies, “My records don’t always lend themselves to me enchanting you with my vocal stylings or my jazz chops. So you can’t be upset about people not known about things that you don’t make available to them.”

I enjoy most of Lady Gaga’s songs and her videos are equally as enthralling. Some of her tunes are super catchy… “papa-paparazzi…”

And finally, I enjoyed Van Meter’s intimate interview with the very lovely (and grown up) Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Van Meter writes of a very down-to-earth, but very educated Chelsea Clinton… a young woman who grew up in the public eye but who has managed to maintain a private life of sorts.

Van Meter writes, “Clinton’s public-speaking manner is one of studied mellowness, with a measured tone and cadence that is neither like her mother’s nor her father’s.”

Clinton tells Van Meter that “having thick skin is an important quality if you want to do something in the world; thankfully that’s something I had to develop early on.”

This intimate look into the life of Chelsea Clinton was touching, especially the part about her relationship with her grandmother Dorothy Rodham, Hillary’s mother, who died last November at the age of 92.

“She always wanted to go to Cactus Cantina near the National Cathedral,” Clinton told Van Meter. “I would drive Marc (my husband) and my grandmother there, and they would get a large pitcher of frozen margaritas, and then I would drive them home, both slightly inebriated. Which gave me inordinate joy.”

Van Meter spent two months imbedded with Chelsea Clinton and watched as she switched hats at a dizzying pace. All I can say is that Van Meter was one lucky reporter.

For those of you who don’t subscribe or purchase Vogue magazine, I hope that this post has piqued your interest in either Ann Patchett, Lady Gaga, or Chelsea Clinton.

Have a great day!