Why is there a porn star on the cover of Vogue? Did Kanye West threaten Anna Wintour and her family? Are pigs flying over the ice in hell?
With the April cover featuring West and Kim Kardashian, the number crunchers at Condé Nast have obviously won the war. The last remaining bits of creative or editorial integrity at Vogue have succumbed to focus-group expectations and middle-market pandering as dictated by the business side of the company.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Grace Coddington soon announced her retirement,” a longtime fashion commentator told me. “How can an artist like Coddington continue in such a bottom-line-obsessed environment? As she no doubt sees, Vogue has become a nothing more than a shopping catalog of over-priced, mass-produced, pop-culture-generated junk.”