Saturday 25 May 2013

Magazine Madness: ELLE May 2013, Kate Hudson, Almost Famous

ELLE UK May 2013

Kate Hudson is almost famous in Cameron Crowe’s film, and shows her ability on How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, earns quite some Fool’s Gold and catfights gracefully in Bride Wars, while still lights up the whole flick in Le Divorce.

Since March 2013 issue, ELLE UK has a drastic change apart from the previous edition: with the multiple cover fonts, on page layouts, pics are much tinier but more crowded, those make visions pleasurable and facts fun. In order to attract both paper and digital readers, there are twitter-blue URL links and captions to indicate the further viewing experiences. As the founder of magculture.com Jeremy Leslie points out: ‘That complex grid allows items to float loosely yet still hang together. As a result, pages are intensely busy yet structured, and spacious with strong horizontal and vertical elements.’ The new face of ELLE UK feels more accomplished and sophisticated than just a few large photographs. All in all, an appealing magazine, in my perspectives, should own sexy-without-tacky cover girls/boys and worth-considering texts; especially for a fashion magazine, the amazing art of monthly fashion campaign is the key.

And Kate just nails it. From the front cover of rosy red flowery dress to the polka dots chiffon, the nearly monochrome along with ELLE’s signified black-and-white shooting, to the conversations with writer Louise Gannon, Kate shares her calorie counting and culture impacts in England, delightedly and effortlessly. Though I am not satisfied with what Gannon wrote herself ‘is still horribly jealous of that (Kate’s) midriff. After two kids…..it doesn’t seem fair’ (Gannon, 184). While writing a profile of an interviewee has no need to share interviewer’s inferiority complex in public, if a journalist holds doubts toward the subject, she/he shall not be assigned to a certain interview session; yet at the same time, it shows how contrast between Louise and Kate.


Still then, page by page, ‘New York State of Mind’ campaign pages convey romantically post-modern Jazz Age style. My favourite picture is on p.204, model Julia Hafstrom wearing wide-fringe black hat, Rochas silk and cotton briefs and cardigan, looking down, with skyscrapers as background. The soft focus and nude colours produce a very left-bank Parisienne touch, and it’s nice to know the photographer is London based Emma Tempest.

Works Cited and Photography: 
Gannon, Louise. ‘Princess Kate.’ ELLE UK May 2013. London: Hearst, 2013.p. 182-191.
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