Cadeaux - Paris Vogue

One of the very few luxuries which I am treating myself these days is purchase of the Paris Vogue almost every month. The last edition was a double-issue December 2010/January 2011 under the direction of the famous fashion designer Tom Ford under the supervision of the editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld. It is one of the Roitfeld's last issues, because on 17 December 2010 she has announced her resignation and will leave the magazine at the end of January 2011 to be replaced by Emmanuelle Alt. Right now, I just can't imagine Paris Vogue without her. Time will show if Alt will continue Roitfeld's vision of breaking the taboos and showing grey areas - showing the unspeakable. 

Of course under Roitfeld's reign Paris Vogue was controversial. She has put painted in black Lara Stone on the cover - for which she was criticized - that she doesn't give black models a chance. She still managed to actually PUT models on the front cover - not like Anna Wintour who prefers actresses. Also, despite recession Roitfeld still kept the magazine going - it is full-on magazine - not like a shrank version of US Vogue, which literally has 20 pages. I still have old US Vogue magazines - especially the September 2008 edition (surprisingly, right before the Lehman brothers collapse...) with Keira Knightley on the cover. The magazine is HUGE. I remember telling my dad to buy me one copy when he was flying to Poland from New York and he complained that it is heavier than a book! And now look at it! It's not even worth to buy it - such a shame!

I the Dec/Jan issue of the Paris Vogue are three controversial editorials. Especially "Cadeaux". There has been a lot of discussion on this editorial - some on the forums, some on the blogs and some on my Facebook. One of my friends attached a link with the pictures and condemned a whole thing saying that it is a "treat for paedophiles", asking "what is wrong with this world" and concluding "fashion is bad, because it treats little girls like objects". There were of course others who totally agree with her and when me and the other girl tried to present our point of view we were almost branded "paedophiles in disguise". This really got under my skin. To start with, I don't think that any paedophile will buy a Paris Vogue. Second of all, the magazine is about FASHION and it is controversial - as it is supposed to be. Another thing is that there are A LOT of children, who are not much older than these girls, who are putting their nude or almost-nude pictures on all kinds of websites with no parent or adult stopping them. Personally, I think that the editorial is great, of course the girls are made into adult women, but to me, it's not a big deal. They have make-up and they've been Photoshopped - who isn't in the fashion magazine these days? Besides, the whole subject is Cadeaux - what the pictures don't show is that all photos are attached to a particular theme of gifts. 

The photo on the right is from the different editorial which asks 

what make-up to put when you're 13 and 70.

 

Which little girl didn't dress up in her mother's clothes, high heels 

and put the make-up on? 

To me, these editorial portrays exactly that - 

- only in the very expensive clothes and professional make-up.