“For those who aren’t Australian, the cover model is Erica Packer, wife of James Packer. The Packers are certainly one of Australia’s great dynastic families,” explained tFS forum member AL92 about the cover of Vogue Australia’s November 2013 issue, which was shot by Steven Chee and styled by Christine Centenera. He further added, “This [a bit of a] coup for Australian Vogue since James and Erica have just announced they are divorcing. This was shot in July, so well before the split. She’s in Dior…I think the shoot is pretty much featuring all Dior since she’s a client. I like this cover (subscriber’s?), especially given it is a celebrity cover.”
Maybe this provided information influenced the opinion of other forum members on this cover? The majority of people who commented were not excited by the fact that Vogue Australia went for such a tabloid-y direction in its latest issue.
Jeffandtheworld was hoping this was not the actual cover and commented, “Maybe a supplement? Could be a Hello! magazine if that is a real cover.”
“It’s boring and looks like a Tatler or Hola cover indeed,” agreed Bertrando3.
“Indeed, very Tatler and extremely bland — so yeah, very Tatler,” wrote vogue28.
And YoninahAliza analyzed, “I think the cover looks nice, I like the way she’s styled and the outdoors shot. Though I think it’s a bit funny that they chose someone whose story seems like it’s tabloid worthy. I wonder if they were going to use these pictures for a story on the inside and then when the divorce was announced they decided to capitalize on it? Certainly seems like it.”
Although Erica Packer is wearing Christian Dior Haute Couture on the cover and the shot itself is quite nice, this does not feel like a cover of a high fashion magazine and it is an extremely unremarkable cover for any edition of Vogue.
