The last time Claire Danes appeared on the front of Vogue was in July 1998. Back then, she was barely 20; the photo taken by Steven Meisel shows the actress bright-eyed and smiling, truly blooming in the grass. The image couldn’t be more at odds with her latest Annie Leibovitz-lensed August 2013 cover (it’s the annual “Age Issue”) which (playing on Danes’ lead role in the show, Homeland) shows a severe, dour woman gazing back at us. For this I blame Vogue — not the actress — whose famously bad perspective on aging is all over this cover, from the hard-bitten expression (that is not the face of a woman who is enjoying her Vogue cover shoot) to the airbrushed Land Before Time backdrop. No one chooses to get older, but people do get to decide whether they want to be miserable. (Things don’t, unfortunately, improve in the accompanying editorial, which reimagines “famous” scenes from Homeland, but styled with designer clothing.)
Other things worth pointing out:
The “Fall Looks for Everyone (With a Little Help From Daft Punk)” story most likely features Karlie Kloss (the model was seen taking photos with the French music duo on the streets of NYC a couple months ago), but probably doesn’t answer the question: Isn’t there someone better suited to giving American women fashion advice than Daft Punk?
I’m also greatly anticipating “Brooklyn Chic — the Girls, the Dresses, the Food.” I love all those things, so surely Vogue‘s unique perspective will enrich my future experiences sampling the lost borough’s superlative souvenirs.
