British Harper’s Bazaar has been on our must-buy list throughout 2020. It helps that the mag delivered a series of delightful covers starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Léa Seydoux, Rachel Weisz, Ashley Graham and Marion Cotillard. For November 2020, Lydia Slater welcomes Lily James back to the cover for a fourth time. The newsstand cover image (below) is a departure from previous cookie cutter covers with Lily striking a pose in a little black dress from Christian Dior’s Fall 2020 collection before the lens of photographer Agata Pospieszynska. For the subscribers’ alternative (after the jump), Lily lounges around wearing another look picked by Charlie Harrington this time from Fendi’s Fall 2020 collection.
The covers took our forums by surprise. “Too sexy for British Bazaar, but I like it. Lily always looks good,” confessed Srdjan.
“U.K. Bazaar goes Cosmopolitan,” A.D.C. chimed in.
“She looks beautiful. I like the background. It’s definitely a lot more overt than Bazaar tends to go for, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” added honeycombchild.
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“It’s nice to see her in a more austere manner because magazines usually go with an ethereal, saccharine route when featuring her,” Ken Doll Jenner pointed out.
“The use of blue for the newsstand cover is perfect for a November issue and I’m liking the slight change in direction. However, I couldn’t go as far as to describe the outcome as…sexy,” said vogue28.
Benn98 also took notice: “So glad others are also pointing out the departure in terms of direction and I’m not sure it’s a good thing. Not for a magazine that had such a strong identity.”
“Lily looks lovely, but that art direction is actually hurting me. There’s too much going on and it ruins an otherwise solid cover image. Not exactly what I would associate with British Bazaar, but it’s not bad!” admitted aracic.
“Lily James and her now yearly cover of U.K. Bazaar is usually straight to bin for me, I find her photoshoots to be the definition of ‘pretty vacant,'” proclaimed an underwhelmed tigerrouge.
See more from Lily’s cover shoot and share your thoughts here.
