We encountered plenty of hits and misses last year when it came to Vogue Germany. Covers with Hailey Bieber, Toni Garrn and Nicole Atieno were deemed unsatisfactory, while covers with Anok Yai, Raquel Zimmermann and Irina Shayk pleased us to no end. Back in December, Christiane Arp announced her departure from the glossy closing out her tenure with a Leni and Heidi Klum offering. Now Akon Changkou graces the title’s March 2021 cover fresh from fronting Vogue Hong Kong. Snapped by Julia Noni and styled by Nicola Knels, the South Sudanese-Australian beauty wears Chanel for the striking cover image.
The cover garnered mixed feedback on our forums. “That’s a beautiful profile. A different layout would’ve elevated it more,” said mikel.
“Great to see Akon on a Vogue cover. However, the photo and their layout don’t match. It’s like I’m looking at fan art,” echoed crmsnsnwflks.
“Stunning portrait! It’s certainly better than most of their 2020 covers,” appreciated Benn98.
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MON wasn’t impressed with the art direction, either. “Stunning! I wish she was facing the camera since it says ‘face the future.’ I hate the art direction! Hate it. It seriously needs to be elevated.”
“Very Vogue Paris (probably because of the color of the font), but still gorgeous nevertheless,” noted THD96.
“Don’t know why people like this, a generic photo of a generic (by today’s standards) model. Lighting is not good, too, but the styling is nice, I admit. More elaborate and skillful lighting mixed with a better model would have resulted in a far more striking cover,” critiqued dontbeadrag.
“Meh. Seen better and just reminds me of Karim Sadli’s portrait of Adut Akech for Chanel’s Cruise 2020 campaign, which was far more striking. This falls short,” added vogue28.
Are you a fan of the cover? Share your thoughts here.
