The Battle

Vogue vs ELLE

Of course, the September issues are the pièces de résistances in magazine land, but for the December issue, a lot is also pulled from the fashion closet. For Diane Vreeland it was even her most important issue. Because today both the December Elle and Vogue are in stores, Liesbeth and I are sharpening our knives and opened the battle, part II.

Because Liesbeth is genetically predisposed to the Elle gene and since I love them both equally and therefore find it very difficult to choose, the division was immediately clear again. Liesbeth is team Elle, I am team Vogue. Here we go.

 Round I. Sniffing

We are of course very digital and I think the new generation understands nothing of this, but the smell of a freshly printed magazine... They should make a perfume of it.

Both passed.

 Round 2. What do we get?

For the price of €5.95, Vogue serves 196 pages.

Elle is cheaper, €4.99 and also a bit thinner; 180 pages.

In terms of price-quality, Elle wins.

 Round 3. The fashion series

Very nice those interviews, but the fashion series is what we ultimately buy these magazines for. Or not?

Both have three series, but at Elle, all three are self-shot and Vogue bought one from their international portfolio. “Well, a very beautiful one, styled by Emauelle Alt,” I sputter against it, but unfortunately, I have to eat my words. Elle wins this round.

 Round 4. The interviews

Ha, I'm going to win this in my slippers. Because say Vogue and you say beautiful interviews. Especially when they are written by fashion friend Fiona Hering. No, we are not impartial here.

On the cover, Elle communicates at interviews: Georgia May Jagger, Abbey Hoes, and Geraldine Kemper. Sounding names, but as far as I'm concerned, only Geraldine deserves the stamp of interview. Abbey and Georgia May have certainly been spoken to, but it covers no more than a single page.

 Vogue has an interview with Halina Reijn (with beautiful photos) and Maartje Laterveer flew to Los Angeles to speak with Angelina Jolie. Together, 14 pages of interview. Haha, I win this round. In my slippers, correction, McQueens.

 Round 5. The advertisements

Inspiring for you as a reader, but also the hard currency that everything must be paid for. Moreover, there is a hierarchy in advertisements. Both have j’Adore by Dior as the opening spread and on cover 4, the back, Vogue has Louis Vuitton (with a super cool campaign with Saskia de Brauw boxing gloves) and Elle has Cartier.

As for cover 4, Vogue wins, but Elle really has a lot more advertisements. 43 versus 34.

But because of that fantastic Vuitton, I say; ex aequo. (Liesbeth isn't reading along anyway...)

 Bonus points:

Both have a really nice gift for subscribers. With Vogue, you get a Denham jeans (Jet wants a subscription now) and Elle sends you the perfume Ma Vie by Hugo Boss.

At Elle, we find it even more fun that our backstage friend Tessa Bennebroek is on the cover.

I sigh and tally everything up.

Elle wins. But narrowly, huh, narrowly.

I would say; buy them both, give one to your friend and swap again next week. It's almost Christmas after all.