Vogue vs Harper’s Bazaar
the September battle
It is a tried and tested recipe meanwhile; May and I are going into battle and fighting over who has the best fashion issue. Because, as previously mentioned, print is still a great love of both of us. Was I always Team ELLE, this time I picked up a Harper’s Bazaar. Not because I suddenly think ELLE is stupid (of course not) but because we have never battled Bazaar and it was about time. Here we go.
The cover
The big queen of this issue is Imaan, and she is of course also on the cover. Bazaar has Katy Perry and that photo is part of the series shot by Carine Roitfeld and appears in all international editions of Bazaar. “Vogue wins because they have their own series,” says May. That may be true, but I think it’s a nice idea that all Bazaars are connected. Or something. Right? No? Hmm. Okay okay, Vogue wins. Although we both raised questions about the font they used on the cover.
The advertisements
We count 67 at Vogue and 52 at Bazaar. That means Vogue wins. But can I say something, most readers do complain about too many ads so in that respect Bazaar wins. The fun thing is that because I’m writing this post, I can make these kinds of nuances, while during the actual battle we had decided that Vogue wins this round. But we won’t tell anyone.
Number of pages
Yes, Vogue has 268 and I, uh I mean Bazaar, has 260. So yessss okayyyy, Vogue wins.
Editorial
Okay, it seems like a done deal. But wait, because this round I win on my socks. Anyway, there’s little better than a text written by Cécile and that’s also the case now. Her editorial is smart, funny, and substantive because it makes a good point (about power women and how that’s actually such a silly word) and all in all, Cécile and Bazaar win this round.
The series
We have had some discussion about this. We often judge based on the number of series and how many of them are self-produced. Based on that, Vogue wins, because they have five series that are all self-produced, compared to five from Bazaar, two of which are purchased. But ladies and gentlemen, it’s not that simple. Because of the series in Vogue, three feature Imaan, and now we understand that Imaan is indeed very beautiful and good and more of that, three is quite a lot. Then, one of those purchased Bazaar series is the series by Carine, in which contemporary icons are transformed into historical heroes. Including Jessica Chastain as Jeanne d’Arc, Mariah Carey as Marie Antoinette, and Chris Lee as Coco Chanel. The other series are shot on rooftops, entirely in the theme of “women on top.” In short, Bazaar wins.
The interviews
The interviews in Vogue are relatively short compared to Bazaar, and in terms of text, we find those of Bazaar really a bit better written. It was close, but we still felt that Bazaar won.
The total
The quick calculator (also the regular calculator) sees now that it’s a tie. So we went further into deliberation (god it’s exciting by the way, huh boy now phew) and ultimately we found that… drumroll… Bazaar wins. Because of the best execution of the theme in a more subtle way than Vogue. And, they serve a social purpose. Women’s emancipation is still far from where it should be and complaining and whining doesn’t help, but this kind of beautiful, smart intelligent issues do. Or at least, let’s hope that’s the case.
