The September Issues

VOGUE VS ELLE, THE BATTLE

Out in stores tomorrow, the most important edition of the fashion year. You should always buy them of course, for the sake of fashion that is, but if your budget only allows one issue this is it. Liesbeth and I did some upfront research. Well you can’t really call it research. It turned into a full on battle.

Liesbeth is from camp ELLE (I love ELLE too by the way, especially now that Hilmar Mulder is editor-in-chief) and has some history with the mag, so she got ELLE by let’s call it birthright. Not that I minded being on camp Vogue, because I’d have more chance of winning. Here we go. Ready?

1.The smell

There are few things in life that smell better than a fresh from the press magazine. Both titles got equal points.

2.The weight

Fashion girls want to weight the most only once a year. And that time is now. Liesbeth (the one I least expected it from) even brought her kitchen scale with for the occasion. Vogue weighed in at 707 gram, ELLE at 601. Although Liesbeth felt it was actually a plus to be lighter and kept prattling on about “nice and compact” and “fashion girls should always weigh less”.

3. Number of pages

Closely related to weight, but okay, they could have used heavier paper. Still Vogue has 260 pages and ELLE 244. “Hardly any difference” I heard from my right. I’m ignoring the voice.

4. Number of adverts

Adverts are of utmost importance in publishing circles. Vogue has 67 and ELLE 74. And yes there is a hierarchy to this kinds of advertising. Vogue opens with CHANEL, ELLE with Polo Ralph Lauren. Yeah. We take a look at cover 4 (the back of the magazine), ELLE has Gucci and Vogue has Louis Vuitton. Now even though Vuitton scores higher in the hierarchy than Gucci, we all prefer the Gucci advert so ELLE wins this round. It’s arbitrary I know.

5. Number of fashion series’

Vogue shows off by placing 5 series against 4 by ELLE.

6. Highlight Vogue

Marije Goekoop in the starring role, the best series are hers.

7. Highlight ELLE

The too funny and simultaneously handy article by Stefanie Bottelier and Ilonka Leenheer. They share their fashion-buys and excuses through WhatsApp.

8. Cover texts

ELLE wins this one. Why? Because Vogue only has three cover texts (one about babies), ELLE has 7 subjects that make me want to, have to, read it.

9. Cover

I’m throwing Lara Stone into the battle, since she is of slightly greater stature than Sophie Droogendijk, ELLE’s cover model. But then again Lara is starting to look a tiny bit worn out, she’s so busy and will be on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar next.

In short, Liesbeth thinks that ELLE won. I know better but it’s okay. I love them both.