Vogue's Beige Era

Once Glamour and Glitz- Now Blah

Vogue Magazine used to make readers dream off Paris, Milan, Ferrari’s and private villas. Couture gowns we all wanted, extraordinary jewelry, beautiful people and dare I say, privilege.

Today, Vogue feels like it wants readers to dream of pottery and dry flowers in a milk jar.

This seems to be the vision of its new director, Chloe Malle.

Malle recently sat down for an NPR interview intended to introduce readers to her vision for the magazine's future. Instead, it may have unintentionally reinforced many of the concerns fashion insiders and luxury advertisers have been quietly discussing for months.

She described her approach as being "authentic to what I care about and am inspired by."

What? That's the vision?

Vogue is not a personal journal, nor a Pinterest board. It’s not an Instagram account documenting Malle’s interests, but she seems to think that will sell.

For more than a century, Vogue's purpose was not to tell readers what inspired the editor. Its purpose was to inspire the reader. There is a massive difference.

The Vogue We Knew

Never a fan of Anna Wintour’s personal style, you have to give her credit for not infusing the magazine with that. Wintour celebrated new designers and lauded older ones. She embraced changes in the market and bowed to the classics of Ralph Lauren, Dior, Herrara, Prada and Chanel, even though she herself would show up at The Met Gala in some sort of fury donut shawl, fly-eye sunglasses and a print dress that looked like an English garden.

Today's Vogue increasingly feels like a mood board assembled from a farmers’ market.

Bare floors. Dried weeds in ceramic vases. Linen everything. Oversized cotton dresses. Flat sandals. Muted colors and I suppose, ‘carefully curated authenticity’.

The result is a visual language that feels less luxurious and more, well… beige.

The Face of Vogue

Fashion is supposed to create desire. Luxury is supposed to create aspiration and instead, Vogue often feels as though it is celebrating comfort, caution, and a very specific form of bohemian minimalism. Even Malle's appearance during the interview seemed to embody the magazine's current direction. The look was understated to the point of invisibility. A loose cotton dress. Flat sandals. The sort of outfit one might wear to a beachside farmers market rather than while discussing the future of the world's most influential fashion publication.

Equally concerning is the perception that Vogue's leadership appears largely indifferent to critics of this direction, including some within the luxury advertising community. When asked directly what she thought of advertisers who have questioned the direction of styles in the magazine, Malle said, “well…that’s too bad”.

Dianna Vreeland just rolled over.

It is a curious position for a publication whose business model still relies heavily on luxury brands spending millions of dollars to reach aspirational consumers. So, it seems like Malle is not noticing that luxury consumers are collecting watches, buying sports cars, traveling the world, building wine cellars and searching for experiences that are memorable and extraordinary.

Meanwhile, Vogue looks as though its focused on documenting a lifestyle that is increasingly quiet, restrained, and, frankly, bland.

The tragedy is that Vogue has become forgettable.

Welcome to the Beige Era.