Blake Lively for September Vogue? Groundbreaking.

On cultural relevance in a digital age

Last month, when Joe Biden endorsed Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee, it was a monumental moment, to say the least. Harris would be the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to lead a major party ticket, and in the ensuing days, major party players lined up in support around her, and social media lit up with excitement and joy at the prospect of a new, younger, female candidate.

I’m Canadian, and even I was excited about the possibility of a woman in charge as the leader of the free world. I thought about the timing and how wonderful it would be to feature Harris on the cover of the September issue of Vogue - which, although it’s seen better days, has long been known as the quintessential style bible for fall fashion and a gauge of the cultural zeitgeist. If anyone could make it happen, it would be long-reigning Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.

But when I woke up this morning, the September issue cover was revealed, and it wasn’t Harris, but Blake Lively, sporting the biggest and most beautiful bouffant you’ve ever seen, in a very obvious promotional tie-in to her new haircare brand, Blake Brown.

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Yes, it’s a beautiful cover, and the hairstyling is impeccable. But as a former fashion and beauty editor, I have to ask: Does this cover capture the moment we’re in? Is it going to generate the excitement of past iconic Vogue covers featuring fold-outs of OG supermodels? Is it tapping into the zeitgeist and what people are feeling? I’m going to say no, and it’s not because Lively isn’t culturally relevant right now; it’s that she’s not a surprising choice, and that’s why it’s a bit of a letdown.

Ironically, while Vogue has seen better days and is scrambling for relevance in the age of social media, it still commands attention on platforms like Instagram, where it has 49.5 million followers. But the response to this cover has been decidedly mixed: while some have applauded the choice, many others have questioned why Lively is deserving of a Vogue cover and/or are feeling fatigued by the endless Blake x Ryan promotional juggernaut.

The magazine industry is built on promotion—when actors appear in magazines, they usually have something to sell, whether it’s a new film or product line (Lively has both, in spades). Over the last year, Lively has had a major resurgence, starting with her attendance at various Kansas City Chiefs football games with Taylor Swift & co., all the way through appearances to promote her husband, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool & Wolverine, and now the press tour to promote for her own film, It Ends with Us.

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In the background, she has also been busy promoting a handful of brands, including her cocktail brand, Betty Booze, not to be confused with her beverage brand, Betty Buzz. And just this last week, Lively launched a haircare brand, Blake Brown Beauty, which has been met with both excitement and some criticism for its decidedly dated-looking packaging and campaign imagery showing what looks like dry hair and dead ends. Much like her husband, the girl has got a lot going on. And I don’t want this to be a hate-on-Blake post. Look, the film industry is tough these days, and if the girl wants to be an entrepreneur and make bank, by all means, let her do so.

Hugh Jackman and Blake Lively for Vogue September 2024, directed by Baz Luhrmann.

So, it’s not surprising that Lively landed a Vogue cover. In the pre-internet days, the above equation would signal: “She’s the It girl of the moment. Let’s put her on the September cover.” But in the digital age, where every move, red carpet appearance, and campaign image is meticulously captured for social media, when you add a Vogue cover on top of all that, it spells overexposure, not to mention a keen effort to try and sell us stuff (and a lot of stuff at that).

Contrast this with the people they could have put on the cover, such as Kamala Harris, who is *really* doing some things (and also resonating with Gen Z), or any of the amazing athletes who have been achieving superhuman feats and smashing records at the Olympics, like Simone Biles, Suni Lee, or Gabby Thomas. At this moment, these are the heroes we need—people who are sparking joy and lighting up our lives by doing things that none of us could even dream of doing.

Meanwhile, the idea of Harris on a Vogue cover wasn’t a stretch: Wintour has long supported Democratic candidates like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, and Harris herself as Vice President, was featured on a Vogue cover back in February 2021. And there’s no one that captures the zeitgeist quite like Kamala right now (with the help of a very good social media team).

So why do I care so much? Chalk it up to being a forever magazine fan who had stacks and stacks of Vogues and ELLEs lining my bedroom as a kid, plastering my walls with editorial pages, and dreaming of being a supermodel. I'll chalk it up to being a former fashion editor who knows that things could be so much better and still holds out hope that magazines can survive if they keep up with the culture.

But the truth is, if you want “real fashion,” you need to look to the pages of past issues of Vogue Italia or British Vogue under EIC Edward Enninful. And at the end of the day, magazines, as much as they are about selling dreams, have to sell themselves and make bank, too. And maybe featuring a normie white blonde woman who appeals to the masses is the way to do it. You may not sell a lot of actual, physical magazines, but you might help to sell a lot of hair products at Target.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with this: Someone mentioned a while back on social media that Skims campaigns are the new Vogue covers, and I might have to agree. If cultural relevance and fashion fantasy is the barometer of what makes a good fashion image, then Skims’ campaigns with Lana Del Rey and Nicola Coughlan, channeling their respective characters as 1950s sad-glamour-girl and Bridgerton’s lovelorn Penelope Featherington fit the bill. There’s a level of meta-storytelling, along with a key element of surprise, that truly delights in an age when surprising anyone is a very difficult thing to do.

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Required reading:

Back Row

’s Amy Odell on “Blake Lively’s Inescapable Floral Phase.”