VINTAGE VOGUE November,1988

By today’s standards, the front cover of American Vogue’s November 1988 edition seems typical enough. Beside the text “the real cost of looking good,” Israeli model Michaela Bercu gazes past the camera, her windswept hair brushing across the shoulders of a bejeweled $10,000 Christian Lacroix couture jacket. Practically every American Vogue cover from 1980 to 1988 had been taken by Richard Avedon, a fashion photographer known for his stark, minimalist style. Models were usually shot against plain studio backgrounds in heavy makeup and statement jewelry. The covers were self-consciously elegant, standing aloof from the more mainstream women’s weeklies they shared newsstands with. By contrast, Wintour’s debut was warm and easygoing. German photographer Peter Lindbergh held the shoot outdoors rather than in a controlled studio; Bercu’s eyes were neither fully open nor looking directly at the camera. As a result, she came across as a glamorous everywoman. Wintour’s unpretentious approach was seemingly epitomized by another coverline on that first issue: “Paris couture: haute but not haughty.”