Magazine Analysis 3 - Vogue

 Magazine Analysis 3

The ‘Vogue’ masthead is positioned across the top of the cover, reaching into each third to highlight the importance of the brand, indicating its large popularity as a mainstream style magazine. It’s colour is replicative of Emma Watson’s pale yellow outfit, highlighting that Vogue maintain a colour scheme throughout their covers to remain chic, organised and aesthetic. To the left of the masthead, there is a dateline of the shorthand month and the year, exemplifying that Vogue publish monthly, adding an insight to their reliability and popularity of maintaining a business despite only publishing their leading magazine 12 times a year. The main image is of Emma Watson as a model, turned to face the camera as she sits side-on, aligning her shoulder and face in the centre third of the cover, her back positioned in the lower left third. This is replicative of a classic photoshoot pose, implementing simplicity to the cover, to allow Watson to make the statement without too many surrounding elements that distract from the model, as seen in pop-culture magazines that are more chaotic and creative rather than sophisticated and a showcase of fashion or celebrities. Watson shows a bit of her skin, conforming to Butler’s gender performativity theory, however due to her image of feminism, she remains primarily modest, unlike other models in conventional covers who wear revealing clothes to appeal to the male gaze. She wears fairly natural makeup with a bronze tint that corresponds to the colour scheme, particularly complimenting her pale yellow outfit which symbolises peace and innocence. Her hair is styled in a half-messy updo, suggesting she is subverting the conformity of perfection and neatness of a model found in conventional magazines, but rather influencing the target audience of young women to have fun with their hairstyles and not follow the codes and expectations of society and trends. Watson makes eye contact with the camera, and therefore the readers, implying that she is directly communicating with them, with specific focus of her message of sustainability; the main cover line reads ‘Emma Watson Sustainability Trailblazers, Fashion’s Call To Action’ suggesting that serious content is covered in this particular edition of Vogue that is reflective of Watson’s mission for a better world and humanity. Using an inspirational, iconic female figure such as Watson on the cover directly targets and influences a young female audience, particularly those who grew up identifying with Watson’s renowned portrayal of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series - her popularity and fandom is able to communicate with pre-sold audiences who are bound to listen (relating to star theory and fandom theory), particularly to her words of innovation and inspiration to make the world a better place. The words ‘sustainability’ and ‘trailblazers’ are larger than the rest of the print, indicating the key focus of the magazine, and ‘trailblazers’ is written in capitals, portraying Watson as a pioneer whom needs the readers’ full attention. The positioning of the main image allows a blank space of room for the secondary cover lines in the lower-middle right third. Each story relates to Watson in some way; ‘Wellness Now’ applies to her figure and mantra of being the best version of herself, ‘the new rules of chic’ applies to her trendy style and fame, ‘theatre’s power couple’ applies to her success in the acting industry. These relevant articles create a well-rounded cover that is primarily aimed at women who strive to be activists, stylish, and updated - the mention of ‘theatre’ suggests the ideal reader is middle-classed and can afford to see shows, so is therefore interested in the current theatre culture.