Not Everyone Is Impressed By Vogue's September Cover

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

When Vogue's September cover was leaked last week, it was initially praised for starring the models of the moment instead of a celebrity. Now that the dust has settled, though, and subscribers have gotten a look inside, the issue's reviews have been less then stellar. Commenters on The Fashion Spot have are debating everything from the cover to Kendall Jenner's spread inside and a Chanel Iman and A$AP Rocky editorial that took the Dirty Dancing inspo a little too seriously. Here's a sampling of the general sentiment:

Move Arizona over to the main cover, forget about everyone else to the right, and the cover wouldn't be that bad."—JesseDillion

Nope, sorry, there is no main feature for the covergirls. If you buy the issue just based on the cover alone, you're in for a world of disappointment (among other things with this issue).—kroqjock

Guess I shouldn't have been that too excited to see the fold-out cover cause it doesn't scream Vogue cover material at all. Teen Vogue is the right publication where this disappointing cover belongs. I am utterly disappointed with this. I get it that they have models on the cover in a September issue which is good cause we have all been praying for this but with this kind of cover that screams "letdown"? No way. Why did Anna let Testino shoot this? It's the most important issue of the year for God's sake. There's Meisel, Leibovitz, McDean or M&M but why Testino? I'm sorry but I just couldn't move on.

This doesn't compare to the glorious, masterfully done, iconic September 2004 cover. And that's a fact.—cottonmouth13

On Kendall Jenner and an editorial featuring Chanel Iman and A$AP Rocky:

I predict Kendall to be Cara 2.0, and I [can't] wait to read all the hate that will come with it!—Fotoholic24

You can totally tell what a natural neither of these two are!—kroqjock

Sasha's editorial blew my ming, that is amazing. I like all the editorials, except Chanel Iman's, she supposed to be dancing right?? Such a bad model.—zacatecas570

And finally, overall assessments:

We've fully seen Wintour's vision for this magazine, it's time for her to step aside, the magazine has stagnated.—HeatherAnne

All of the editorials look so..pprocessed. I actually really like some of them, Sasha's especially but man the retouching is out of control and just brings the whole thing down.—fee de foret

This is the worst September issue that I've seen from them. I'm actually depressed.—Marc10

· US Vogue September 2014 Forum [TFS]
· Vogue September: See All Nine (!) Cover Models [Racked]
· Vogue's September Cover Finally Leaks [Racked]