Emmanuelle Alt’s Stagnant Styling

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Alexandra

Emmanuelle Alt, fashion photography, fashion magazines, editor, vogue paris, rock chic

I saw this shoot on Fashion Gone Rogue and I immediately recognized the styling work of Emmanuelle Alt. It wasn’t because she has a distinct handwriting that can be identified in her various works. It is because her styling never seems to change, and it totally sucks. I addressed this a while back, when I was pointing out that her personal style is a lot more interesting than her styling, although I am a bit bored of that too (but, in all fairness, we expect a fashion editor to have a consistent look, though their magazine’s content should change with the times.

Emmanuelle Alt, fashion photography, fashion magazines, editor, vogue paris, rock chic
The whole dirty rocker thing is very old news, and I can’t believe she is still saturating her shoots with guitars, glam rock outfits, and Balmain! (That deserves an exclamation point.) She is a fashion editor, and is supposed to be moving the magazine forward, not regurgitating the same looks over and over again, and featuring what looks like the same clothes from a few seasons back (Balmain never really changes, does it? It just stays bad.) On that note, most Vogue magazines don’t have editors that move the publication forward, they all seem to be sitting in a stagnant swamp, not going anywhere (exceptions being Vogue Nippon and Vogue Italia. Actually, Vogue China is pretty interesting too. Maybe it is just US Vogue and British Vogue that are boring the hell out of me.)

Emmanuelle Alt, fashion photography, fashion magazines, editor, vogue paris, rock chic

By the way, this article in the New York Times about Carine Roitfeld is quite interesting. I totally agree that she has done an amazing job of keeping, or even elevating, her profile since she left Vogue Paris. And I think Emmanuelle Alt has done a poor job of promoting her role and personality. I can’t see her lasting more than a year or so, at this rate.

Photos by Inez & Vinoodh and model Arizona Muse.

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  • Rajan Sami

    I’d have to agree with you on this one. I bought an issue of French Vogue late last year (the one with the Charlotte Casiraghi cover) to see Alt’s handiwork and must say I was sorely disappointed with the content. Love or hate her eroto-chic, under Carine, the magazine had a clear direction with tight editing. Alt’s styling worked well during Carine’s tenure, sandwiched as it was among other works. However with Alt at the helm, the magazine just falls flat. I’m currently reading Dash of Daring: Carmel Snow and Her Life in Fashion, Art,and Letters on the Harper’s Bazaar editor of the 30s and 40s and it makes one long for editors with revolutionary vision and original ideas, sadly much lacking in this era where commerce and keeping advertisers happy seems to count for everything. They should be championing young talent across the various fields – not just fashion but writing, graphic design, photography – may be this way some new ideas would break through but its almost the same roster of established talent doing all the magazines – how interesting is that?

  • Anonymous

    Yes, I was so disappointed when I head Emmanuelle Alt say she’d be working with most of the same people Carine did. There is so little new talent in the mainstream glossy magazines, even magazines like i-D and Dazed, which used to be known for showcasing new photogs, stylists, etc… are publishing the same people over and over again.

    And agree that Carine’s work for Vogue Paris was very tight, and she had a clear vision. Alt clearly lacks this.