Pretty Pictures: Makeover Madness

This is an amazing shoot from a 2005 issue of Italian Vogue, shot by Steven Meisel and styled by Edward Enninful.

Italian Vogue is credited for being the most forward of the Vogue magazines, particularly when it comes to the editorial photoshoots published in the magazines. There are few commercial, glossy magazines that would publish a 30 page spread like the one featured here.

The shoot, by Steven Meisel, is titled Makeover Madness, and features images representing the before, during, and after of cosmetic surgery. This was published in 2005, when plastic surgery was beginning to become very popular. I have included the action shots, but the shoot also included many before and after pictures of models, presumably digitally altered to look like the before and after plastic surgery images.

I remember when this shoot was published, everyone was going crazy over it. It really highlights the difference between the (very boring) US Vogue, and Italian Vogue. Can you imagine US Vogue publishing a thirty page spread like this? Never, they would want to fill it with dull product shots of their advertiser’s goods.

Images courtesy of Art + Commerce (hence the tacky labeling all over the images.)

Here’s a post about my favourite advertising campaign ever, also shot by Steven Meisel.

And if you want to read more about why magazines are so boring tese days…read Fashion 101: Magazines and their Advertisers