Harper’s Bazaar used to be a source of excitement for my materialistic teenaged self when it arrived in the mailbox on the first Monday of every month, but it just doesn’t cut the mustard anymore.
I’m a Scorpio, so loyalty is high on my list of priorities, but I’m afraid to say I stayed loyal to Harper’s much too long.
Last year I stopped buying the magazine for good, and even its relaunch under the tutelage of Grazia’s Edwina McCann couldn’t lure me back.
However, this month I succumbed to the enticement of “The Rise of the Australian Supermodel” coverline and bought the June/July issue, $10.95 with a free Collette Dinnigan t-shirt.
The new Aussie supers-in-the-making—Bambi, Meg, Georgia, Stephanie and Juliana—feature on the newsstand and (marginally better) subscriber covers, but that’s about all we hear from these “five fresh faces of antipodean modelling” (p. 16).
Where the cover is misleading, the content is very Oz-centric, with Sass & Bide’s Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke (p. 40); Leona Edmiston (p. 42); fifteen years—and fifteen “major moments”—of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, Kristy Hinze’s python-clad Tigerlily appearance and all (p. 66); three names to watch after this year’s RAFW (p. 72); the “Young Guns” of fashion, who’ll be “rock[ing] tomorrow’s runways” (p. 76); artist Ben Quilty’s Germaine Greer-inspired works (p. 96); the Sydney Biennale exhibition (p. 100); new Australian film, Animal Kingdom, which profiles “crime family, the Codys” (p. 102); how fashion inspired the Australian Ballet’s latest offering (p. 104); Rusty’s wife Danielle Spencer, in her own words (p. 106); and controversial ksubi boys, Dan Single and George Gorrow on page 144.
On the supermodel side, it’s all about championing “The Return of Curves” (p. 170), with spreads featuring Cindy Crawford (p. 166) and Australia’s Next Top Model’s 2009 winner, Tahnee Atkinson. Such full figured names as Lara Stone, Coco Rocha and Hayley Morley are dropped, as well as Aussie models who’ve broken though the glass ceiling and into “super” territory, like Abbey Lee Kershaw, Miranda Kerr, Catharine McNeil and the über-Aussie, Elle McPherson.
The issue is rounded out with divine trenches in “Cloud 9” (p. 174).
All in all, although still pretentious and lacking relevance for many Australian women, the bold, And God Created Woman-esque (the theme song to which the models at Marc Jacobs’ A/W 2010–2011 show strutted their stuff) aura of the issue makes it a worthwhile purchase for the fashion lover.
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