but out of confusion and curiousity i opened the mag with eva on cover and lo and behold – yes she’s channeling sofia loren and 50′s dolce vita and vargas girls etc but i’d say half the poses are really quite vulgar and almost porny but not in a classy way.

like it or not (i didn’t) i guess u could say it reveals a diffrent side to eva mendez

The telenovella angle is interesting since they have gone mainstream quite a while ago, and are stylisticly cheap. Will there be a kitch revival soon? Definitely the cover is about embracing all that`s faggy in you.

And done well it works.

Unless something fits such a narrow-minded view of ‘high beauty’ it must be questioned and poked at.

Mariah is an unconventional choice for i-D only if you discount how talented she is and how long she’s endured as a pop artist (I’m not particularly a fan but I can give her that).

The waifs and ‘high fashion’ models that i-D usually uses are pretty too but they are not the only version of beauty, not the only forms of icons.

I think Eva Mendes is out the gate beautiful and Vogue is lucky to have such a stunning actress on their cover. I agree that she has a throwback look – calling to mind Sophia Loren or even Cindy Crawford and the era of 90s ‘glamazon’s.

as for the mariah carey cover… i just don’t get it. when i think of MC i definately don’t think of high fashion.

But does increase in readership mean a better magazine or will the content be dumped down to appeal to a larger audience?

US Vogue has a readership of 2 million compared to 200,000 for Paris Vogue. But US Vogue is a piece of crap compared to its European counterparts. Ultimately it is the $$$ that counts, unfortunately.

Let’s hope Eva Mendes on VI is an anomaly for the magazine.