China Chow for ELLE Magazine

Posted on Nov 9, 2011 in Fashion

In honor of tonight’s episode of Work of Art, let’s check in on the most stylish little reality show hostess on the air today, Miss China Chow, whose name should always be written China! Chow! because it just looks right that way, doesn’t it?

Anyway, we think the gal can wear clothes like nobody’s business but we’re left a little flat by this editorial. Mainly because of the concept behind it.

Work of Art‘s China Chow is featured in the December 2011 issue of ELLE magazine photographed by Richard Philips and styled by Stacy Battat. Gucci Jacket. Hervé Léger by Max Azria Skirt.

China Chow for ELLE Magazine

Hervé Léger by Max Azria Swinsuit. Emporio Armani Skirt. Christian Louboutin Pumps.

China Chow for ELLE Magazine Dress by Mugler. Christian Louboutin Pumps.

China Chow for ELLE Magazine Top by Versace. Pants by Louis Vuitton. Gloves by Kiki de Montparnasse. Christian Louboutin Pumps.

China Chow for ELLE Magazine

Chanel Dress. Gloves by Kiki de Montparnasse.

China Chow for ELLE Magazine Dress by Balenciaga.

China Chow for ELLE Magazine

Vest and Skirt from New York Vintage. Clutch by Balenciaga. Cuff by Kenneth Jay Lane.

We’re just not feeling the whole car thing with her. It’s not what comes to mind when you think of her. The clothes look great, but we can’t help thinking this was a waste of her strengths. She’s tiny and striking and she’s lost among such big props.

[Photo Credit: Richard Philips for elle.com via designscene.net]

Tags:

Anonymous

with you about the cars, but maaaaan. bitch is FIERCE. I want to see her and Iman do an editorial together.
- scottyf
  
  What? Where Iman eats her for dinner?
  
  That’s the only way it would work.
  - Joseph Lamour
    
    I would enjoy a good cannibalism editorial. Seems like something French Vogue would do. Especially with those two.
    - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1326120071 Gaby Ripoll
      
      Seems like they’ve done every other tired trope. I could go for some anthropophagy. Who replaced Carine Roitfeld?
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Deborah-Jozayt/100002949685297 Deborah Jozayt
    
    Purse fight!
  - Anonymous
    
    out of respect for her mother, the cannibalism might not commence.
    then again, it depends on how iman felt about her mother.
    
    ps. i have no idea whats cooking w/ disqus right now.
    - Anonymous
      
      Ah, I do think of Tina Chow when I see China! Chow! Tina was insanely elegant–so tragic. China! is gorgeous, but in a somewhat more robust way–larger features and then that thick healthy hair. Even though she’s tiny, I never feel like China will break.
Anonymous

I request the Chanel dress and my thirteen year old brother would like a car or two. Please.

Girl is gorgeous, but these photos suck so hard. I demand a re-shoot, ELLE!

And many thanks to both of you for so many hilarious and wonderful posts today! It has really improved my dreary Wednesday.
Anonymous

I know I’m in the minority on this issue, but I think she often looks a bit silly in what she’s wearing (at least on WoA). I do appreciate her on the show, though, and I even, in the abstract, enjoy some of the clothes that she wears.

But this editorial is strange. On the one hand, at first glance, it’s less of a pretentious attempt to make what amounts to an advertisement for clothes seem artistic and profound than most editorials, which is refreshing, and she is doing a fantastic job, but it’s just odd. I fundamentally do not get it.
- Anonymous
  
  to me it looks even more like an advertisement for cars, which makes it even more inexplicable.
  
  i do like the yellow shoes, though, even though theyre scarcely visible. also the balenciaga, but most likely either more or less if i could see it properly.
  
  the whole thing looks vaguely star trek joins NASCAR.
  - Anonymous
    
    Indeed it does! Perhaps ELLE is testing the waters in case they decide to start selling used sports cars.
    
    I agree about the Balenciaga – it looks interesting from what of it I can see, but I doubt that bit is truly representative of the whole.
  - Anonymous
    
    Wait, it’s NOT an ad for cars(!?).
- Anonymous
  
  I agree with you regarding her wardrobe on the show. She is so tiny that often the dresses she wears to the gallery showings seem to overwhelm her frame. While they are mostly short cocktail dresses, there is often a lot of frippery or something going on in the bodice or on the shoulders. The one shoulder dress she wore tonight, for instance, had this giant ruffle down one side that looked like it weighed more than she did! It also doesn’t help that the male judges dress much more casual and sometimes just darned schlumpy.
  
  She looks great in the pictures here, but the editorial is boring and it looks like an advertisement for the cars, not the clothes, making China look like a more refined “car show babe” there to sell the car.
  - Anonymous
    
    Bill (the younger one that always tries to look uber hip) always looks like a doche. Total Kramer hair last night.
Anonymous

pretty stupid. When I think women and car pictures, I think of the stupid calendars some guys have. She could’ve had a kick-ass editorial here.
MilaXX

Yeah, not feeling the car show model poses. China wears some fierce looks on the show and makes it look effortless. Why not showcase that?
Anonymous

They could have gotten just about any dark haired pretty girl for this shoot. This is a miss-match.
Emily Faber

isn’t the point that she has nothing to do with cars? i read this as making fun of the ways that people advertise products, idk. if that WAS there intention, i do agree that they could have made it stronger.

alsooooo are you guys going to get to the rest of the critiques from last week? or did you already do this and i missed it?
Joyce VG

The last look is wow pow! But uhhh…straddling cars? That’s bizarre.
Anonymous

They could have done anything with her. Anything. And they chose cars.
Rand Ortega

The Mugler. To. Die!
- Anonymous
  
  Like a deadly white cobra, sensuous and sinewy, writhing and rising to an unheard melody, haunting and pure.
  
  If snakes wore sleek dresses, and had amazing long hair, and piercing eyes, and….uhh, wtf, sold cars?
  
  Die, snake, die!die!
  
  Disclaimer: I’m feeling a little weird this evening ;=}
Anonymous

BORING!
Anonymous

The acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it? She’s fabulous.
Anonymous

So the editors at Elle got the chance to work with this classy and super stylish part-Asian woman…and saw an opportunity to stage her like a Japanese import car girl?

This annoys the crap out of me.
Anonymous

I think she’s fabulous, but this does nothing for me.

BTW, did y’all ever critique the middle artists from last week’s episode? I need to know TLo’s opinion!
Anonymous

The longer she wears her hair the less I like it. She has such a stunning face, but long,straight hair genericizes (ok, probably not a real word but it fits) her. China! Chow! That name is as fun to type as it looks. I want to be her for a day!
- Anonymous
  
  I totally saw Cher (in the ones you could actually see her face.)
Anonymous

OK, this shoot finally demonstrated where I went wrong on a photo shoot almost 18 years ago. I’m a marketing director – work in healthcare. Our hospital is located in a city with the U.S. headquarters of a major European luxury sports car brand – in fact, the very same car brand pictured in this photo. And as a hospital and trauma center, we ran annual seatbelt/safety campaigns. So years ago, I had the brilliant idea: Get the US headquarters to provide the car, and let us use their logo, in conjunction with a “wear your seatbelt” campaign that would run in outdoor, print, etc. Get a hot guy to pose with the car. It was shot by an experienced commercial advertising photographer who also shot cars. And yet, the final results, complete with hot guy and hot car, were totally flat. As these shots with China Chow demonstrate, unless there’s movement or activity involved, i.e. buckling the kids, car + model ≠ convincing. She just doesn’t look natural with the car – neither did he. The concept was the problem.
Anonymous

It looks like an ad for the cars, not the personality or the clothes. The lines are gorgeous bit this is not your editorial, China Chow.
Anonymous

T and Lo, are you going to do posts about what China wears on WoA like you did last season? I’m missing those.
http://tigergray.blogspot.com/ Tiger Gray

Somehow this whole things strikes me as depressingly out of touch and soulless.
http://twitter.com/yankeefoxtrot Alex McGeagh

Girls on cars? So passe.
http://twitter.com/verascity Vera Sticker

I don’t love the car thing either but she is FIERCE AS SHIT.
Anonymous

silly
Anonymous

This is the second time today that I’m calling “lame” on an editorial. Girl-draped-on-car shoots are probably best left for car magazines.
http://profiles.google.com/laurenjeanstm Lauren St Martin

This is just awful. Seriously.
http://asskickingadviser.com/ Ass Kicking Adviser

See, this is the thing about her. I love her taste in clothes. I love the risks she takes. She certainly has a lovely figure for high fashion and is beautiful but…she always comes off a bit stiff to me. I never feel like she is having a WERQ moment – she’s not a model – she doesn’t know how to stand. I think this editorial is exposing that, er, problem (if not being a model but being beautiful and rich anyway can really be categorized as a ‘problem’).
Anonymous

This editorial doesn’t showcase her beauty, style, or the clothing to their best effect at all. I guess I’d call it unsuccessful.
http://profiles.google.com/sara.e.munoz Sara Munoz

She is gorgeous, so are the clothes. The cars are nice too, I guess. But IDK… It’s like three great tastes that do not go great together.
Anonymous

Hot woman on a car? really? In 2011?
Anonymous

i think it’s a little bigoted on their part… like they were trying to do the whole asian girl with racecars schtick that is so so soooo popular with stupid racing mags. there are literally dozens of publications centered around asian girls posing almost nude with fast-and-furious style cars. it’s like they couldn’t think of anything better than a so-called high fashion version of that. i’ve got an idea ~ go to china! chow’s! closet! style her with her own shit and take pictures in/around her house. it’s not a new concept by any stretch, but it would be made interesting by the subject and her unique style and would at least be respectful of the force that china! chow! really is.
- http://beautyforrealgirls.blogspot.com/ accidental housewife
  
  I think they were going for irony, missed the target, and headed straight into tone deaf stupidity. There’s no attempt to make any sense of “China Chow models clothes, with a car as a prop.” It’s actually kind of bizarre. Didn’t anyone at Elle look at these photos and realize they didn’t work?
Anonymous

Morticia
Anonymous

That is one of the most awkward, unflattering poses in the third photo.
Anonymous

I want to steal her hair right off of her head.
Anonymous

I can’t get past that awful hair.
The only woman who could work that super-long, super-straight, center-parted hair was Cher and she ain’t no Cher.
Jacqui

Did I miss the recap of the remaing pieces of the last WOA episode?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jessica-TallGirl-Freeman/1043623567 Jessica TallGirl Freeman

Hot woman on a car. Works for the men, but not so much for Elle. Not impressed.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Austen-Jane/100002245814326 Austen Jane

Oh ack. Woman laying on a car is a complete waste of China! Chow!
Anonymous

I don’t like it, and she doesn’t look like she’s that into it. I agree with the Cher references.
http://twitter.com/amndad amanda lynn

it’s like they prepared for dannica and got china…
Anonymous

I think that the fashions DO fit the car backdrop, though. Sleek and graphic, good lines.
Anonymous

This is a waste of her face.
bloodshothalfblind

i hope she at least got a free car out it.
http://www.americancarpoint.com/body_by_make_model.php?MID=Honda honda cars

wow this is so nice blog of China Chow for ELLE Magazine and i am so happy that you share this information to all..

Share This

China Chow for ELLE Magazine

Archives

Follow us

Archives