Cover Girl: Nicki Minaj for Wonderland

Posted on Feb 2, 2012 in Fashion

Miss Nicki is serving up FACE:

Nicki Minaj covers the February/March 2012 issue of Wonderland magazine in Prada.

Maybe it’s slightly crazy face, but she’s doing her job here, because anyone perusing a magazine rack would be forced to stop and look at her.

And can we just say how refreshingly simple that cover is? Not only is her head not covering the title, but the cover blurbs aren’t covering her and they’re not in a crayon box of colors. Simple B&W covers like this wouldn’t work all the time, but we do respond well to a nicely uncluttered one.

Prada Spring 2012 Collection/Model: Ymre Stiekema

And she’s one of the few women on the planet who could make that ensemble really work.

[Photo Credit: models.com, elle.com]

Tags:

http://twitter.com/ILikeShiny Cindi Williams

The flames coming out of the back of the car on her shirt are bitchin’!
- Anonymous
  
  Totally.
Anonymous

The clothes and hair look good on her. I LOVE that dress.

Going to disagree on the fierceness of her expression. I think she looks like she just got hit on the head with a frying pan, cartoon style.
- http://joyouslifesf.wordpress.com Kiltdntiltd
  
  That is, unfortunately, her default look.
  - http://heartprintandstyle.blogspot.com Vivi N
    
    LMAO!
  - Anonymous
    
    I agree. In every professional pic I see of her it’s always the wide eyes
- Warmheartedgirl Seattle
  
  Yeah, I agree – the hair and makeup are doing all the work here. Her expression is just vacant. LOVE the dress, though!
Anonymous

Hair and makeup look fantastic. The styling of her eyelashes seem to echo the flames shooting our from the car. Cute girl. Cute cover.
Anonymous

Yes, she’s giving face, the face of a deer caught in the headlights. Or, at least, the face of a deer wearing pink lipstick and a pink wig caught in the headlights. Outfit is great fit for her, though.

I do agree with your comments about the cover design. I really hate magazine covers where every inch of space is covered by headlines of different fonts and lots of !!!!!!! all over them.
- Anonymous
  
  That is exactly what I thought when I looked at it – deer in the headlights. Not good face.
Anonymous

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE her crazy “I’m a Barbie doll!” eye thing. Choose a new expression!

Love the colors, though.
Anonymous

Reminds me oddly of the Michelle Bachman crazy face
- http://www.wordydoodles.com WordyDoodles
  
  She might be going for that.
Anonymous

It certainly is an arresting cover.
- http://joyouslifesf.wordpress.com Kiltdntiltd
  
  Quite true. Now the real killer question. Would this cover make you want to buy the magazine?
  - Anonymous
    
    Not in the least, but I doubt I’m hip enough to be their coveted demographic. Besides, since Crash, I can’t stomach the idea of ever watching a David Cronenberg film again (I did bother to read the rest of the cover.)
    - http://joyouslifesf.wordpress.com Kiltdntiltd
      
      Then for you, at least, the cover is a fail. Because it didn’t achieve the goal of your buying the magazine.
  - Terence Ng
    
    I’d at least pick it up and see what it is. I’ve never heard of Wonderland, but the BW cover’s starkness suggests to me that the magazine is a little less starved for content on how I might please my man in 1001 ways. The minimalism also taps into my enjoyment of minimalist style, and my irrational belief that minamalism is clearer in thought, content, and approach (like how I’m a sucker for Simple Living because of its format).
    
    Now, if I flip it open and see that it’s the typical jumble of an Elle or Bazaar, or, even worse, a Cosmo, I’ll probably set it back down.
    - http://beautyforrealgirls.blogspot.com/ accidental housewife
      
      I don’t think that’s irrational at all, especially because most magazine covers are so cluttered and confusing. It’s the visual equivalent of having not even a second of dead air.
      
      I’d probably check it out because I’ve never heard of it, and, like you, put it back if it’s like every other fashion magazine.
    - http://twitter.com/wednesdaydreams Natalie
      
      No, Wonderland is nothing like it. It’s a British based magazine, the content is full of beautifully, beautifully shot editorials, wonderful typography, and they discuss, art, literature, film, and fashion. I don’t call it a fashion magazine per se, it’s more of a lifestyle magazine.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1344922354 Eric Scheirer Stott

She’s making the ensemble work because she’s crushed the coat into a wrap. In anything but a half length shot it would be a mess.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1043171034 Tadiana Walton Jones
  
  My thought exactly. If she wore it styled like the runway model, it would be a fail. And while it looks great on the cover, I’m not sure anyone would go walking down the street with the coat wrapped down around your arms like Nicki.
Anonymous

She looks awesome. I think if you have her on the cover, you don’t need to make the layout all flashy. SHE’S the flashy on that cover.
I have always wanted pink hair. Damn. Should have done it in my 20s.
- http://joyouslifesf.wordpress.com Kiltdntiltd
  
  Hey I live in SF and I can tell you I have customers coming into my store who are rocking wild hair colors way into their 60s and such. Go for it!
  - Anonymous
    
    I did it in my 20s and I’m gonna do it again in my 60s. This in-between period, I have to focus on the office attire and the mortgage.
- Anonymous
  
  i should have done purple hair, damnit too.
Terence Ng

I like it.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jessica-TallGirl-Freeman/1043623567 Jessica TallGirl Freeman

Oh Nicki, I love your crazy ass. And the truth is, this girl is seriously gorgeous when she takes off all that crazy shit she wears.
Anonymous

I wore that colour lipstick in the eighties. I thought, I looked good. Guess my father was right after all. The eye-lashes are nice, though.
- http://beautyforrealgirls.blogspot.com/ accidental housewife
  
  It did look good in the 80s. Or maybe I’m rationalizing because I wore it too.
Stephen Bornstein

Face is what Miss Nicki does best.
Anonymous

I agree about the Prada ensemble! As soon as I recognized the print I thought, “oh, YES.”
Anonymous

Yeah, it makes you look and it’s cool enough from the neck up. However, I loathe the crossed arm/instant boob enhancer pose. I feel like that’s what I did in the mirror when I was 13.
Anonymous

Id just love to see her get the natural treatment for a spread. She has an amazing face.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1046681022 Paula Berman

She looks like a drag queen, and I mean that in the best way possible.
http://beautyforrealgirls.blogspot.com/ accidental housewife

Good god, that’s an ugly coat. Whoever decided to hide it did us all a favor.

I love the cover. Nicki’s killing it. Someday she’s going to pop up somewhere looking tasteful and elegant. Many people will applaud her new look, but I will miss the craziness.
Anonymous

it’s like a clown mugshot…..
Anonymous

She looks like a blow-up doll. She ALWAYS looks like a blow-up doll.

Gross.
Maria Figueroa

I love that she’s one of the few people out there who fully embraces crazy, bright, exciting colors. Most people just always seem terrified of bright colors.
- Anonymous
  
  She looks terrified of bright colors, too.
  - http://twitter.com/ILikeShiny Cindi Williams
    
    Well played!
https://profiles.google.com/104791269167429064986 Judy S

Yes, it’s a great cover. The eye-crossing is amazing. Josephine Baker?
Anonymous

I don’t think she was really wearing that wig. Look closely, and you’ll see that it looks plopped on with photoshop.The forehead has odd characteristics, even a straight line on the left (our left) that wouldn’t occur even with a wig. And I want to straighten that crooked necklace. I do like the clean look of the cover. I can’t say anything about her look as I don’t know who she is, or what she usually looks like. Cool dress design.
Anonymous

I would totally pick up this mag so mission accomplished. Is that sleepwear? Please be sleepwear…
Judy_J

If she’s wanting to look like a cartoon character, she’s doing a great job. Love that fabric.
Anonymous

She did it on em!
MilaXX

I really like that outfit on Nicki, but someone needs to show her how to pose for a picture without giving crazy face.
Anonymous

“anyone perusing a magazine rack would be forced to stop and look at her” – but not buy the magazine.Off-putting, to say the least.
Jasmine Moten

She is on my irrational hate list. Ugh.
http://twitter.com/#!/Space_Kitty Space Kitty

She is so striking (even with the crazyface) I nearly forgot to look at the clothes. Gorj.
http://twitter.com/wednesdaydreams Natalie

Wonderland Magazine is very fabulous guys. Their typography is always very clean and simple. their Nov/December 2010 cover just had Chloe Moretz’s portrait, and her name. That’s it.
http://twitter.com/wednesdaydreams Natalie

I really need to pimp Wonderland more, it’s not a typical fashion magazine. It’s nothing like Vogue, Elle, Bazaar, Nylon, Cosmo what have you. It’s more Flaunt /Another/Dazed & Confused /ID— they cover, art, design, lifestyle, music, film and of course fashion. The editorials are more like art rather than trying to sell you clothes. It’s a seriously gorgeous magazine. I’ve been buying it since I was 14? 15? I’m 19 now so yeah. And yes, what drew me to the magazine was the type as well, since I’m a design student. The typography is really clean, bold and simple.
Anonymous

Looks like a mug shot, but she’s really making the Prada “car coat” work.
Anonymous

She always looks blanker than Ginger listening to the Professor. Not much face-giving here, IMO.

The outfit, though, is killa…and she has the bod/attitude for it. I like the cover’s simplicity, too.
Anonymous

i love it! i’m not a fan, however, of the white lipstick thing, esp. on women of color. she looks infinitely better in the clothes than that stick skinny runway model. my four year old granddaughter is a big fan of nicki’s. she sings and dances to all her numbers. no sign of a pink wig yet.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_F73LIJ3SJGI5AJQMXMWXCKILHI Pamela

Yeah, seriously SCARY face, you mean.
Anonymous

She looks like the runway version of her “Super Bass” video–i.e. everyone involved with the cover of this magazine did their jobs perfectly.
Anonymous

I don’t get the appeal. Sorry.
Anonymous

This has nothing to do with how this person or the magazine cover looks but let me quote two lines of one of her latest works of art:
“We ship platinum, them bitches is shippin wood

Them nappy headed hoes, but my kitchen good”

Beyond the fact that I have no idea what this means, I recall that in 2007 Don Imus was forced off the air because of his reference to “nappy headed hoes”. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were outraged. And this woman is the subject of adoration?

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Cover Girl: Nicki Minaj for Wonderland

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