Vogue: Country Strong

Posted on May 16, 2012 in Fashion

Darlings, here’s your pretty to close out your day and send you off into an evening of serenity and peaceful slumber. Also, hot semi-naked guys.

Karlie Kloss straps on some amazing gowns and poses with some top American male olympians for Annie Leibovitz and the pages of Vogue. Close your eyes and imagine a world where you’re in an Oscar de la Renta dress … participating in a track and field event.

Ryan Lochte – Swimming
Stella McCartney gold lamé dress

Vogue June 2012 Issue
Editorial: “Country Strong”
Photographer: Annie Leibovitz
Model: Karlie Kloss

Bryan Brothers – Tennis

Atelier Versace Spring 2012 Couture Collection

Dwyane Wade – Basketball

Bottega Veneta Spring 2012 Collection

Jonathan Horton – Gymnastics

Victoria Beckham Spring 2012 Collection

Dwyane Wade – Basketball

Oscar de la Renta Pre-Fall 2012 Collection

Jonathan Horton – Gymnastics
Vera Wang silk organza–and–tulle dress

Bryan Brothers – Tennis

Alexander McQueen Spring 2012 Collection

Ashton Eaton – Track & Field Lanvin rose-print brocade dress

Ryan Lochte – Swimming

Haider Ackermann Spring 2012 Collection

Ashton Eaton – Track & Field

Oscar de la Renta Pre-Fall 2012 Collection

[Photo Credit: Annie Leibovitz for vogue.com, vogue,com]

Tags:

http://twitter.com/sylvia_warren Sylvia

Mr. Horton looks quite pleased to be next to Kloss, no? The shot of the two on the parallel bars is gorgeous though.
- http://twitter.com/hdl_b Heather Barkman
  
  Haha I was just thinking the same thing
- Frank_821
  
  Mr Horton has always looked “pleased’..it was the talk of the last Olympics in some circles
- EditKitten
  
  The only shot I liked in the whole thing — the composition worked, the dress was right, she looks fantastic.
Kate4queen

They are absolutely stunning. Thank you!
http://phantomminuet.blogspot.com/ MinAgain

With the exception of the shot with the parallel bars, it all looks kinda random. I can’t say I like it all that much.
- AmandaCathleen
  
  Completely agree. Almost all of these look like they were shot separately then photoshoped together. Beautiful dresses, hot guys… but as an editorial I don’t really like it.
  - eclare
    
    My thoughts exactly.
- joe_tey83
  
  It looks like a cut and paste job of put a model in a pretty dress and place her next to a sports guy. Very uninspired and lazy. Obviously a do for the sake of doing thingy.
  - http://profiles.google.com/grandiva1968 e jerry powell
    
    Leibovitz is still broke, no? She has to do something…
    
    Though it should be noted that Horton is that short.
    - http://www.facebook.com/people/Sarah-Adams/1143985903 Sarah Adams
      
      Yeah, but did she have to set up the shot so he looked like the midget in a flea-bag traveling circus? The poses, plus the cruddy background and the U-Haul truck make it all look so tawdry and freak show. He’s a world class athlete and the shot makes him look like a sad joke.
      - Bridget Dierks
        
        Agreed!!
      - suzq
        
        He could have lifted her! That, I would have liked to have seen.
      - http://profiles.google.com/grandiva1968 e jerry powell
        
        Karlie Kloss is a freaking giant. Poor guy can’t help that.
        
        And it reminds me a little bit of this.
  - terekirkland
    
    I doubt Leibovitz even had much control over what they did to her photos in post production. Sad, really. And the ones with the pull-down backgrounds are the worst. It’s like they weren’t sure which ones they planned to composite, so they shot a lot of them in front of a screen in a parking lot. In DAYLIGHT. Surely any photographer could have shot these. They don’t have that signature tableau quality that Annie’s usually have. The basketball net is just laughable. Looks like a first year Digital Design project. Tsk, tsk, Vogue. Is Grace Coddington on holiday?
    - suzq
      
      I dunno, I sort of like the basketball net if for no other reason than you can see the model flexing her muscles so that she maintains her balance up there!
- Spicytomato1
  
  I think it’s refreshingly sporty for Vogue. It surprised me. And they matched the garments to the athletes in interesting ways. I like the tennis ball yellow…thing (not sure what it is exactly)…with the tennis player and the silver gown with the hurdler. Maybe slightly random…but still cool.
  
  And, um, hello Dwayne Wade!
  - donkeygospel6
    
    Only gays would think this is sporty.
- makeityourself
  
  I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way. This feels like a sin to say, and I love Karlie Kloss (she’s the best since Evangelista,) but she looks rather uninspired in some of these shots, like she was just phoning it in.
  
  When I found myself asking question after question (Is he really that short? Is she really in the water with him? Is she sitting on a tiny basketball net or is that just a change of perspective?) I realized that I hadn’t really looked at the clothes. That’s kinda bad for a fashion shoot.
  
  Fail. It was contrived and it felt obligatory.
  - filmcricket
    
    Now that’s interesting. I actually found myself looking at the clothes because there was so little else to focus on (aside from the hot guys, of course). The hugely layered, overly ornate, dramatically lit spreads that usually feature in the Daily Pretty are beautiful art, but I’m rarely noticing the details of the clothes in them.
    - Spicytomato1
      
      That’s why I liked it, too. It really is a starker change from their typical schitck.
gabbilevy

This is both hysterically funny and stunningly beautiful. Just how I like my model+Olympian editorials.
http://twitter.com/Phoe_Iyad IH

Each on their own are pretty but the final result looks like a bad photoshop job.
http://profile.yahoo.com/4KLZGI7NMQE2LQDYYSMPFXANW4 Uche

Parallel bars=Cute. Dresses=Cute, stunning even. Everything else=No thank you.

Is it odd that I find none of the male models attractive?
- LesYeuxHiboux
  
  Not too, since they are athletes chosen for skill rather than models chosen for looks.
- giiiirrrr
  
  It’s only odd if you like your dudes with all brawn and no brains, cause, with the exception of the Bryan brothers, they all look like dull muscleheads in these shots.
SapphoPoet

Wow–beautiful! How interesting. LOVE the Oscar de la Renta silver dress.
RocknLox

Maybe Annie Leibovitz was trying to prove that there is actually some technique in the CGI that she normally uses by showing the original project complete with background noise, unaltered. People always say that she’s just a master photoshopper and I think that this pushes back against that theory. There is some work involved in the transformation.
- filmcricket
  
  Interesting theory. I’m trying to imagine a world where Anna Wintour lets anyone do that in the pages of her magazine, but I like it as an explanation.
mmgk

I feel like this is a stupid question, but she’s photoshopped into these pictures, right?
LesYeuxHiboux

1. This editorial is pretty stupid, and poorly executed.
2. January Jones wore the Versace better.
3. Why is Karlie Kloss such a popular model? She is singlehandedly killing those gowns.
4. Helloooooo, Bryan Brothers.
5. The shot with Ashton Eaton is the best of the lot.
- EditKitten
  
  So glad I’m not the only one who thought it was stupid! And so agreed on Karlie Kloss — she’s just nowhere near as good as the runway models.
MilaXX

I’m all for hot semi-naked guys, but why is Gymnastics spelled with an “i”?
hughman

“So we’ll just throw the model in an evening dress into the frame with some Olympic guy”

“Oh, you mean to skillfully juxtapose the dresses’ beauty with the natural grace of the athletes?”

“Wait, what?”

“What?”

“…”

“Why aren’t I holding a Starbucks?”
amian3

Looks like a lot of photoshop here. The photos look like each person was shot separately and pasted onto the same page. The side by sides with the gymnast and swimmer are the only exceptions I see, and are by far the best “real” shots. The parallel bars and basketball hoop shots are the best composed ones.
- IAmJ
  
  But even in the basketball shot, Dwayne Wade’s toes have been clipped and didn’t make the frame. Sloppy job for Vogue.
SpcilK

Dwayne Wade’s body is RIDICULOUS! Pretty pieces.
- Spicytomato1
  
  Believe it or not it was actually his face/expression that turned my head more than the muscled bod.
http://twitter.com/AmeliaNotPond Amelia Ross

A bit hit-and-miss…love the ones with Horton, hate the swimming one…
kimmeister

This reminds me how much I’m looking forward to the summer Olympics this year. Especially men’s gymnastics (I’ve always been wild over a male gymnast’s build).

The first shot with the Bryan brothers is cute. They look like fun.
- giiiirrrr
  
  Yeah, I agree. That’s the only one that works in a narrative way. Everything else is just gorgeous girl on one side, beefcake on the other.
  - octopol
    
    And this is exactly why I hate this editorial. Instead of having this random girl doing nothing, couldn’t they have done something like the cover where they featured both male and female athletes being both fashion-y and sporty? Or just featured a model, but in sports settings? This was just bizarre and annoying.
    - semirose
      
      Right? It’s like Vogue, remember how there’s all these gorgeous female athletes too? This is just so weird and badly photoshopped and kinda takes the fun out of having these athletes in Vogue (but then I guess Vogue isn’t allowed to have fun? Someone forgot to tell the Bryan Brothers)
      - http://iamthelizardqueen.wordpress.com Lizzie
        
        Exactly what I was thinking–would it have killed them to acknowledge female olympians?
- EditKitten
  
  They’re in a few commercials together; I saw one yesterday for a bank that was kinda cute, but they seem really fun!
turtleemily

I feel like these are so obvious that they’re boring. This could also be because I’m feeling very, “Ugh, summer Olympics.” I’m more of a winter gal.
NC_Meg

What’s going on in the second Jonathan Horton shot? Is he really that short or is she standing on something? I know she’s probably much taller than him but that picture doesn’t even look real!
- StelledelMare
  
  Apparently he’s like 5’1″. Many (though not all) male gymnasts are actually kinda short
  - NC_Meg
    
    Somewhere deep down, I think I knew male gymnasts tend to be short but damn, he’s my height! Now I have to Google Karlie Kloss and see how tall she is.
    - birkatbaby
      
      She’s about 6′. I dressed her for a bunch of fashion shows and fittings, the girl is head almost back on your neck so you can see her tall.
      - filmcricket
        
        So if she’s 6′, and is wearing, what, 5″ heels? and assuming that shot of her and Dwayne Wade side-by-side isn’t ‘shopped, that makes him kinda short for an NBA player, no?
      - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_EDI2DLE7DE3YPW2ONIHBWOVHMA ecallaw
        
        Dwyane Wade (and yes, that is how he spells his name, it’s not a typo) is listed as 6’4″.
- Melissa Brogan
  
  Gymnasts of both sexes tend to be shorter than the average person, but Horton is even shorter than the typical male gymnast.
LittleKarnak

Oooohhhhh, Ryan Lochte………
- filmcricket
  
  I know, he’s so pretty, isn’t he? This year we get summer Olympics AND the Euro Cup – it’s going to be beautiful boys everywhere for weeks.
Sara LaBatt

I’m sorry but I found that just laughably weird. I really love looking at photos of athletes so I liked that part. But the part where the model was watching them, or they were watching the model? And the fancy gowns? Just so weird.
Frank_821

The photoshopping overall looks clumsy for such a high level magazine and pointless. They could have better achieved whimsical juxstaposition another way

My fave shot is with the model and Ryan Lochte standing in front of the backdrop. That looks to me the most believable and sincere

I don’t mind them exposing the surrounding scenary beyond the backdrop, but it looks so haphazard. I think it would have been better to pull further back and include more of it. Take them to places where the incongruity would be kind of interesting and add to the photo. In fact the shot of Horton and the model would have looked more fun in front of the Uhaul truck
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1045295912 Charles Purdy

Excuse me, but I think I left something here in the locker room, boys. Have you seen a white satin knuckle clutch? Oh … never-mind … maybe … just … go about your business.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Julie-Chase/731391326 Julie Chase

That Vera Wang dress is incredible.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mary-Elizabeth-Poytinger-Baumer/1516981341 Mary Elizabeth Poytinger Baume

wow. what a fantastic editorial.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1045295912 Charles Purdy

Not loving this spread at all…. Seems very random.
http://twitter.com/lenabena_ Elena

Karlie and the dresses are fab, but what is this spread? Very odd.
Pants_are_a_must

“Let’s dress her in some fancy shmancy dresses and trust Leibovitz to cover the fact this shoot has no real artistic direction. GOOD PLAN.”
Mindy Kate Sullivan

Not to be a hater but last time I checked Ashton Eaton is not an Olympian. I’m pretty sure our last Olympic decathlon squad was Trey Hardee, Brian Clay, and Tom Pappas (Go Vols!) Both Brian Clay and Trey Hardee are giving London a shot and Hardee would have made sense for this shoot, he tall blonde and got a great smile.
Anna Maria Diamanti

How stupid. Put the athletes in couture. What is the point of photoshopping in models? They aren’t even juxtaposed in an interesting way.
Lina_bee

ALieb seems to have lost her mojo. These shots are pedestrian at best, photoshopped/clodged together from numerous test shots at worst. Her work used to be really interesting, but this is just depressing.
- Melissa Brogan
  
  Probably pretty hard to care about your craft when you’re just cranking out shoots to pay down your massive debts…
  
  Nic Cage anyone?
SorayaS

Ugh American Vogue. I absolutely love the idea in theory but this was really poorly executed. Why leave the backgrounds in? I can imagine it working well in some cases but here it just looks really unfinished. The photoshopping is horrendous- the scale is really out of whack. The photos I do like are the parallell bars (loveeee that Vicki B dress!) and the side-by-side with the basketball player.
kcarb1025

Ryan Lochte is so hot that he makes the whole existence of this ed worth it.
Mirakel9

Most of these are weird, what a strange editorial! The first one – what is going on with her head and arms? (A little exorcist-y, looks like her head was photoshopped backwards?). The Jonathan Horton one is interesting, otherwise, what’s the point?
Sobaika

Great concept, real hackneyed job.

Also I’m 99% sure this isn’t the first time I’ve seen a model perched on a basketball hoop in American Vogue.
nannypoo

Hot men do stuff and tall, overdressed women stand around watching them.
gloriana232

By the second Bryan brothers one, I KNEW this had to be satire. Right? I mean, the whole “let’s do a model/athlete shoot” is sort of a ridiculous concept at the beginning. Eaton is JUMPING OVER HER HORIZONTAL BODY. This may be a bit too deep, but perhaps the weird Photoshoppy flatness isn’t due to poor execution, but to commentary on the high artificiality of the premise.

Nah?
phoenix4

the tennis dudes are HILARIOUS
- girliecue
  
  Right? I love the shower room one where she’s hovering like the Ghost of Wimbledon Future. The dress is fab, but it does bring to mind the Wimbledon trophy, no?
- girliecue
  
  Right? I love the shower room one where she’s hovering like the Ghost of Wimbledon Future. The dress is fab, but it does bring to mind the Wimbledon trophy, no?
http://twitter.com/LianaBrooks Liana Brooks

Sold. Give me everything but that silver one with the funky headpiece. Beautiful photography.

- P.S. It comes with the basketball player, right?
- http://twitter.com/noshadejustT Teri
  
  I’ll take the one with the headpiece- it makes Kloss look like a goddess born of sea foam (or in this case, a schvitz).
Sarah Thomas

If they gave out Olympic medals for sheer hotness, I think the US contingent as a whole should get some type of Lifetime Achievement Award.
- filmcricket
  
  So long as there’s an honourable mention for my favourite Canuck, Adam Van Koeverden.
  - http://twitter.com/ennisamy Amy Ennis
    
    I had to look him up. He’s beautyful!
http://www.joannao.blogspot.com JoannaOC

This makes me think of that “parade of fashion” number from Singing in the Rain, “Beautiful Girls.” I want to hear a crooner singing “Beautiful boys…” as I scroll down the page…
Renaissance_Man_ATL

Great shoot!
j_anson

Huh. Isn’t Leibovitz supposed to be this crazy talented photographer? I gotta say these are doing nothing for me, either as a fashion editorial or as photographic art. It looks like a bunch of women in couture photoshopped awkwardly into generic sports scenes.
Qitkat

Most of these are supposed to be funny, right?
filmcricket

I’m sorry, but the McQueen one – all scaly and emerging from the shower – just says “Foot Fungus Come to Life” to me. That’s awful, I know, but I can’t help it. I am really not down with things that remind me of fish.

Gorgeous gowns, gorgeous boys, lousy execution. What happened to Annie? Did she have the same manager as Leonard Cohen? Why’s she so broke she has to keep putting out this half-finished nonsense?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AFZBPD2YF7RBIABKYSTL62XM6Y Susan

I like how it’s the males who are half-naked for once Also the dresses are stunning!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AFZBPD2YF7RBIABKYSTL62XM6Y Susan

I like how it’s the males who are half-naked for once Also the dresses are stunning!
Lindsay Lyon

Uh…Dwyane Wade? The hoop with the lady in it is BEHIND you…

I feel like something got sacrificed in the name of topicality, here.
Lindsay Lyon

Uh…Dwyane Wade? The hoop with the lady in it is BEHIND you…

I feel like something got sacrificed in the name of topicality, here.
xokandykane109

All I can think is that she’s some patron saint of sports, or something. But everything looks appropriately fabulous.
xokandykane109

All I can think is that she’s some patron saint of sports, or something. But everything looks appropriately fabulous.
guest2visits

I have a hard time thinking of this as Annie Leibovitz. Pretty models. Handsome athletes. They should look good together.
It’s not working. The athletes are engaging; the models are just not part of their story.
guest2visits

I have a hard time thinking of this as Annie Leibovitz. Pretty models. Handsome athletes. They should look good together.
It’s not working. The athletes are engaging; the models are just not part of their story.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LI35AZLWSZEYRDZ4PUCBHUCZUI Jonathan

The whole half back drop half back ground is just really disconcerting, it looks like the outtakes from a high school or college year book. but great clothes and visuals. it just feels really phoned in
Susan Crawford

Kind of a strange, random editorial. Beautiful gowns, lots of muscle-boys, and not a whole lot of actual storyline going on here. Ms. Kloss is gorgeous, but this kind of editorial just screams for those glamazons of the fabled past: Naomi, Linda, Christy – now those gals could get a story werqing, amirite?
- filmcricket
  
  God, yes, getting Naomi in here would have been a much better choice.
ThaliaMenninger

Cause there are no female Olympians, right? So we can stick girls in dresses with all the powerful guys and… What? I so don’t get this editorial.
fungstyle

all of these have totally wonky proportions to me. i know horton is quite short, so that one i guess is real, but the rest look patched together in every possible way, as other have said. particularly the one where she is “sitting” on a basketball hoop. looks like the shot her on a clear plastic chair and then popped her into this shot.
Beth DuBon

I LOVE the olympics, but this is crap. It looks random/poorly planned.
girliecue

I love the Olympics so much! I’m saving all my criticism for those overtly biased gymnastics judges. Well, maybe not ALL of it…
eight_of_nine

The shopping on some of these images is kind of weird, but I like the concept nevertheless. I really like the one where she’s in the basketball hoop. And as a tall woman, of course I always like seeing a woman towering over a man! XD
PeaceBang

This is a real editorial? Because it looks like a tween’s collage of My Favorite Super Fashion Models and Olympic Hot Guys.
Bozhi

Annie is still a genius. Anyone who can make a Stella McCartney dress look that good has a gift.
http://annequichante.wordpress.com/ Anne

The only one that works for me is the tennis one, the Bryan brothers, because one of them is actually looking at her (love the expression on his face!). The rest look Photoshopped together.
http://twitter.com/thelilerin erin l.

All of these look pretty ridiculous to me, except for the parallel bars, and especially the McQueen and ODLR. ew.

AND I also love Karlie, normally. A+ for Locke over Phelps, amiright ladies?
http://twitter.com/foodycatAlicia foodycatAlicia

I really love the Vera Wang gown and the Dwyane Wade abs. I really want my next husband to have good abs.
It Hurt’s To Be In Love

THE FIRST PHOTO HAS SOME OF THE WORST PHOTOSHOP KNOWN TO MAN. THAT GAL LOOKS THE FOOL!
Tafadhali

Some of these shots are stunning, but I wish it had featured both male and female Olympians maybe. These photos make it seem like women are frilly and highly decorative ornaments and men are athletes, which is (a) such an overdone trope and (b) an especial shame given that the Olympics are one of the few times that female athletes really get a chance at the national attention that is showered on men’s professional teams regularly.
kingderella

i hate to complain about semi-naked athelets, but this is just silly.
alyce1213

In terms of digital photography and photoshop art, this is amateurish, awkward, uncreative, uninspired crap.
The pictures are so stupid I can’t even look at the clothes.
ChaquitaPhilly

I guess it would be out of the question for Vogue to consider Female Olympians for a photo shoot.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jessica-TallGirl-Freeman/1043623567 Jessica TallGirl Freeman

I really like all the action shots, but the ones where they are just standing next to the model is very odd. Or the one in the locker room….but damn if that McQueen dress isn’t fucking amazing.
lordandtaylor

Mr basketball is totally hot. I needed some pretty on the day I learned that both GCB and Pan AM were cancelled.
The fashion? I will leave that to the rest of you.
BuffaloBarbara

I kind of dig the basketball hoop one, but on the whole, it looks cobbled. Some of the sports pictures are better than the fashion pictures, which can’t make the designers happy.
EEKstl

LOVE these photographs. Cute guys and fashions not bad either.
miagain

wow
EditKitten

I feel like I shouldn’t use this word, but it just keeps popping up — I find it all stupid. I’m a huge sports fan, and I just … don’t get this editorial AT ALL. I’m bored by it, and I don’t think it’s photographed all that well. The dresses are lovely (though the runway model is wearing the SHIT out of the Bottega Veneta, while Ms. Kloss just, well, isn’t), but none of it comes together for me. I’m disappointed in you, Vogue.
- http://twitter.com/FotoVerite Matthew Bergman
  
  I agree. Also the model looks dead in the Atelier Versace. It’s terribly lit,and has no real concept for most of the images. It look cheap. Sorry hot guys do not make a good photo. Though I always thought Leibovitz was a hack
  - alyce1213
    
    “I always thought Leibovitz was a hack”
    
    Me too, save some nice, standard portraits. This pretty much proves it.
- Pennymac
  
  I agree. as well. There doesn’t seem to be anything creative in this editorial, I’d rather have seen these gorgeous gowns sans male athletes, because pairing them together DOES seem stupid.
  
  I LOVE that Vera Wang gown!
- http://frankbettecenter.org/ sleah_in_norcal
  
  it seems funny to me that this editorial speaks so strongly to me yet so many others find it stupid or offensive. (see my later comment re: the surrealism of it all.) i guess that’s what makes the world go round, variety being the spice of life.
http://twitter.com/Nancer Nancer

Many of these images read as fake, but the gowns are gorgeous. Love the last Oscar de la Renta! Amazing gowns. The guys are hot too…
http://twitter.com/ennisamy Amy Ennis

These guys are really short. Also, this is the exact opposite of the Fassbender editorial. In this one, the men are seen as objects while the women and their fashion are featured. So, for those of you who were arguing against the objectification of women yesterday, this is the exact same thing. Sure, we see their faces, and no, they aren’t in kinky positions, but it’s the exact same concept. Man meat as pretty dressing to accent the women’s fashions and the female models. Having said that, I have no objections to either.
- http://frankbettecenter.org/ sleah_in_norcal
  
  yes, eggs-zack-lee. put that in your feminist pipe and smoke it!
marilyn

Very imaginative and creative without being creepy. Bravo!
judybrowni

There were clothes in those shots?

Eh, didn’t notice.
Nariya

The Bryan brothers with the McQ dress look like an alien just hovered into their locker room. I’d be concerned too.
ErmengardeGreen

That gymnastics/parallel bars shot is terrific.
snarkykitten

wow this looks clumsy as shit. half expect it to see this on photoshopdisasters
terekirkland

Wow, there’s a shit-ton (that’s metric, of course) of bad compositing in this spread. The hurdles, really? Blech.
john v

wow it’s either Jonathan is super short or Karlie is just super tall…or both lol
apt9000

Wow… sure the clothes and the nearly naked men are all very pretty, but this combination just looks so off. Like someone at Vogue went “Shit, we’ve got Annie and the Olympians and there’s a bunch of dresses we need to get out there too… fuck it, we’ll throw it all together.”

They could have just dressed up the athletes in some fine menswear and had a killer editorial on it’s own.
- Lola67
  
  Or better yet, dressed up dressed up both female and male olymipc athletes in beautiful clothes.
- http://frankbettecenter.org/ sleah_in_norcal
  
  even better, they could have put the athletes in the dresses. could be some fit issues, though it would certainly be eye-catching.
http://www.facebook.com/aboutelle Ashleigh Boutelle

I love this!!! What fun photos. What great juxtapositions. And great styling.

PS Hello, Jonathan Horton!
Onika K Morris-Alleyne

This is a pretty terrible editorial. The composition of every photo is jarringly bad. It looks like they just stuck a model in a dress next to every athlete because a fashion mag needs fashion.
Puckndc

the Wang is to die for…so is the dress in the shot as well..
Warmheartedgirl Seattle

Good lord, that Vera Wang silk and tulle dress is gorgeous! Lovely to see our Olympic boys with the beautiful Kloss!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1313126032 Ajuna Ariel Fenty

I am so over these awkward model standing next to athletes bullshit. Can we just have the athletes do their thing? oh wait, American Vogue is not creative enough to do that. Silly me.
http://profiles.google.com/scaponigro Sarah Caponigro

I don’t get it.
http://twitter.com/Emjporter Emily Porter

Men = Athletes. Women = Decoration.

Glad we cleared that up.
- EditKitten
  
  EXCELLENT point.
- http://frankbettecenter.org/ sleah_in_norcal
  
  and here i thought the men were the decoration. silly me.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3AJ237ND3GAHDQJZ4TLCO4WLRA Emily

Wow. love the v beckham dress and the oscar de la renta. Beautiful.
http://www.facebook.com/marissarocksyourface Marissa Ambitious Bell

Is is just me or does she have ABSOLUTELY no chemistry or connection with any of the athletes? It looks almost as though she was just photoshopped into Nike ads or something!

Gorgeous dresses though. I’ll give her that.
JasonKL

Poor Ashton Eaton in the first picture looks so awkward. “Is this where I’m supposed to be standing?” “Here, right?”
Jennifer Hofstetter

God bless Annie Leibovitz. She is a national God-damned treasure. LOVE HER.
http://tigergray.blogspot.com/ Tiger Gray

This is just intensely silly.
quiltrx

Lovely gowns, but I don’t care for the editorial at all. It doesn’t jibe for me.
Jecca2244

meh. it looks too fake. like it was sewn together. at least karlie looks like she has been fed here. I have seen some social page shots of her and dear me. I get what her gig is, but she must still have parents around who care.
http://frankbettecenter.org/ sleah_in_norcal

i love this editorial. i think it’s the surrealism that appeals to me. as well as the beefcake. the total incongruity of it all. my favorites are the gymnastics (both, but esp. the one with short guy), and the final track and field. i think the model’s total removal from the guys, the lack of interaction which some have commented on, is deliberate on the part of annie leibovitz. it enhances that sense of other worldliness which is an earmark of surrealism.

i don’t feel it is anti-feminist or denigrating in any way, as some have commented. look at those gymnast photos- that is one strong woman. in other shots, such as the steam room, she appears as a vision in the mist. and we all know that visions have the power to lure men to disaster, like sirens in the sea. this is a recurring theme in my artwork.
BigWhiteGrannyPanties

Oh, um – were there clothes being shown in this shot?
http://twitter.com/1200WATTS James Fontaine

I’d say these are the lamest editorial pictures I’ve EVER seen. (editor) says ”Hey, I know, let’s put some random Olympic athletes with some random fashion models in random clothes and take some totally pointless, random pictures. That way, everyone gets paid!”
WOWZA5

I’m sorry but this is JUST NOT WORKING for me. Gymnastic parallel bars: looks like they air-brushed Karlie’s arms to twice their usual stick size with added muscle. Was that on purpose? And what is supposed to be going on in the tennis locker room photo?? I just feel like I am missing something here. And I love juxtaposed ideas but this is just, not that.

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