Keira Knightley for Harper’s Bazaar UK

Posted on Aug 7, 2012 in Fashion

We don’t know what it is, but it seems like lately, the beauty and fashion mags keep putting pictures of stars on the cover looking like they’re in the middle of delivering a very pointed comment to the photographer.

Keira Knightley is featured in the September 2012 issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK magazine photographed by Ellen Von Unwerth and styled by Cathy Kasterine.

Ummm… hi, Keira. You look like you’re right in the middle of calling us assholes.

She’s giving the typically polished Knightley face in the rest of the pics, so we have no idea why she looks so annoyed on the cover. This is one of the few times, however, that we feel the urge to tell a model to close her mouth. We hear people making this complaint a lot and with all due respect to Miss Tyra, we rarely ever felt it was a valid complaint because fashion and glamour modeling has always featured the parted lip shot, going back 70 years. It evokes sex, of course, but also movement and energy. A model doesn’t look as static and posed when she does things like part her lips. It’s as if she just gasped at how fabulous she looks or is in the middle of telling you how fabulous she looks. But there’s parted lips and then there’s slack-jawed, and Miss Keira comes dangerously close to the latter in some of these shots.

Fabulous pics otherwise, though. The girl knows how to work both a dress and a lens.

Gucci Fall 2012 Collection

Valentino Fall 2012 Collection

Lanvin Fall 2012 Collection

Chanel Fall 2012 Collection

Antonio Berardi Fall 2012 Collection

Yves Saint Laurent Fall 2012 Collection

[Photo Credit: for harpersbazaar.co.uk via thefashionspot.com, style.com]

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katchwa

Do wish she would close her mouth occasionally though. Beautiful despite.
- https://twitter.com/Gayer_Than_Thou Gayer Than Thou
  
  Pouty mouth open is kind of her thing. Someone once told her it was sexy, and she’s been doing it ever since.
  - katchwa
    
    it’s just a hair too much. BJ face.
    - AthenaJ
      
      The ironic thing is that too much hair and a BJ do not go together. Someone get that girl an elastic, stat!
      - fursa_saida
        
        God, so true.
- siriuslover
  
  I was just going to write that. ugh it bugs me.
Judy_J

She does wear clothing well, and takes a pretty picture. But the parted lip pose makes her look like a mouth-breather (Napoleon Dynamite comes to mind.)
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HNGRR454HLHWUKQGAHA2KJJ7NY TeresaM
  
  She IS a mouth breather! I can’t stand watching her films because she never closes her mouth.
- littlemac8
  
  A vacant mouth breather! The clothes are gorgeous, she wears them well but she just looks stupid in some of these shots. Too bad.
http://profiles.google.com/adj.blair Adriana Blair

I have to think that she must have taken plenty of pictures with her mouth closed, but the editors only chose open-mouth shots. As always she looks stunningly beautiful though.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_B3CIEK7XAS3YKAAKFJFMIIKC4I Nacogdoches

When does Keira Knightly NOT look slack-jawed?
schadenfreudelicious

Girl knows how to work the chain maille…..
- http://twitter.com/urban_gypsy Tess Danesi
  
  Ah, to have the money and the body for that dress. Perhaps in another life, in this one it’s cherry smoothie time.
http://twitter.com/marared Jaime

I love the colour of the lipstick in the photo with the single flower. That dark, rich plummy shade is hard to pull off.
- Sobaika
  
  It really is. I have a similar shade and wear even though I’m pretty sure I look stupid.
  
  Her coloring and overall look is exactly right for it though.
- tereliz
  
  It’s so dramatic and perfect for the shot. But is it just me or does she look like Ashley Greene in that frame?
- ConnieBV
  
  Anyone know what color Chanel lipstick it is?
  - Sobaika
    
    It looks like Ballet Russe, but I’m not in love with the formula personally. Lancome’s Fiery Attitude is similar in color.
    - ConnieBV
      
      Thank you!
formerlyAnon

Like these photos a lot. Favorite is the one from which the thumbnail is taken.

In most of them she is showing the clothes off to better advantage than are the models. Most especially the Lanvin lace-over-gold coat/top – but that may just be because in her photo the coat looks like a rich navy-verginging-on royal blue, while the runway shot is washed out to nearly grey – possibly just the lighting?
- holdmewhileimnaked
  
  [laughing] i think it’s also better when you dont see as much of it. it, like all the rest of these shots, looks gorgeous here, however.
elirt

That’s the sexiest chainmail dress I have ever seen.
- holdmewhileimnaked
  
  i think gaultier did a very similar one w/in the last year or two. i might be thinking of this one mislabeled but i’m pretty sure i’m not.
- Kristin McNamara
  
  I couldn’t help but grab my boobs in empathetic scraping nipple pain when I saw it though…..
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/3DRRZR36XZSTQSLON4LXERKRHA Stephanie
    
    But as she doesn’t have any boobs, all is well.
    - rawrgrowlrawr
      
      Pretty sure she still has nipples though.
j_anson

Also, many people have to tense their face slightly to fully close their lips. So parting them allows the face to relax and minimizes small lines and bumps.

But I think it’s not that it annoys the kittens GENERALLY, but rather when it’s an ENTIRE EDITORIAL with the model making the exact same vaguely slack-jawed face, it really jumps out at you.

In other news, Keira Knightly: LOATHE. HUH. She does take damn good pictures, though, aside from the sameness of expression.
Thathoodwink

I love the picture of her in the Lanvin coat…the texture of the wall versus the coat’s texture with the bunch of roses…exquisite!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=678337501 Carla Axtman

This is one of the few times I wish I’d been living off of bottled water and Tic-Tacs…just so I could wear that chainmail dress.
- 3boysful
  
  I know! I want it (but could never wear it!).
- holdmewhileimnaked
  
  dont even think it. i have to go back to it, more or less, but i have had to wait a little time this year as the last time i did this–not eat for most of four months, i mean–i broke half the teeth in my mouth. i’m still waiting to finish the dental work. i think if yr really young you might be able to get away w/ it better–but, then again, i havent relayed all the health problems i had when i was really young. i like to be an anti-anorexia beacon whenever i can. i’m afraid it’s more do as i say but it’s very sincere.
  - aristida_girl
    
    Wow girl that is deep..I am sorry for your struggles and proud of you to be willing to share with the rest of us kittens! Best wishes and Hugs..Laura in AZ /Aristida Girl
    - holdmewhileimnaked
      
      no worries, it’s okay–people here are mostly used to me now. but i am a real activist in this way all over the place, have been since before it was in any way trendy to be so. often people think eating disorders [like depression] are minor inconveniences that people, generally women, can just stop if they wanna. this is not true at all. eating disorders are largely socially constructed. i think it’s important to fight this kind of debilitating thought whenever i can. EDs & the distorted thinking behind them cause a lot more trouble than it seems on the surface.
      
      edited for grammar &, as ever, overall weariness.
      - aristida_girl
        
        It is awesome that you spread awareness whenever you can, it is not always easy to say what you think, especially regarding eating disorders or other psychological issues, indeed, it is not something you can just “turn off”. Keep your chin up and keep spreading the word, and keep on posting for us kittens! <3
      - Pennymac
        
        Thank you.
      - http://profiles.google.com/ameliaheartsu Amelia Logan
        
        Yes I don’t think people take eating disorders seriously sometimes. Having a food positive attitude is very difficult for me. Sometimes when I have very bad anxiety I cut back eating or start purging and I’m barely aware that I’m falling into those habits again. I think I get so distracted by worrying and I’ll make excuses about why it’s ok to throw up this one time because my tummy hurts or whatever. It’s like if you quit smoking and didn’t realize that you were buying cigarettes again.
http://twitter.com/LianaBrooks Liana Brooks

She does pull off the Gothic War Goddess very well.
marilyn

Her hair looks awful. It brings down the look of the entire shoot. Someone get that girl a comb and a can of hairspray!!
holdmewhileimnaked

great garments & even greater makeup.
Vlasta Bubinka

These pics range from Poorly Placed Muff Couture to Real Arwen Realness… well, it’s a range, albeit a bizarre one.
PaulaBerman

My favorite is the Berardi– she looks like and elf princess, and that dress looks so much better without the peplum.
- tereliz
  
  Totally agreed. This is my favorite shot. I don’t know what’s happening with the headpiece, but I love it!
kimmeister

Her hair looks glorious throughout. I’m glad she didn’t have the Chanel blue eyebrows.
aristida_girl

I love that YSL dress in the last photo! Makes me want to get all warrior/goddessy and go out to look for a hero
SpcilK

Beautiful clothing on a blow – up doll!
Daenyx

Is that… ringmail?

If it is, it totally means that I can dress like I’m going to a fantasy convention every day and be stylish, right? >.>
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3JSTXMWWVZN2QNP2UEKJMTWD7U Isabel

Dr. Spock’s girlfriends – the Chanel models!

Keira looks better than they do!
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2CNDPMVO4W23R5TVC2QMTJ5BZE Heather
  
  I know – their eyebrows are totally freaking me out! Plus, Chanel?
VicksieDo

I find her to be the most gorgeous actress in film today, and she’s interesting as well. These are gorgeous, I love the saturated makeup color and the fly away romantic hair. Love her!!
Anne Lucchesi

Is it sad that I’m more bothered by the fake flowers? I know hugging real roses would be uncomfortable, but seriously. Suffer for your art, kid. No more plastic flowers.
http://profile.yahoo.com/QK3MTAHUVJCMI7DANY6WFCAIUM n a

she looks like a vampire… or is it vampiress?
Alisa Rivera

I just got the Boden catalog and all of the young models are not only slack-jawed, they’re knock-kneed. How this is supposed to be selling the clothes, I have no idea.

Then Helen M.F. Christensen appears halfway through the catalog. No open mouth. Fierce as shit. Showing the youngins how it’s done.

Can we please go back to 80s model fierceness? /oldster
- http://twitter.com/foodycatAlicia foodycatAlicia
  
  Works for me though – I’ve got half the catalogue wishlisted already!
Wendi126

Every time I see her I immediately think she has a bad sinus condition. She is beautiful.
MilaXX

I like the chain mail the best, but the rest have too much hair in the face for me.
guest2visits

Wow. beautiful. If that one pic with her in the long-sleeved black Chanel and fur pouf had been a closed mouth shot; it would have
been a better look, she’s facing squarely forward, seated. It would even look more dramatic, that way. And the last pic in the chain-
maille looks like a gratuitous open mouth; kind of silly, there. The rest are perfect; -they’re all gorgeous, really; it’s Keira Knightley!
Some beautiful gowns. Can’t wait to see how celebs will be wearing those Chanel shoes, I like them in these pics.
boweryboy

I agree with TLo about the open mouth model pose. It’s nothing new.

In fact, a dear drag queen friend of mine gave me her trade secret to taking fabulous photos that I will share with the BKs and PUFs: open your mouth just enough to show some teeth and ever so slightly tilt your head to the side.

The resulting photo will make you look like you were caught mid-laugh having the time of your life. Try it. It really works.
- http://twitter.com/foodycatAlicia foodycatAlicia
  
  Reminds me of Nancy Mitford – in Love in a Cold Climate Cedric tells Sonia to always say “Brush” just before she walks into a room because it fixes a bright smile on your face. The smile is slightly psychotic when I try it but the principle is the same!
  - boweryboy
    
    Or that AbFab episode when Patsy goes to Paris to do the photo shoot and she reminiscences about the ’60s and how they would say Thursday right when the photo is taken.
quiltrx

I’m feeling both grouchy AND Corky today…so I’ll just say I hate her, and I hate her ass face.

AND her stupid never-closed mouth.
jmorino08

That cover shot is the epitome of a WTF? face! As for the rest of the shots, I’m not impressed. Not with the dresses (that first one after the cover make her look like she’s got massive junk in her trunk) nor the face she’s giving. I don’t mind open mouth from time to time, but every shot? Really editors? You can’t buy an imagination with all that ad revenue?!?
Little_Olive

Agree with TLo re. the issue of lip parting. I guess it bothers me here because miss Keira’s lower jawbone is so prominent.

Is it me or is her nose getting smaller by the minute?
SewingSiren

I love her. She is so pretty. I want to go to a sad dinner party her big old freezing cold ruined manor house an try on all her clothes after we finish after we finish our brandy.
- BrooklynBomber
  
  Keep an eye on the butler, though. He’s creepy.
Little_Olive

The color on those roses is amazing. I wonder if it is enhanced.
- formerlyAnon
  
  I’m betting yes, but I don’t really have the eye to be confident about my opinion.
- http://twitter.com/Alloyjane Alloy Jane
  
  Probably, we have two bushes that are that depth of color, but in burgundy, and when I was a kid, we had one that was almost black. But I’ve never seen roses in that black-purple shade. Would love to have those in our garden.
  
  Also, would LOVE that chain mail dress in my closet and I would wear that thing in public.
  
  I think Keira is beautiful. I just wish she was a boy, she’d make the best boy.
http://profile.yahoo.com/J2VE4NE2FY2BP4QD2XOYKJGLPI Laura

Yup. She still bothers me. Some of the pictures are great, better than most of her….
Susan Crawford

The picture of her with those burgundy-colored roses – exquisitely couture-Goth. The Gucci dress? WOW. Just . . . WOW. And the severe black Chanel is awesome. Great set of photos, and Keira looks fantastic.
Sweetvegan

They should’ve put the chain maille dress on the cover. The cover shot doesn’t look right – it looks like a mistake, like she was about to say something when the photographer clicked the shutter.
understateddiva

Lovely rich, fantasy-fashion photo shoot. Love the gold and black Lanvin coat.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Louise-Bryan/1177213326 Louise Bryan

In my (very active) imagination, I look like Keira Knightly. And I can pout and part my lips and men drop at my feet.
http://profile.yahoo.com/FUKKIIH5ZIACY4IOLLXOX6PR6U T

She has a severe underbite and always sounds adenoidal. Plus, the models are working the shit out of the clothes. She isn’t. Since her mouth is open, let’s slip in the cheeseburger she so obviously needs.
- hilbobaggins
  
  Please please PLEASE let’s not go down the road of comments about force-feeding people cheeseburgers. If you’re confused about why this is, please check out the whiteboard thread on Cathy Cambridge.
LinXGUA

That’s not Channel. Looking at the models, that’s Couture Precious Moments. LOVE those shoes, and the Berardi ones too!
About Keira: the thing that bothers me isn’t her mouth, but her dead stare. Especially in the first B&W photo. :/
RzYoung

Maybe she’s right in the middle of saying ‘WHO PUT ME IN ORANGE EYE SHADOW?!’ ?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jessica-TallGirl-Freeman/1043623567 Jessica TallGirl Freeman

Not my favorite shoot of hers, but she’s still gorgeous.

On another note, the styling of the Chanel models in the pics makes me want to cry for Coco. That is an atrocity.
ChaquitaPhilly

WOW!
http://www.facebook.com/izzzyy Dixie Murphy Ross

Does she have elf ears in one of those? *blink*
http://twitter.com/TMamBo Therese Bohn

I bet that chain mail chafes when you sit down (ow!) but this is a great spread. How deliciously medieval!
S_Swift

I love these looks on her. However, that second dress is chic Jane Eyre or Puritan seductress.
http://rawketstarling.wordpress.com/ Ashley Wilson

LOVE the Lanvin, and the Berardi shot is beautiful.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YVVJ5LZ7Y4OZDTFEWSAFTTWAJU Purple Fish

Horrible makeup. Overkill on the blush.
TheOriginalLulu

I kind of love the one where she’s looking down and talking to the flowers. When I’m talking to my plants, I always imagine there’s a photographer taking candid shots of me for a famous fashion magazine.

That last shot in the YSL? She’s KILLING it.
Gorgeous.
http://twitter.com/frenchnewwave Jessica Blanchard

Girl, that is your dress… and your dress.. and your dress…
Laylalola

I agree, the open mouth is so distracting – maybe because she often comes off as whip-smart, but the open mouth shots give the opposite impression? — that I didn’t even notice the clothing. And from the comments below, if you take a look, those are her dresses.
littlemac8

Okay, how long is hair going to get, anyway??? It obscures a lot of lovely details on clothing and looks juvenile. What was that doll’s name? You combed her hair and it got longer and longer.
http://opinionandamovie.blogspot.com/ Deitra S.

This is what annoys the HELL out of me with her: she always needs to shut her goddamn gob! ALWAYS! I think she’s a talented model and actress, but she’s somehow gotten it into her head that she looks sexy like this when, in reality, she looks like some dimwitted, slack-jawed, mouth-breathing, fly catcher! GAH! *Whew* okay, I feel better now that I’ve gotten that out of my system.
ringthing

We all have irrational celebrity hate and love lists, and for whatever reason, KK tops my irrational love list. Even if the open mouth pose occasionally make her look like she’s had too much novocaine.
AthenaJ

Love the side angle shots, but in the straight-on ones she looks stoned. Regardless, Keira is gorgeous, and the last 2 pics are particularly fantastic. Reminds me of a princess from one of my medieval ‘bodice ripper’ books…
bluefish

Love the naughty looking YSL mesh dress. Gorgeous.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=720742723 Sarah Winningham

First shot really reminds me of Helena Bonham-Carter’s Twelfth Night (in my opinion the best HBC ever looked in a corset drama). Love the little wings on her tiara in the stairs shot.
Warmheartedgirl Seattle

Love the clothes, love the shots, but you’re right, the open mouth in every.single.shot gets boring. She is so beautiful, though, and really makes the clothes come to life. Love especially the Valentino gown in the doorway, and the YSL chain mail (?) dress. Gorgeous.
Wrenaria

LOVE HER. She looks gorgeous.
Myra C

I love the last picture. The dress just jumps off the page. It’s like Game of Thrones met Boardwalk Empire!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2P2ANLRZ6YAVGONA36I2AQJYGI VicD

I’m not sure which is worse – that “candid” cover picture, or that hot mess of a dress. The rest of the pictures – and dresses – are beautiful though
Trisha26

The YSL dress indicates why she gets these fashion spreads, she has the ideal model physique. The 7 identical open-mouthed facial poses may be due, not to “more interesting,” but to her range.
butter nut

that slack-jawed, open-mouth pout thing she does makes me want to punch my computer. it’s so deliberately accidental that it’s pathetic.
http://twitter.com/amndad amanda lynn

i can’t wait for the fall!!!

also: the poor model in the YSL dress looks a bit hippy…right?
ccm800

The pic against the door looks like she got caught taking a leak – “Some privacy here!”
PeaceBang

The last two photos are Maid Marian fabulosity. But the woman acts with her jaw and I can’t handle it.
leetal tusia

i love the mouth. and the editorial is amazing! one of my faves
http://twitter.com/OrganicPProject Jen Roberts

I think “slack-jawed” is the perfect description of this actress. Not a fan.

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Keira Knightley for Harper’s Bazaar UK

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