VougeSerena van der Woodsen, er, sorry, Blake Lively landed her first Vogue cover for the fashion bible’s February issue.
What's this? A CW star on the cover of high society’s monthly glossy, and it’s not even Leighton Meester/Blair Waldorf/the brunette one with the cute headbands? How can this be happening?! At least, these are some of the reactions around the Internet.
Like most things printed on paper (ew, paper!), the self-important magazine has been losing ground for a while now, even sparking rumors that editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is retiring and being replaced by her French Vogue counterpart. So they gotta keep it fresh over there. (See: Jennifer Aniston on the cover with the tabloidy headline “What Angie Did Was Very Uncool”?)
The question is, did they pick the right hot, young star to move magazines?
Well, sure, and we’ve got a few reasons.
First of all, at least Vogue is finally covering a socialite (or social, as we learned last night on The City) that we know and care about. Sure, Serena van der Woodsen is not real, but neither are the ladies who lunch that usually fill the pages.
Second, with its skinny jeans, riding boots, headbands and Chuck Bass suits, Gossip Girl has way more influence on fashion trends than the magazine. It’s like Vogue is playing catch-up—especially evident in Blake’s profile, in which writer Alessandra Stanley attempts to explain what this Gossip Girl thing is. It’s kinda cute, actually, the way she reassures Vogue’s stuffy readers it’s OK to watch Gossip Girl because the New Yorker said so—just don’t let them know it's on the CW.
Third, they really did make Blake look gorgeous, and it’s nice to see the 21-year-old star with brushed hair. Sure, the Old Hollywood glamour look is so played out, but what else were they going to do with her? At the very least, it's nice to see her in something non-Little House on the Prarie/Stevie Nicks.
Last, the Gossip Girl world—with its rich, exclusive society, fancy-pants parties and opium-den getaways—is exactly the type of world Vogue actually believes it lives in. The show and the mag are soul mates, really, destined to make normal people feel badly for not having privileged bloodlines or this season's must-have $800 shoes. It's amazing there hasn't already been an episode where Blair and Serena are fighting it out for a Vogue profile.
So what do you think? Does Blake deserve her cover, or should it have gone to her frenemy, Leighton? Or maybe anything CW should be banned from the pages of Vogue?