Top 10 Most Controversial Fashion Magazine Covers Of All Time (3 of 3)

Vogue Italia – September 2011

As we’ve mentioned before, the director Franca Sozzani wasn’t one to shy away from controversy or push the envelope with her work on these covers. And another notable one that caused a stir was this cover, featuring Scottish model Stella Tennant. She wore a 13-inch waist dress, a Deborah Milner corset and a Prada coat.

The cover stated this was to be an ode to Ethel Granger – the woman with the world’s smallest waist.

Some people were applauding the brilliance of photographer Steven Meisel’s work, though it also made people displeased about the messaging as it could be promoted as a female body standard.

Candy Magazine – Winter 2010

American actor James Franco was on the cover of this edition wearing full drag. It was shot by Terry Richardson with the shot featuring Franco in latex gloves, an oversized tuxedo jacket, a choker with matching earrings. The actor embodies the drag persona as he posed with makeup too.

Through this cover, the magazine was dubbed the first fashion publication to celebrate transversal style and cross-dressing. This of course got some backlash from the transphobic community as we didn’t reach our current levels of acceptance at that time.

Vogue Paris – December 2010

While not necessarily a cover, in 2010, French Vogue found itself under a lot of scrutiny after releasing advertising images featuring a ten-year-old model dressed in heavy makeup and golden stilettos.

At the time, the magazine was being guest-edited by the designer Tom Ford and got a lot of backlash for sexualizing children for that.

Paper Magazine – Winter 2014

One of the most iconic covers of fashion magazines by far, anyone who saw or even heard about this still has memories of this cover in particular. It’s hard to believe that this happened so long ago.

Anyway, this was the edition where the cover was none other than Kim Kardashian. The cover featured two images shot by the photographer Jean-Paul Goude in tribute to one of his past shows “Carolina Beaumont, New York, 1976.”

The first picture was Kim wearing a black sequined gown while popping a bottle of champagne where it’s poured into a glass placed on her buttocks. This naturally sparked a whole lot of memes around this phenomenon.

The second cover has her standing with her back turned to the camera with the dress lowered down enough to expose her assets. Within 24 hours of release, the magazine was said to rack in five and a half million Google searches for “Kim Kardashian Paper Magazine.”

To this day, the cover sparks a lot of discussion on sexuality, motherhood, and slut-shaming.