Hits and Misses: October 2023 Magazine Covers

After the massive and overwhelming hype surrounding the September issues, October can often seem like a non-event in terms of excitement. This year, however, that may not be the case. Fashion Japan managed to wow us with a stunning and vibrant cover by Mona Tougaard, while Phoebe Dynevor dialed up the old Hollywood glamor (to the delight of fans on our forums) for the US. ALE. In sharp contrast, Fashion Taiwan’s offer within a month left us speechless (in the worst way) and Bad Bunny felt very out of place. Vanity Fair cover theme.
We’ve rounded up the best and worst of what the newsstand had to offer this month, as well as comments from our unfiltered forum members. See which covers made the cut and which didn’t below:

HIT | Vogue Japan with Mona Tugard by Hugo Comte
“STUNNING! I love looking at fashion through Hugo’s lens and Mona looks amazing.” (ten)

HIT | British Harper’s Bazaar with Saoirse Ronan Agata Pospeshynskaya
“Saoirse’s cover is heaven!” (Velasco)

MISS | British Vogue with Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio by Craig McDean
“Gloomy, dull, dull, lifeless, dull, bland, dull, dull, lifeless, etc. etc. What a non-event cover.” (WinstonH20)

HIT | US Cosmopolitan September/October 2023 with Halle Bailey by Lenn Chai
“I love the green-on-green art direction, which instantly took me back to Cosmopolitan 80’s covers.” (fashion28)

HIT | American ELLE with Phoebe Dynevor, Mark Seliger
“Beautiful cover! The period editing is done correctly. It’s amazing and Phoebe looks amazing.” (WAVES)

HIT | American Vogue with Kate Winslet, Annie Leibovitz
“Victory for me. It’s different, it’s cool, it’s unusual and it’s definitely unexpected, and I love it. And also Kate. A lot for Kate. (cell baby)

HIT | Vogue Italia with Isabella Rossellini by Zhong Li
“Isabella looks great. I love this portrait, the hair, the makeup, the style and that confidence in her eyes and the glamor she exudes. Such a cultural icon and great woman. Good cover! (Bertrando3)

MISS | Vogue Spain with Amber Valletta by Alex Webb
“I have no words for how bad this is.” (freedom33r1b)

HIT | Harper’s Bazaar France with Amelia Gray, Karim Sadli
“I love this. I never use this word, but this cover is so GORGEOUS. It’s shocking to see beautiful covers among all this mediocrity coming from different fashion

all over the world.” (NYLA22)

MISS | Vogue Brazil with Mariel Uchida by Mariana Maltoni
“Garbage.” (ADC)

MISS | Vogue Taiwan by Manbo Kee and Chien-Wen Lin
“Wrong in every way.” (FiLeReD)

MISS | Vanity Fair with Bad Bunny, Sylvester Mako
“Do regular VF readers care about Bad Bunny?” (Hard)

HIT | Vogue Thailand with Zoe Saldana by Thomas Whiteside
“I 100% knew I would love it when I saw the name Thomas Whiteside. Both covers are GORGEOUS, I love every element.” (fashion28)

MISS | Harper’s Bazaar US October 2023 with Margaret Qualley, Amy Trost
“When I saw the name Margaret Qualley, I imagined a beautiful portrait. Of course… Samira Nasr would never do this.” (blue orchid)

MISS | Vogue France with Malika El Masloui by Malik Boden
“Ceci n’est pas une couverture (this is not a cover).” (tiger red)

HIT | “Town and Country” with Diane Lane, Demi Moore and Chloë Sevigny, by Rouven Afanador
“Great cover! This is so OTT, so perfect. City and country and so brilliantly executed by everyone involved that I couldn’t complain. Always nice to see Demi Moore!” (fashion28)

MISS | British ELLE with Florence Pugh, Ncuti Gatwa, Gemma Chan, Tema and Suki Waterhouse
“Color correction and oversaturation make my eyes burn. Some photographers are very heavy-handed when it comes to retouching. These covers seem very amateur.” (GivenchyAddict)

HIT | Vogue Australia with Kylie Minogue from Alique
“Kylie, as always, copes. Madame Padam is a better printed model than most of the current top models.” (Wintergreen)

HIT | Vogue China with Zhang Zifeng by Annie Lai
“Dreamily!” (flux)

HIT | Tatler with Ruth Wilson, Luke Braque
“I’m a BIG fan of Ruth Wilson, I see her on Tatler This is a pleasant surprise.” (tiger red)

MISS | Vogue Mexico with Sofia Vergara by Norman Jean Roy
“It looks like Good housekeeping cover by a photographer whose aesthetic was similar to Annie Leibovitz’s. A waste of Sofia Vergara.” (krmsn)