Been hammering away on the book I’m writing about the history of magazine design and looking through some old Vogue covers. How’s this for the first cover (May 1989) of Madonna in the US edition:
Anna Wintour was told this Madonna cover would not sell
Fashion Indie notes that editor Anna Wintour says she was told ‘[Madonna]’ll never sell’, but, in fact, newsstand sales rose 40%. Strange that Wintour hadn’t checked with Liz Tilberis, her successor at the British sister magazine – ‘Brogue’ – which had run this cover in February:
British Vogue beat the US edition in having a Madonna front cover four months earlier
The first cover under Liz Tilberis was of Naomi Campbell – her first appearance on the front of Vogue.
British Vogue cover archive - search on date, model, photographer or editor, but not all covers are up
