From Wintour with love: US Vogue shares its latest cover star

IF YOU were in any doubt about Anna Wintour’s support for British Vogue’s post-enninful era, the fact it is sharing Zendaya as a cover star with the US edition this May should silence it.

It’s a privilege afforded to very few: Adele in 2021, and the supermodel quartet of Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell last year (let’s gloss over 2016, when, on learning that American Vogue was to make Rihanna its April cover, Alexandra Shulman, then British Vogue editor, pulled her May Rihanna cover forward by a month so she didn’t run hers second.)

This latest instance is intriguing for another reason: yes, this was planned, but the two covers are so distinctly different. The American one, shot by Annie Liebowitz, shows the American actress in a Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda rose dress – it’s all polished elegance and glamour.

The British cover, shot by young Dutch photographer Carlijn Jacobs, has Zendaya in track jacket and shorts from Adidas Originals’ collaboration with British label Wales Bonner.

You can instantly see how Wintour, with Chioma Nnadi, the new head of editorial content for British Vogue, is carving two very different identities for the two titles. American Vogue is the grande dame, and the new incarnation of British Vogue is, like London Fashion Week: more youthful, edgy and creative. Images that reflect the two women’s personal styles too.

The little sister, perhaps, but the Zendaya covers also represent a gravitas for British Vogue – the only international edition to share a cover with the US – and, after rumoured rivalry in the past, a new entente cordiale between the two editions.