Vogue, Louis Vuitton and the State of Fashion Media

When American Vogue dropped the cover of its September issue this week, readers couldn’t help but notice Emma Stone is wearing a lot of Louis Vuitton.

In fact, it’s the only label Stone, an ambassador for the brand since 2017, wears throughout the 12-page editorial spread — and that’s not including four pages of advertisements for Louis Vuitton in the issue, also featuring the actress. The cover story depicts Stone in a variety of custom couture looks, including a beaded, one-shouldered suit, a metallic, caped dress and an intricate cardigan with matching booties at the Palais des Papes in Avignon, France, as well as one photo of the actress with Vuitton’s artistic director of women’s collections, Nicolas Ghesquière.

“Honestly, the whole thing is just an ad for LV,” content creator Blakely Thornton said in a video, typical of the online reactions to the cover’s unveiling.

A Vogue spokesperson shut down that notion, telling The Business of Fashion that the choice to dress Stone exclusively in Louis Vuitton was an “entirely editorial” decision without commercial influence, and was the product of a years-long discussion between the designer and Anna Wintour, global editorial director of Vogue and chief content officer of Condé Nast.

“Emma is one of Nicolas’ closest friends — someone he has dressed forever. So it was natural for him to want to make a collection just for her, and he was excited by the idea of making entirely handmade looks, fashion that is akin to couture,” the spokesperson said. “The shoot is a tribute to creativity and technique, and to friendship. Vogue was thrilled to be part of it.”

This wasn’t the first time American Vogue has devoted its cover spread to a single brand: The August 2025 issue, for example, featured Anne Hathaway exclusively in Givenchy, showcasing the first collection by Sarah Burton. Kaia Gerber wore only Marc Jacobs for the December 2024 issue, which the designer guest edited. The British, Italian, Korean and Indian editions of the publication have all done the same within the last five years.

Even so, the all-Vuitton September shoot is the latest sign that the cozy relationship between fashion publications and the brands they write about and display in their pages and on their websites is getting even cosier.

The same brands that are featured in Vogue editorial shoots are usually the ones that advertise within its pages. There’s always been a tacit agreement that glossy magazines should do what they can to keep advertisers happy — but now that pressure seems to be growing.

As powerful arbiters of what was in and out and one of the only ways to reach consumers, the most prestigious fashion magazines — especially Vogue — previously had much more leverage to push back.

Cut to today: Brands have more options than ever when it comes to reaching consumers, and magazines’ sway has diminished. Vogue, for one, has seen its September issue ad pages decline nearly every year in the past decade (though spend on digital and experiences has increased, now representing 70 percent of revenue).

That reality has meant that paid placement on magazine covers has increasingly become common, especially for smaller, independent publications that have always had to be creative in finding ways to generate revenue. Now that approach is creeping into the big glossy magazines too, even if not as a direct result of a paid placement. There are other ways the lines can be blurred: For instance, a brand ambassador may have terms in her contract that dictate they can only be photographed in that brand’s clothes, accessories or jewellery.

The real danger here is not that readers will worry about their favourite publication’s editorial independence — most probably don’t care. After all, the images in the December 2024 issue were universally praised on social media despite the fact that Jacobs did not just dress the cover star, but was intimately involved with the issue’s creation. But it’s a real threat to the cultural clout of both the magazines and the brands if readers are viewing covers and editorial shoots through the lens of commercial choices, rather than creative ones. It undeniably diminishes the “wow” factor behind a beautiful image if you’re simultaneously wondering if the clothes are only being featured because someone paid for them to be there.

Even though Vogue’s new cover was styled by respected fashion editor Grace Coddington and beautifully photographed by Jamie Hawksworth, the fact that it featured only one brand and was set against a simple monotone backdrop in for the cover of the magazine’s most important issue of the year was a let down for many fashion fans seeking excitement and inspiration.

“The September issue should be where you throw down the gauntlet for fashion fantasy,” said Thornton. “These choices seem to be about making the most money.”