LOVE LOVE

There is a distinctly lesbian vibe to my post today and that's not because the Boy has been bad so I've switched sides, although I do have a healthy amount of girl crushes (Winona, Freja, Penelope Cruz in Volver). It's to do with LOVE. And I do love LOVE.

If you had sat me down a year ago and told me I would have been putting a picture of 'the Beib' on my blog, I would have looked at you in bewilderment and gone, 'who?' Yet here he is.  For the longest time, I legitimately couldn't understand why Justin Bieber would ever be on the cover of this high fashion magazine but then I found out that it was for the cover of the androgyny issue and everything made sense. Because he's pretty androgynous and well, pretty too. And, you know, he looks like a lesbian. At least according to the Tumblr blog Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber.  (Yes really.) 

Master Beiber isn’t the only one covering this issue of Love. Kate Moss and Lea T are also featured on a cover for the magazine. Together. Making out. LOVE.

Transgender model Lea T has gone from backroom assistant to sartorial sensation in just months, appearing in Givenchy's autumn/winter ad campaign, smiling in Italian Vanity Fair and – as a crowning glory – posing naked for the hallowed pages of French Vogue.  But if this Brazilian bombshell is causing such a stir it is perhaps because there is more to her than meets the eye. Lea T was born Leandro and, as well as being a model and a muse, she is an out and proud transsexual.

Lea T, second from the right, in Givenchy's ad campaign for late 2010

 The muse of Riccardo Tisci is the perfect choice for the cover of Love’s androgyny issue, while Kate is a bit of surprise (between you and me I was getting a bit blah about old Mossy) BUT I think it totally works!

I think the Kate cover is a rather fantastic throwback to the beginning stages of her career. The black and white choice of photography, paired with her fresh look and freckled appearance calls to mind her Face cover from years ago.  For the final cover, I love the clever gender play going on, with Kate styled as a man and Lea as a woman, at first glance, I didn't actually recognise either model..which I guess is kind of the point! And that kiss! Golly gosh.

Pretty Boy Biebs is a more tongue-in-cheek pick, and I'd love to know if the pop star was notified that his cover would in fact be for the androgyny issue. I hope the answer is yes, and that he was fair game although it would make me evily chuckle into my tea if it came as a bit of a shock to the wee man. 

There’s no word on how the Bieber/ Love connection was made, but mag EIC Katie Grand did share how she and Lea met for the first time; 

“I was by the pool at the Copacabana Palace Hotel when I saw her. At first I didn’t notice her gender, just that she was wearing Givenchy couture and looked amazing!”

Apparently Grace Jones was at the pool, too, wearing a fabulous hat. I, sadly, was not.

Katie Grand and Lea T at the Love Androgyny launch.

Feeling the LOVE

Goodness gracious, the Gorgeous issue of LOVE has arrived and now I've just got to decide which cover to get. Suggestions? It's a fiver a pop otherwise I'd just splash out and buy them all! In my earlier post about getting all excited over September issues, I totally forgot that the second bi-annual issue of LOVE was due, until I saw this incredibly subtle piece of advertising near the Holland Park roundabout and I nearly swerved into the side of Westfield.

The eight covers have been shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot, who truly deserve a post all on their own as they have shot some incredibly iconic images...Naomi naked except for boots and a Catwoman mask, David and Victoria in their Armani scanties, Cameron Diaz covered in truck driver tattoos for V magazine....

For now though feast your eyes on these lovely ladies....the last one in particular, took me by surprise...

Is anyone else getting a kind of 'Betty Draper on acid' vibe with this one?

I'm not entirely sure that 'sweetheart' is the caption I would have used here...

This one freaks me out slightly..

Not usually one of my favourite models as I usually think she looks incredibly smug, but in all fairness, if I polished up like this, I'd be feeling pretty smug too.

If you didn't have the writing scrawled across the front, would you have recognised this young lady?!

Which one should I go for?