Teen Vogue February 2009: Leighton Meester

Alrighty, since I've been absent from posting review for the last two issues of Teen Vogue, this one comes as soon as I get my hands on the magazine. Read on...

Teen Vogue Feb 2009 featuring the one and only, Leighton Meester.

My first reaction:

- Meester finally got the spot she deserved. Personally, I like her better than Blake Lively. And I also happen to adore Blair Waldorf. So everytime a magazine chooses Lively for a covergirl, I think it's only fair if they make it a double-cover edition with Meester for the other one. Nylon gave a good example last time.

- This issue is probably the thinnest issue of Teen Vogue I've ever had in my entire 3 years of scrutinizing it. Back to back, it's a total of 122 pages.

If you're an avid reader of Teen Vogue, you'd noticed that the Letter from Editor is printed on the right page of the magazine. Nothing major, but it's a noticeable change.

Covergirl Leighton Meester shares about her experience as Blair Waldorf (Meester doesn't wear headband, ever!), her childhood and her upcoming debut album. Read more.

Highlight of the issue:

People Watching - featuring the Olsen twins, Kristen Stewart, Lily Allen with her new look, Malia Obama, Emma Roberts, Alexander Wang & model Alice Dellal, plus Kate Bosworth.


Special Report on three Teen Vogue's covergirls last year: supermodel Chanel Iman, Karlie Kloss and Ali Michael.

You've Got Male: swept on Twilight frenzy - the Cullens, Jacob and James.

Fade to Blue fashion spread: I always love a group photoshoot. Love the basic colour too. Bright or fluoro colour, as featured in Neon Nation, aren't exactly my cup of tea.

Ads: Daisy Lowe makes her debut in Marc Jacobs ads and Taylor Swift in Got Milk campaign. Madonna posing for Louis Vuitton, yikes.

On the whole, this issue is worth having (if Leighton Meester on cover haven't won you already). Teen Vogue makes an effort to show us how to get more style with less money. Although I must say, it's not its strongest point - a few affordable pieces here and there, but not many of us go to school with a bag costing $348.

The story about Marrisa Ayala in the article Life Safer is a great read. I find it slightly different that what normally Teen Vogue would present, but it could be the fact that it is written by a new refreshing talent, Angela Wu - a classmate of Marrisa Ayala.

Love, C.

Season Greetings...

Merry Christmas'08

&

Happy New Year'09

xoxo,

C.

[pic from: starbucksandjaneausten]

Blogstars...

I like her (at first I even had a thought of her acting as Bella Swan. What do you think?)

Check out her musings at http://www.katdennings.com/

And supermodel Coco Rocha's at http://ohsococo.blogspot.com/

xx

Miss Chic

I've been loving Kirsten Dunst's style since before and after watching How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (which was like, months ago). But I kinda forget about it and now I'm in much need to shop and get some new outfits... So back to Kirsten watching for some style inspirations...

Love this hairstyle, but it probably wouldn't look that good on me (with the wind constantly blowing on my face and what not. Hee).

Watch me eat apples at the office. Those braids - the joy of having hairstylist.

Effortlessly chic... Head to toe. Plus the bag and coffee.

xoxo.

C

Internship at Girlfriend Indonesia

Unfamiliar with these Girlfriend mag covers? Surprise! Yes, Girlfriend AU actually has a one-year-old sister who totally speaks in different language and all that. Ha!

For the past three weeks or so, I’ve been interning at Girlfriend Indonesia. It has been fun (and I hope the fun continues). I initially applied for a work experience at Girlfriend AU, but the placement for 2008 is full. When I mentioned I’d be going overseas this summer, Girlfriend AU Editor Sarah Cornish actually helped me to get in contact with the editor of GF Indonesia.

Overall, GF Indo has similar concept to GF Au – Self Respect, Glamouriser, GF Gets Real, GF Top 5, etc. But it also has different contents and slightly different style to GF AU. The first edition of GF Indo was launched in November 2007, so yeah, it was only 12 issues ago. But I have to applaud the team, not because I’ve been working with them, but because they deserve it! I could see the tough the competition is in the teen magazine in Indonesia. There are, literally, millions of teen fashion magazines over here, and to keep one going takes a lot of effort.

My days here have been filled with fun and creative activities. It really opens up my eyes to the magazine industry I’m hoping to work in near future.
Who said working in a magazine is all about glam? We actually work long hours and deadlines are unpleasant (yet motivating). At the moment, the office is busy preparing the January issue – running around preparing fashion shoots, articles and all that. Needless to mention, I’ve enjoyed some of the incredible highlights in the past two weeks – like, pre-screening to Twilight (yay!), JakJazz music festival and probably celeb-spotting (I get more of surprised rather than star-struck because I actually have almost-zero knowledge about the local celebs *grins*).

As my internship goes on, I’m hoping to contribute to the magazines in many different ways and enjoy it while I can. I’ll be keeping you update (fingers crossed) and perhaps, apologies for not giving you scoops to the other latest glossies because as I’ve mentioned before, international glossies are rather scarce.

xoxo,

Celia.

The latest issue of GF Indo (December) is also bitten with vampire love featuring Kristen Stewart on the cover. This cover actually looks better than the one in Teen Vogue, don’t you think?

Twilight Pre-Screening

One of the most awesome part of being in a magazine is you’ve got invited to exclusive event. Last week, I attended Twilight pre-screening in Jakarta – an event that was arranged by Girlfriend magazine.

The whole Twilight frenzy in Indonesia, in my opinion, is not as extreme compared to what Australia or USA had. But it doesn’t mean that they’ve got no interest at all. Fans of Twilight here have their own fan club and yeah, Twilight makes a lot of people giddy.

Okay, now "Twilight" the movie…

The movie is not bad at all – but it is not incredibly amazing. It’s just good – satisfying to my craving of Twilight movie. The development of Bella and Edward’s relationship is cut-short, leaving a lot of details about how Bella feels about Edward and vice versa. People who haven’t read the book were actually confused by small facts like, why Edward’s eyes change colour, why he behaves so coldly towards Bella and why he has ‘that look’. (I think they have yet to grasp the concept of Edward is vampire and his ‘strange’ behaviour).

It was so funny when Dr.Carlisle made his first appearance (hospital scene), someone sitting next to me actually commented, “Gosh, he looks so white and strange.”
I think Dr.Carlisle looks the best as the vampire… Kudos to the makeup artist.

My favourite part of the movie has to be the scene where Edward and Bella come to school together. The stupid-shiny-volvo-owner is looking really good and the background music really suits that scene. And I think in that scene does marks the ‘togetherness’ of Bella and Edward; how Edward becomes a part of Bella’s life from then on.

What I don’t like the most is probably the scene at Biology class, where the fan blows directly at Bella (it makes her look as if she was in a corny music video clip, gosh) and Edward stares at her with his cold stares plus I-want-to-vomit-look. I was expecting the hilarious comment, “Did you just stab Edward Cullen with a pencil or what?” from Mike or Eric to be included in the movie, but it wasn’t.
And does anyone wonder about the part shown in the trailer where Emmet says, “This is wrong, Edward! She’s not one of us!” Did I blink and missed that part or was it edited out from the movie?

On the whole, the book definitely wins over the movie. But if you haven’t got a chance to read it, had no clue about what Twilight is and want to watch the movie, I suggest you browse around for quick guides for Twilight so you’ll get some background about little things about it.
I personally think the movie is made firstly to cater those who have read the book and secondly, to the others. Anyway, it’s still a good watch.
If you couldn’t find anything exciting about Twilight (which is quite impossible), I’ll tell you one: the Cullens are definite eye-candies. Edward, Jasper, Emmet and Dr.Carlisle; pick your fave and off you go to some hottest vampire sightings!

Twilight Indonesia is holding a Twilight gathering “Decoding Twilight” at Kinokuniya, Plaza Senayan this Saturday afternoon. Feel free to come! I’ll be there too.