First, some background on the Vogue September issue.

It’s the most important issue of the year, carries the most advertising, and usually features cover stars who have some serious pull in the industry. It’s also released before September, as you’ve probably already figured out.

Beyoncé was on last year’s American Vogue cover, whislt British Vogue featured Rihanna.

This year they asked Meghan Markle to be on the cover, but she had other plans.

Here’s Meghan’s intro to this year’s September issue of British Vogue:

It was in early January, on a cold and blustery London day, that I sat down for a cup of tea with British Vogue’s editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful…

…Within hours of our meeting’s end, we were already texting one another – philosophising about how to communicate this shared understanding and the lens through which we see the world, how to pivot from a perspective of frustration to one of optimism.

So I asked the question. Actually, I typed and deleted the question several times until I built up the courage to ask the question in question.

“Edward… instead of doing the cover, would you be open to me guest editing your September issue?”

He said yes, she came on board, and there were probably more “steaming cups of mint tea”. You can read her full intro here.

This is one of the first pieces of writing from the Duchess in connection with the issue, and people are finding it all a little cringey.

Over to The Daily Beast:

While the unprecedented marketing blitz has been greeted with rapturous public applause by vested interests in the fashion biz, the magazine was privately described as “cringey,” “embarrassing,” and “ill-considered” in private conversations with fashion insiders.

Meghan’s gratuitous comment that appearing on the cover would have been “boastful” has also gone down badly, being widely perceived as a dig at Kate’s 2016Vogue cover.

So what the hell was Meghan trying to do?

Meghan’s account of how the deal went down certainly puts meat on the bone of complaints from senior courtiers that she and Harry won’t listen to anyone, won’t consult with older and more experienced heads in the palace, and simply fire away and do whatever they want.

The result is little short of a disaster, from the cheesy front cover onwards, which features a grid of 15 “changemakers” with a 16th place adorned with a mirror.

Yep! It’s you! You’re the changemaker!

Ugh.

And it gets worse.

In the editor’s letter, Meghan appears to compare herself to a mermaid, saying, “I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.”

Meghan even manages to make the Q&A with Michelle Obama all about her.

Nestled in some toe-crawlingly, faux-naïve paragraphs that precede the Q&A comes this classic piece of name-dropping: “Over a casual lunch of chicken tacos and my ever-burgeoning bump, I asked Michelle if she would help me with this secret project.”

That’s a casual reference to the former US First Lady – as you do.

Unsurprisingly, the UK media are not happy about this.

Melanie Philips in The Times says that “the duchess risks becoming a figure of derision… Meghan’s virtue-signaling is all about boasting. It flaunts the signaler’s credentials as a morally virtuous person. It screams ‘Me! Me! Me!’”

Sarah Vine in The Daily Mail (admittedly no great fan of Meghan) accuses Meghan of “taking the chair at Vogue magazine in order to show the world exactly how serious you are about showing the world how serious you are.”

Again…why?

Definitely not her best work.

Then again, she’s criticised for pretty much every single move she makes, so maybe we should all cut her some slack.

[sources:vogue&dailybeast]