Nicole Kidman by Irving Penn on US Vogue, May 2004

Y’all. I was there when this cover dropped, and the jaws of many fashion hounds dropped when we saw this cover. It was simple, all the way down to the singular cover blurb, yet elegant AF. This is not your Zoomer’s Vogue, but what Vogue used to be when they were the fashion bible. An actual fashion icon in Nicole (who had gotten another cover just eight months before this cover), giving fashion. No absurd photoshop, no hints of anything tabloid-y, and no need to look for the Playboy rabbit head on the cover because this was a true fashion magazine cover, dahling. And that’s on period.

Vanity Fair, April 1995 issue, with *takes a deep breath in* Jennifer Jason Leigh, Uma Thurman, Nicole Kidman, Patricia Arquette, Linda Fiorentino, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Julianne Moore, Angela Bassett, and Sandra Bullock

Thirty years ago this month, Vanity Fair did that and gave ten of the top actresses of the time the cover. All at once! Their multi-star covers and star-studded portfolio would become a spring tradition for the publication, albeit a tradition that’s gone awry recently. Never forget the first, however, where it was just straight-up star power that sold the issue–no weird setups or questionable photoshop. (Placing queen Angela in the back of the fold-out cover will forever remain a choice to me, though.)

Drew Barrymore on i-D Magazine, March 1995. 

The Wink–the signature mark found on every (?) cover of the gone but not forgotten i-D Magazine, a UK-based fashion/lifestyle publication. Seeing models like Christy, Naomi, and Gisele on their covers back in the late 90s got my attention, and it would be there that I would notice a common theme among i-D’s covers. Thanks to that mag, now when I wink for fun, I like to think I’m winking for my own i-D cover. 

Also, mid/late 90s Drew remains iconic! Here, she was in her Wild Child Era, fresh off posing nude for Playboy, and was a month away from flashing David Letterman.