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10 of the Best (and Weirdest) Vogue Covers From the Past 120 Years - Fashionista

10 of the Best (and Weirdest) Vogue Covers From the Past 120 Years

This fall, American Vogue released Vogue: The Covers (Abrams), a hardcover book of over 300 of the magazine's best covers to date (add that to your holiday wish list of new fashion coffee table books). The book spans 120 years (the first issue was in 1892) and Vogue.com recently posted a reduced list of their favorites. We're still waiting for that online archive of every Vogue cover, but for now, it's kind of amazing to see how much Vogue covers have changed over the decades. Compared to today's somewhat formulaic, predictable crops of celebrities, the Condé glossy got pretty creative and even a little weird with their covers back in the day. For example, a 1909 cover inexplicably features nothing more than an illustration of a black and white peacock, while another features a model with a giant pile of flowers atop her head. Click through for our 10 favorites.
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This fall, American Vogue released

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So much old Hollywood glamour happening here. Love.

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Could you imagine if a Vogue cover now just had a picture of hands? And Vogue spelled out in jewels?

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...or Vogue spelled out in people wearing funny 1940s bathing suits?

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A classic. Who doesn't want to be this woman?

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This is so weird!

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What does this insane flower hat have to do with great American clothes?? Love it.

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So. pretty.

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Supers!!

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This Year in Vogue: An Analysis of all the Covers from 2011

Gisele Bundchen, the modelling equivalent of the Energizer bunny, graced a total of eight Vogue covers this year, more than any other model or celebrity. It was a close race, but Gisele managed to nab the top spot with highlights that include Emmanelle Alt's first official issue of Vogue Paris, a delightfully tacky December cover of Vogue UK, and a July issue of Vogue Brazil dedicated solely to her. Not bad. Conde Nast has obviously been taking full advantage of the "Gisele Bundchen Stock Index." Eighteen editions of Vogue (up to nineteen with the release Vogue Netherlands next year, yay!) producing, on average, 12 covers a month certainly gives us a lot to play around with. With all the importance placed on a cover--the selling point of a magazine--we wanted to see what Vogues worldwide deemed best to put on the front of their glossies, so we went ahead and crunched the numbers. Above is our little mock-up to represent 2011. Perhaps it's a little flashier (okay, tackier) than most magazines you'll see on a newsstand, but we feel it's an accurate representation of the year. To make a little more sense out of it, click through to find out specifics of the who, the what, and the wear.