Jul 22, 2014

Cover Review: Essence

I’ve been a big fan of Michelle Obama‘s many magazine covers, so I was happy to review her latest cover on Essence for the Folio: online Face Up column. The cover was photographed by Kwaku Alston, and art directed by Erika Perry.

Michelle Obama has become a top magazine cover celebrity, arguably the top celebrity in terms of breadth and frequency of appearance. I can’t think of anyone else who makes such a stylish splash every time she appears on a cover, and who also appears on so many different types of covers. I’m sure Baby Boomers who still adore Jackie Kennedy will disagree, but for my money Obama is by far the all-time leading First Lady in terms of iconic magazine cover appearances.

Obama has mastered the art of creating iconic magazine cover images. There’s not another person in politics who conveys such a sense of power, style, grace, beauty, intelligence and sex appeal, except of course, her husband Barack. While Barack Obama, as with other Presidents, has aged considerably with the job, Michelle looks even better and more energetic than she did in 2008. I would go so far as to say that I don’t see any celebrities of any kind who have been able to create such a powerful set of cover images in such a short period of time.

This is a tight, bold, modern, engaging-looking cover that works well both on newsstand (I bought a copy) and online (where it first grabbed my attention). Like its subject, this cover has an incredible sense of style.

Read the full review here.

Here are a dozen Michelle Obama covers from the past five years.

Michelle Obama