Better Together: A Look Back at Vogue’s Best Model Group Covers

No woman is an island. That’s the lesson of these fraught days that are underlining the interconnectedness of the real-life, worldwide web. But for some time now, Vogue has been focused on the idea of strength in numbers. In December, all 26 editions of the 127-year-old brand established Vogue Values. These core beliefs are focused on excellence in storytelling, inclusivity, and sustainability. This April those tenets are illustrated in a global series of model covers celebrating beauty and difference.

The three graces covering American Vogue are Ugbad Abdi, Adut Akech, and Kaia Gerber. Abdi, a hijab-wearing beauty discovered on the internet, was born in Somalia in wartime. At age nine, she moved from a Kenyan refugee camp to resettle in Des Moines, with her family. Akech, from South Sudan, was discovered in Australia, where her family sought refuge after living in Kenya. Gerber, a native of Los Angeles, is following in her supermodel mother Cindy Crawford’s footsteps. Together, these three models represent a new generation of strong Vogue women.

The April 2020 cover continues the magazine’s tradition of photographing models in groups. This practice can be traced, cover-wise, back to the 1930s. But really, it’s Irving Penn’s 1947 photograph of the 12 most-photographed models of the time that set the precedent for these types of sittings. Christian Dior put fashion on its post-war course that year with his ultra-feminine, curvy New Look. Decades on, a girl gang would guide fashion in new directions. Vogue turned 100 in the midst of the supermodel moment and celebrated that anniversary with a cover featuring 10 of the era’s glamazons.

Flipping through a back issue of a magazine, it’s possible to identify an era both by its silhouettes and by its models. Twiggy, for example, is quintessentially 1960s. From Lisa Fonssagrives to the Insta girl, the model remains fashion’s main muse. What’s changed, and for the better, is our definition of “the girl next door.” We are the world.

April 2020

Illustrating Vogue Values are Ugbad Abdi, Adut Akech, and Kaia Gerber. Beauty knows no boundaries.From left: Ugbad Abdi, Adut Akech, Kaia Gerber. Photographed by Tyler Mitchell, Vogue, April 2020

September 2014

In the current fashion landscape, rising model stars like Joan Smalls, Karlie Kloss, and Cara Delevingne are propelling their fame beyond the runway via social media. After the age of the supermodel comes the Instagirl.From left: Joan Smalls, Cara Delevingne, Karlie Kloss, Arizona Muse, Edie Campbell, Imaan Hammam, Fei Fei Sun, Vanessa Axente, Andreea Diaconu.Photographed by Mario Testino, Vogue, September 2014

May 2009

This issue of the magazine, which coincided with the opening of “The Model as Muse” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute, was intended, wrote its editor, as “a tribute to models and muses and the wonderful collaborative role they play in the lives of designers.”From left: Liya Kebede, Natalia Vodianova, Anna Jagodzinska, Isabeli Fontana, Lara Stone, Jourdan Dunn, Raquel Zimmermann, Caroline Trentini, Natasha PolyPhotographed by Steven Meisel, Vogue, May 2009Natalia Vodianova and Raquel Zimmermann represented by DNA Model Management New York.

May 2007

“However much we love actors and singers, fashion also needs its in-house stars to inspire us,” said Vogue’s Anna Wintour at the time “The World’s Next Top Models” cover hit newsstands.From left: Lily Donaldson, Hilary Rhoda, Doutzen Kroes, Sasha Pivovarova, Caroline Trentini, Raquel Zimmermann, Jessica Stam, Chanel Iman, Coco Rocha, Agyness DeynPhotographed by Steven Meisel, Vogue, May 2007  Doutzen Kroes and Raquel Zimmermann represented by DNA Model Management New York.

September 2004

“We have devoted the cover of our biggest fashion issue ever to nine girls who represent the future of the business,” wrote Anna Wintour in her “Editor’s Letter.” “We feature such photographs very rarely," she explained, “and only in order to mark what seems to us a significant cultural shift (our last was the millennium issue.) What’s changing now—and here, as so often, fashion is the first to register the tremors—is that our appreciation of fame is being revised.”From left: Daria Werbowy, Natalia Vodianova, Gisele Bündchen, Isabeli Fontana, Karolina Kurkova, Liya Kebede, Hana Soukupova, Gemma Ward, Karen ElsonPhotographed by Steven Meisel, Vogue, September 2004  Natalia Vodianova represented by DNA Model Management New York.

November 2000

“Fashion needs its homegrown celebrities; what would our history be without Twiggy or Linda Evangelista?,” noted Vogue’s Anna Wintour. Each of these cover girls was a nominee for the VH1/ Fashion Awards Model of the Year.Clockwise from left: (winner) Carmen Kass, Angela Lindvall, Maggie Rizer, Frankie RayderPhotographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, November 2000

November 1999

Vogue’s millennium cover featured models, noted Anna Wintour, “for the simple reason that they have personified this magazine for more than a century.”From left to right: Kate Moss, Gisele Bündchen, Lauren Hutton, Iman, Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, Amber Valletta, Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, Lisa Taylor, Paulina Porizkova, Carolyn Murphy, Patti HansenPhotographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, November 1999  

April 1992

Vogue’s 100th Anniversary Special featured 10 tops. “Then, casual sportswear was all the rage,” the magazine’s editor, Anna Wintour, would later write, “so our ten ‘supermodels’ sported white shirts and jeans.”Clockwise from top: Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Karen Mulder, Elaine Irwin, Niki Taylor, Yasmeen Ghauri, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, and, center, Tatjana PatitzPhotographed by Patrick Demarchelier, Vogue, April 1992

May 1, 1947

Irving Penn first met Lisa Fonssagrives, who would become his wife, when shooting “12 Beauties: The Most Photographed Models in America,” for Vogue. “They represent an Omnibus of Beauty,” wrote the magazine, and are the, “current replacement of Ziegfeld and Gibson Girl legends.” While the image didn’t cover the magazine, it set a precedent for capturing beauty en masse. From left, seated: Marilyn Ambrose, Dana Jenney; standing, left to right: Meg Mundy, Helen Bennett, Lisa Fonssagrives; background: Betty McLauchlen; foreground: Dorian Leigh; seated: Andrea Johnson; standing, left to right: Lily Carlson, Elizabeth Gibbons, Kay Hernan; background: Muriel MaxwellPhotographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, May 1, 1947

This is an update of a story originally published on August 21, 2014.