Kim Kardashian & Kanye West By Annie Leibovitz For Vogue US April 2014

Typically, it takes a major mistake to ruin a brand in fashionland, where there is almost no such thing as bad publicity — even when you’re Terry Richardson.  But Anna Wintour may have gone too far with her decision to put Kim Kardashian and Kanye West on the cover of Vogue’s April issue. Just kidding, but the fashion universe is aghast with apoplectic, desk-pounding fashionistas cursing at Anna while threatening to never ever read another issue of American Vogue ever, ever, ever.

Arguing that American Vogue is dedicated to the artistic side of fashion — say what??? — Anna has single-handedly ruined the world’s most prestigious fashion bible for the fashion saints found in its scriptures. Wintour can just damn-well get in bed with the devil after this epic example of senior decision-making. Yup, her age came up frequently in the comments over at Fashion Spot. To the best of my knowledge, Anna Wintour is first and foremost a talented businesswoman and she has always reached out to the larger mass market while not degrading the pages of Vogue/

Could I just ask how many celebrity covers Vogue has done over the years? And Kimye is what? Not a celebrity couple? Or they’re just trash!! Indeed, that’s the consensus in fashion land. Kimye is trash, trash, trash! White trash, black trash, mulatto trash. Okay, can we talk now about something important to the future of humankind?

Grace Coddington styles the power couple in “Keeping Up With Kimye’, lensed by Annie Leibovitz. North — or Nori as West’s family calls her — joins the photo party. Hamish Bowles conducts the interview, where we learn that Kim not only adored Elizabeth Taylor but was the last to interview her.

Liz Dennery Sanders is the founder of SheBrand Inc., which specializes in helping brands and celebrities, particularly women, connect with key consumer audiences, writes The Daily Beast.

(Sander) explained that while putting Kimye on the cover might not have been coherent with Vogue’s brand, it was a clever move. “Wintour’s decision to put Kim and Kanye on the cover of the magazine was 100% business. At the end of the day, she’s a very shrewd businesswoman and her goal is to sell magazines and dominate market share. Between the two of them, Kim and Kanye have more than 30 million Twitter followers. Vogue has only 3.6 million. It’s a numbers game.” Sanders predicted that the controversy will help the magazine move more copies than usual which is exactly what Vogue wants, and also needs in an age in which the internet is cannibalizing the print magazine business.

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