British Vogue’s February issue is a portfolio of Hollywood’s ‘best performances’ to usher in the stunning line-up this award season - but one detail on the cover is pulling focus from this message.
The shoot features actors Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie, as representatives of the stars who outperformed in 2017.
Kidman said: “Part of my job now is to give back and help create opportunities for the next generation – particularly with female directors, because it is so imbalanced.”
Kidman’s commitment to supporting female directors is to be applauded and Robbie’s stand in solidarity against sexual harassment is timely.
But some fans found themselves focusing on something other than the actors’ achievements, as their attention was drawn to the high-fashion equivalent of washing up gloves.
Fans were not shy about voicing their opinions on Instagram and the question on the lips of many is: Why the gloves?
One commented: “Why is Nicole hiding? It’s because she’s wearing kitchen gloves isn’t it?”
Another agreed, saying: “Lol I thought the same thing. Those gloves are bad.”
It continued with someone asking if Nicole was “about to do the dishes?”
One fan got particularly creative, writing: “This looks like they forgot to take an actual cover photo so they paused cleaning the toilets, ran outside and took a couple pics with an iPhone 4.”
And another was just plain angry: “This is ridiculously bad. The gloves - WTF. Nicole and Maggie are gracious, beautiful and talented, but so insipid on this cover. I want to support the #newvogue but this is appalling.”
Someone also commented that they couldn’t “read the titles because the gloves are the same colour,” adding ”#mess” for effect.
One Twitter post sums up much of the public’s reaction to the cover:
It seems, as far as fans are concerned, the gloves were not necessary in helping to drive the issue’s overall theme home.
Then again, seeing dishwashing gloves on the cover of British Vogue might make the rest of us feel better about chores.