Marie Claire Magazine: April 2008
Marie Claire Magazine is a very well-known women's magazine that focuses on fashion, celebrities, health and beauty. The main feature of this page is the cover model, Natalie Portman and while Shia LaBeouf's head covered up some of the title to show that he is a big presence in the film world today Marie Claire's masthead is placed over Portman's head because otherwise the title would be illegible, however this has a nice effect too, and the title combined with the two top-most cover lines frame her face perfectly. She is dressed in an elegant, white top and her make-up has been applied in a 'classical beauty' style and her hair is straight with a slight flick to show that she is sophiticated but has a bit of an edge. The coverline says, 'From Harvard graduate to Hollywood superstar,' so this also reinforces the fact that she is not your typical Hollywood actress, she is extremely intelligent too. She is what the readers of Marie Claire would aspire to be; beautiful, intelligent, sophisticated and fashionable.
The coverlines are presented in lowercase and uppercase letters, alternating with which story it is featuring. There are seven coverlines in total, two focusing on fashion (fashion finding it's "heart" and must have frocks for the summer), two focusing on health (bedroom stories from New York and London and the black women risking their lives for white skin), two focusing on celebrities (a-listers pose for Marie Claire with no make-up on and an exclusive interview with Natalie Portman), and one focusing on beauty (beauty tips to flatter you to the max). The colour of the masthead is yellow which alternates each week but this week gives a feeling of happiness and sunshine, this issue was printed in March (April issue) and this is when people begin to get excited for the arrival of summer. The coverlines alternate between yellow, black and white, the yellow is this week's theme but the black and white were chosen to prevent the yellow overpowering the page itself. These stories are all designed to appeal to sophisticated women, who still care about fashion and other superficialities but who also know that there is more to life than that. Marie Claire's selling line is 'Fashion with heart' and it's slanted placing overlapping the end of the masthead draws your eye to it more after looking at the title. The slanted placing is also to remind you that this isn't as serious a fashion magazine as Vogue for example, but it's still serious about fashion, beauty and health, just in a more fun and more consumer-friendly manner.