Ranking Every Vogue September Issue Cover From The 21st Century

Aug 13

The September Issue of Vogue is THE fashion magazine, but not all covers are created equal. So what exactly makes for a great magazine cover?

With a lackluster response to a pair of nepo babies hopping onto the cover of the 2026 edition of Vogue’s most coveted issue, I’ve been thinking a lot about what exactly makes a cover good. Is it strictly the fashion? Is it the star power wattage of the cover’s subject? Is it the photography? Is it driving a conversation online?

It’s probably a combination of all these things, truthfully. Star power alone can’t make up for a boring image, and head-to-toe Chanel can’t make the random son of an actual celebrity exciting. So I decided to dig into the previous covers of the 21st century and do some analysis.

My findings discovered that Vogue US’s September issue covers tend to fall into one of three major categories:

The High Fashion Moment: typically a full-body photo of a celebrity or model in a glamorous, elegant gown
The Celebrity Portrait: closer in on the face, with more of an emphasis on beauty and star power to sell
The Supermodel Roll Call: an ensemble of the biggest names in modeling, usually celebrating generational talents or fresh new faces

Many of these covers have overlap, but those are the typical formats for Vogue’s covers in the past 26 years. While making my rankings, I didn’t find myself to prefer one format over the other. Each cover’s position in my ranking really boils down to art direction, emotional response, and that je ne sais quoi that takes a captivating image from good (or mediocre in some cases) to great.

Take a look below for my rankings*, from worst to best, and let me know what you think!

*For the purposes of this article, we are only discussing Vogue US covers, as there are thousands of incredible covers to consider internationally and I only have so much bandwidth! But I typically find the international editions to be much more creative…