Vogue, Elle and WSJ Publish Three Near-Identical Covers

By Daniel Okafor

Vogue, Elle and The Wall Street Journal Magazine released covers for three November issues within days in October 2026, all photographed by Hungarian fashion photographer Szilveszter Makó. The repeated painterly staging has drawn criticism over photographer exclusivity and editorial coordination.

Page Six reported that Vogue unveiled its cover on Thursday, October 22, placing actress Jenna Ortega in sculptural outfits before a trompe-l’œil backdrop that creates an illusion of depth and dimension. The report links Makó’s painterly method to his early ambition to become a painter, and describes his theatrical, carefully constructed scenes as fantasy built from real-life elements rather than Photoshop or AI.

An unidentified fashion media source told Page Six: “This is a giant screw-up. Vogue is the leader. It’s bad and unheard of.” The source conceded, “We don’t know the timing of the shoots,” but called it “irresponsible from the photographer’s side” not to warn the magazines that they were using the same concept for covers in the same month.

Earlier in the week, The Wall Street Journal Magazine presented Gigi Hadid in a portrait with a similar art-like setup. Elle had published its theatrical Makó cover featuring Euphoria actress Hunter Schafer three days before Vogue. Page Six put the sequence plainly: Vogue followed two covers it called “identical,” released within the previous week.

What makes the covers look alike?

The resemblance is built into Makó’s visible craft: the Vogue portrait uses a trompe-l’œil backdrop to create depth and dimension, while the other two covers favour similarly theatrical portraiture and art-like sets. The report says he constructs fantasy with real-life elements, not Photoshop or AI. The result is three portraits by one hand, not three copies of one photograph.

Yet a shared look is not evidence of a shared brief. No source quoted by Page Six supplied the shoot dates for Ortega or Schafer, production documents, or communications among the three publications. The charge therefore rests on resemblance and an anonymous source’s view of normal practice.

Does photographer exclusivity still matter?

The criticism reaches beyond Makó. Vogue once kept major photographers closely tied to its publisher, Condé Nast, a relationship the report associates with exclusivity. Page Six says tighter budgets are believed to have made those arrangements harder to maintain. That makes repetition an institutional question, not only a matter of resemblance.

The same unidentified source criticised Vogue for publishing a cover closely resembling other magazines’ recent covers, and called it unusual for the leading fashion magazine to be the last to publish its cover. The source also praised Vogue editor Chloe Malle and the magazine’s covers.

“The fact that Vogue is the last — and I love [editor] Chloe Malle and the covers — it’s so unlike Vogue. I have never, ever, ever seen anything like this before.”

The remark is revealing because it treats sequence as evidence, although Vogue’s late release establishes only chronology. It also supplies no direct answer about who developed Makó’s concept, who knew what, or when each magazine learned of the others’ shoots.

A source close to the matter offered a narrower defence. The Hadid cover was planned in March, photographed in July, and commissioned for a digital-only couture feature focused on photography. According to this source, similarities across Makó’s work reflect his well-known signature aesthetic.

Those details narrow the claim. They do not establish whether the Vogue and Elle teams knew of The Wall Street Journal Magazine’s concept, whether schedules were coordinated, or whether anyone approved the repeat. Nor does the report identify a budget figure, contract, or exclusivity clause.

On October 22, 2026, fashion account La Mode Unknown posted a montage of Makó’s magazine covers from the previous four months and suggested more were coming. The montage enlarges the visual sample behind the complaint, but it does not prove common commissioning.

Three covers in one week have made Makó’s painterly repetition a test of editorial judgement. The immediate institutional test is whether further examples turn a signature into an editorial default; the longer question is whether Vogue and Condé Nast can preserve exclusivity amid tighter budgets.