To say that Vogue Paris' new direction under Emmanuelle Alt has been controversial would be an understatement. When she was announced as the magazine's new editor-in-chief she had no qualms in saying that the magazine will move towards a softer feeling and that sentiment has ran true ever since. It's this softer feeling that was the subject of much discussion recently when the magazine dropped their May cover starring Laetitia Casta.

Compared to the Roitfeld-styled Casta cover from the December/January 2009 issue, the latest version couldn't be any further apart. The latter was a lot less provocative and directional than you would expect from Vogue Paris and as a result, I was amongst the critics unhappy with the cover. Now that the whole cover editorial is out, though, I'm not as hostile as I thought I would be. The shoot is actually really romantic but in an interesting way especially with that black swan Giles headpiece. Am I convinced that this is the direction that Vogue Paris should go, well no, but hopefully as time goes on Alt will find a better balance to the magazine of old that w all know and loved and one more in tune with the reality that she's searching for.