Chase is the VMAN but Testino Takes Over

The latest cover VMAN features Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford, shot by Mario Testino

The latest issue of VMAN (which is the first ever winter issue!) is now available. As yet I've not managed to pick it up myself but I just had to remark on the cover. The cover boy is Chace Crawford, who if you don't know stars in one of my (many) guilty pleasures TV shows (I really should get out more and more importantly not admit to these things), Gossip Girl wearing D&G plaid. I have to admit though that when I first saw the cover I asked myself 'Why is Zac Efron' on the cover of VMAN...'Is VMAN turning into TeenVogue' (another guilty pleasure). I'm not 100% sold on the styling but I've certainly had enough of Efron for one lifetime.

For the magazine's first Winter Issue Mario Testino is guest editor. Within the issue he explores the extremes of masculinity. Testino explains “masculinity has come to be determined less by a man’s exterior than by his kindness, his fairness, his taste, his behavior. Now, you can look like one thing and be completely the opposite. I’m quite fascinated by this, so I decided to do a study of the extremes of masculine identity today.” Testino photographed thirteen extreme male archetypes, including Extreme Sun (the beach bum), Extreme ink (tattooed men), and Extreme Macho (bearded men), the other ten are a mystery until I get my hands on the issue. Have anyone read it? Should I hit the streets in search of it?