Peak Kendall Jenner? Cover backlash latest in string of model’s mishaps

Are we getting to peak Kendall Jenner? If the latest Vogue India cover is anything to go by, it may be so.

The publication, which is celebrating a decade in print, featured the model and reality TV star in a cover shoot photographed by Mario Testino. While the imagery itself, taken on location in Jaipur, was beautiful per usual, it didn’t go down well with everyone, with readers complaining that that they would have preferred to see an Indian celebrity or model instead.

“Why not an Indian model there are so many??? This doesn’t create the sense that India has its own beauty and character,” Facebook user Kavita Shourie commented on Vogue India’s page.

“She is beautiful but I’m pretty sure in a county of over 1 billion they could have found an Indian!” user Nikita Martinz said. “If they want international phenomena Priyanka [Chopra] and Deepika [Padukone] are huge right now.”

Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput appears in some of the shots, posing alongside Jenner, but she appears on the cover solo.

Others were offended that Jenner didn’t post photos from the cover story on her personal Instagram account, unlike when she scored the front pages of other titles.

“She didn’t even post these pictures on her Instagram because it’s Vogue India. And you chose her as the cover model,” Instagram user Plein.de.viee said.

Two weeks ago, she appeared on the cover of the Harpers Bazaar U.S. 150th anniversary edition and a March Vogue U.S. group cover, both of which she shared on Instagram. Last year, Jenner also posted her turns on the covers of the American, Spanish, German and Australian Vogue editions.

WWD has requested comment from Vogue India.

Jenner has experienced a deluge of bad publicity in recent weeks. She was caught up in last week’s Fyre Festival debacle, a supposed luxury music festival which stranded festival-goers and descended into a chaotic scene some likened to a disaster relief zone. The event organizers have been slapped with two multimillion-dollar class action lawsuits.

Although fellow model Bella Hadid has broken her silence on the failed festival, apologizing for the way the event turned out, Jenner has not commented. Other influencers like Emily Ratajkowski, Hailey Baldwin and Nick Bateman who hyped up the festival quietly deleted their promotional posts.

Just before that, her turn in a Pepsi ad made Jenner the butt of many an internet joke. The “Moments” campaign, which depicted her handing a can of soda to a police officer at a rally, drew widespread ire for appropriating imagery from the “Black Lives Matter” movement and was branded as being out of touch. Pepsi quickly apologized and withdrew the ad.

Although Jenner told WWD before the campaign launched that “the whole concept is really something that I’m about”, she quickly distanced herself from the fallout and extracted an apology from Pepsi.

“We also apologize for putting Kendall Jenner in this position,” the company said.

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