V Magazine put Candice Swanepoel in Valentino for its Fall Preview 2026 issue, pairing a voluminous tan shearling coat with a netted veil and dark red lip.
That veil means business. Candice Swanepoel in V Magazine cover styling faces the camera under a dark netted face veil for V Magazine Issue 161, released in July 2026 as its Fall Preview edition. Around her sits a huge tan Valentino shearling coat, its collar pushing out to the page edges while a pale lace bodysuit appears only in the narrow opening beneath it.
The cover has a lot going on, but it doesn’t turn messy. The coat’s volume could have swallowed the smaller details. Instead, the grid of the veil, deep red lip, and tight line of the up-swept hair pull attention straight back to her face. The Panthère de Cartier earrings and Clash de Cartier ring are small flashes against that heavy tan texture, not attempts to compete with it. B. Åkerlund’s styling is maximal, sure, yet every piece still has a place.
The V Magazine logo is bright pink, which could have been a visual fight with the coat. It becomes a useful interruption instead. The color breaks through the warm brown cover, then returns in the lacquered lip and pointed nails. This is a tightly controlled cover image, photographed by Luigi and Iango, with no spare detail floating around merely to make it feel expensive.
The accompanying monochrome portrait cuts the warmth completely. A dark leather jacket with wide cuff straps sits open at the front, matched with a glossy, high-shine bucket hat pulled low over one eye. No designer credit was supplied for either piece, and it doesn’t need one: the crinkled surface of the jacket and the hat’s high shine create enough tension on their own. Her long pointed nails repeat the dark lip, while the relaxed hand pose keeps the strong outerwear from becoming too stiff.
This is the kind of transformation celebrity style can pull off when clothes, beauty, and styling are all aimed at the same character. The black look is more severe than the cover, but the face is still the center. At 9/10, the tan coat and netted veil turn an autumn cover into an actual character, not a pile of luxury pieces.
Share what you think