Cover girl

Celebrities feature on the cover of magazines such as Redbook for women, or Gentlemen's Quarterly, Maxim or Esquire for men.

However, there were exceptions where authorized portraits of royalty, such as Diana, Princess Beatrice of York and Queen Elizabeth II, were taken for Vogue, Tatler and Harper's Bazaar.

Later Peter Howarth, UK editor of Esquire famously removed semi-naked women from the covers in a move to once again differentiate the magazine from the competition.

For example, Lucire Romania saw its sales and profile increase after using a local cover girl, Monica Gabor, rather than those photographed by the "master edition" in New Zealand.

While familiarity is a desirable trait for magazine covers—hence the top models and celebrities can charge large amounts for a photographic shoot—there is always the problem of overexposure and dilution of one's image.

In the 2000s, some have predicted the demise of the actress or celebrity from fashion magazine covers, citing overexposure and growing cynicism.

However, with the success of magazines such as InStyle, which uses celebrity covers, there is little evidence that the predictions are being realized in the middle of the decade.

Image editing is an ongoing process of styling and selection, which invites debate on issues related to the representation of women.