Vogue's offensive Hurricane Sandy fashion spread

Next time, let's nix the leggy couture-wearing models, shall we?

A hero's welcome?
(Image credit: Screen shot/Vogue.com)

After Hurricane Sandy devastated the Northeastern seaboard in October — leaving more than a million people in the cold and dark for weeks on end, and thousands more homeless — the American people stepped up with an outpouring of support. People from all over the country raised money, donated clothes and food, and schlepped to unfamiliar neighborhoods to help strangers pick up the pieces. Even celebrities, like Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel lugged debris and handed out relief supplies. Really, it was heartwarming to see that helping was cool. But now, fashion behemoth Vogue is getting in on the trend in the most bizarre of ways — with a 12-page glossy fashion spread "celebrating Hurricane Sandy's first responders," photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

In the feature, impossibly tall and thin models wearing "the best of New York collections" pose among national guardsman, firefighters, and nurses. In one overly dramatic photo, three models sport wedding gowns and indifferent looks while grasping the rail of a U.S. Coast Guard vessel as it plows through rough waves.

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Lauren Hansen

Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.