The Cover of Vogue Might be Amal Clooney's Smallest Accomplishment
It is May of 2018, and the cover of Vogue displays Amal Clooney in pink Alexander McQueen and Cartier earrings. Clooney, an international lawyer who studied at the University of Oxford and New York University, externed under Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, and is waging a fight against ISIS, is not the typical profile star for Vogue. Her last name, however, may look familiar. Oscar-winning actor George Clooney is her husband—but she had the world’s attention long before her celebrity wedding.
As Tina Fey jokingly put it at the 2015 Golden Globes, “Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was an adviser to Kofi Annan regarding Syria, and was selected for a three-person U.N. commission. So tonight her husband is getting a lifetime-achievement award.”
The last time the cover of Vogue featured someone who was not an entertainer, model or athlete was in 2016 when former First Lady Michelle Obama was profiled for the December issue. Before that, the trend had not been broken since February of 2009, which, once again, featured Michelle Obama. For a magazine that supposedly documents artistic evolution, there is a surprisingly small pool of cover-stars in circulation.
However, Clooney is widening the pool of trailblazers — a feat that comes naturally to her. As a lawyer, Clooney has been recruited to work on many high-security and high-profile cases that often revolve around free speech and the misconduct of women.
“I remember all the stages in my career where I almost didn’t have enough confidence to try for something,” she told Vogue, “almost didn’t have the guts to follow something I was excited about doing, because I didn’t know anyone else who’d done it or other people made me question it.”
Not one to shy away from controversial clientele, Clooney has defended people such as Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder; Khadija Ismayilova, an Azerbaijani investigative journalist who released proof of corruption by Azerbaijan’s president; and Abdullah al Senussi, the former intelligence chief to the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Talented as she is stylish, celebrity status has not only brought further attention to her line of work but also to her alluring style in and out of the courthouse. Raiding her mother’s closet as a child, Clooney has always had an affinity for fashion. Imagine Gossip Girl’s Serena van der Woodsen meeting The Parent Trap’s Meredith Blake meeting Jackie Kennedy, and that is Clooney’s personal style. She is simultaneously trendy and timeless, modern and glamorous, while classy and sophisticated.
“I hate the idea that you somehow, as a human being, have to be put in a box,” she told Vogue. “There’s no reason why lawyers can’t be fun—or actresses can’t be serious.”
Co-hosting the 2018 Met Gala this month alongside Anna Wintour, Donatella Versace and Rihanna, Clooney is breaking the mold for lawyers and Vogue cover stars alike. Ambitious, intelligent and chic, Amal Clooney is a mother, fashion icon and legal scholar, proving to women everywhere that you can have it all.
Redefining the status quo in both the legal and fashion world, Clooney is showing women and hopeful, fashion-forward lawyers (*cough* me *cough*) alike that you can be exactly the kind of woman you want to be, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be an entertainer, model or athlete.
