I vant to have your vote.
Mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn unveiled a darker, almost vampire-like image on the cover of this week’s New York magazine, alongside the headline “Have you met Christine Quinn?”
What should have been a publicity scoop — including an eight-page profile — left political analysts and celebrity stylists scratching their heads with a photo that screams elite fashionista at best — or Countess Dracula at worst.
“At first glance, I didn’t realize it was her,” said celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch. “It’s very gothic, which I don’t think necessarily says vote for me for mayor.”
Bloch called the look harsh and “not optimistic” enough for a mayor.
“I think the black is a little wicked witchy with the collar up, it’s a little dramatic in that sense. I might have wanted to go for something a little more of-the-people and less severe,” Bloch said.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, called the cover photo “pretty avante garde.”
“Would this play in Peoria? I doubt it. But we’re talking about New York City,” Sabato said.
City Council Speaker Quinn insisted she was simply taking her cues from the magazine’s creative team — not aiming for the Bella Swan look made famous by Kristen Stewart in the “Twilight” films.
“I was really not trying to go for anything,” she said. “I was hoping that I would look pretty and thin, not particularly jowly, which is how I usually look in pictures. I wasn’t in any shape or form managing the photo shoot.”
The magazine cover raised cackles around City Hall.
“I wouldn’t describe it as mayoral, there’s a certain Dracula quality,” said a former City Hall staffer. “It’s always good to have a picture where you look like a bad ass. She looks like she teaches at Hogwarts,” a reference to the fictional wizarding school in the Harry Potter books.
The magazine’s editorial and visual team said they wanted to show Quinn in a new light, “completely transformed and very glamorous,” said New York spokesperson Lauren Starke.