Jossip posted this very incriminating comparison between "The Shape Issue" of Vogue magazine and a WWI era poster.

Its difficult to believe this was completely accidental.

Says Jossip:

It's hard to imagine Wintour or Leibovitz, or their staffs, in all their years studying photos and imagery, never came across this poster, or understood its racial ramifications with the ape carrying the helpless Lady Liberty. They understood it well enough to put Gisele in an eerily similar dress.

Update

As noted by my uncle, a History professor and newspaper columnist:

I think it is canny rather than uncanny -- the parallel is deliberate, the discovery expected, and the fact that it's an anti-German image may be another intentional twist. It could even be said that it is kind of racist to assume that every portrayal of a human as an ape must be a reference to the African race. In the 19th century U.S., the Irish were also often hatefully caricatured as having simian features. Still, it is an African American sports star that is made to look like a mad ape on the cover -- Jossip's point still holds.