Kate Middleton Dress Faked On Marie Claire Cover [PHOTO]

A new picture of Kate Middleton graces the cover of Marie Claire's August issue, but it's not an actual photo of the Duchess of Cambridge. The South African edition of the magazine Photoshopped the image so that it appears Prince William's bride is wearing a South African designer's clothing, Yahoo reported.

The magazine is trying to pass off the deception as a fan art tribute, according to Marie Claire writer Marisa Crous.

We were so inspired by her fairytale wedding and her life as a modern-day princess, which is why we elected Kate Middleton as our cover star for the August issue, Crous writes. But upon closer inspection, the cover is -- much like her life -- more fantasy than reality. The cover is actually a hyper-real illustration of Kate, meant to be a fan art tribute to fashion's new royal icon.

But the duchess does not want to be a fashion icon, much as the media would love to see her as one.

The duchess will not be doing anything with U.S. Vogue, or any other publications for the foreseeable future, a royal spokesperson said last year according to Yahoo.

Both William and Kate feel it would be wrong for Kate to promote herself as a fashion or style icon. That's not what they are about and they take their royal duties far too seriously to, in one sense, trivialize them, a representative told E! News.

A very different altered photo of the duchess, on the cover of New Republic, gave her the appearance of having rotten teeth with the headline, Something's Rotten: The Last days of Britain.

The editor of Marie Claire, Aspasia Karras, is not apologizing for the Middleton cover since the editors wrote Fan Art Tribute above her name.

We have honoured her with a fan-art tribute, dressing her up in clothes by South African designers and placing her in all sorts of fun, everyday situations, she wrote.

Some readers of Marie Claire wrote on the magazine's website, She didn't actually pose for the cover? How is that a good thing? Aren't you cheating your readers as well as your cover subject?

Another commented, I'm not really a fan of this idea, will not be buying this magazine!

Do you think this 'fan art' is false advertising?