The January issue of Vogue Italia has chucked out fashion photographers and replaced them with artists. As a result, Vogue Italia’s first issue of the decade comprises the work of well-known art icons, emerging talents and comic book legends, each of which has rid the magazine of the ecological problems associations attached to the shipment of entire wardrobes polluting our Earth.
“The challenge was to prove it is possible to show clothes without photographing them”, says Vogue Italia’s Editor-in-Chief Emanuele Farneti on Instagram, with the money saved in the making of this issue financing the restoration of a cultural institution in Venice – Fondazione Querini Stampalia – which was badly damaged by recent floods.
The cover artists of the new issue include David Salle, Vanessa Beecroft, Delphine Desane, Cas Namoda, Yoshitaka Amano, Milo Manara and Paolo Ventura. And the arty outside is just a pre-cursor to the magazine’s interior, which does not feature a single photoshoot. The move draws attention to just what goes into creating a fashion magazine, with Farneti’s editor’s letter explaining that just one issue can take 150 people, 20 flights and dozens of cars, and that’s before we even start to think about the electricity involved.
But, while fashion photographers were denied entry to this party, the models and designers stayed put. Each cover illustration depicts a model – including Ambar Cristal Zarzuela, Felice Nova Noordhoff and Lindsey Wixson – each wearing Gucci, with its Creative Director Alessandro Michele being a firm favourite of the art world.
All 26 international editions of Vogue have already signed up to new “Vogue Values”, where each editor commits to working towards a new sustainable model of fashion magazines. Following Vogue Italia’s arty beginning to 2020, we can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Text Lizzy Vartanian
