Vogue Italia, the first issue dedicated to animals

One year after the record issue of January 2020 (made without taking fashion photographs, in order to symbolically reduce the carbon footprint of the magazine), and on the occasion of the publication of the international charter of Vogue 2021, Vogue Italia returns to dealing with the environment. And it does so by dedicating for the first time in its history an entire issue, and 7 collectible covers, to the animals.

“This year we wanted animals to borrow our physical and digital space,” explains the director Emanuele Farneti, “To force us to draw attention, after the months spent at home, to the natural dimension, to the environmental emergency that the tragedy of the pandemic has certainly not made less urgent, and to what the year we have just taught us left behind: very trivially, that the world does not revolve around men ».

The magazine’s seven collectible covers are dedicated to animals. Five of them are made by contemporary artists: a beehive immortalized by the American artist Andres Serrano; a small ñandu (South American ostrich) photographed by Alessandra Sanguinetti, a lamb and a dog portrayed by Heji Shin; an imaginary feline designed by Tschabalala Self, American artist; and a Belgian Shepherd Dog portrayed by Johnny Dufort.

The two fashion covers, signed by Dufort and Shin, feature an upcycling brand, the French Kezaco, for the first time in the history of the magazine. It is a gesture of strong attention to the boom of creatives who produce new objects starting from waste materials: in the case of the Parisian duo (composed of a stylist and a fashion designer who have chosen to remain anonymous), in particular recycled fabrics and shells.

The magazine’s articles and insights are dedicated to the relationship between animals and the fashion industry, with particular attention to the issue of scarcity of raw materials and the latest developments in scientific research on alternative materials.

“This issue aims to be an opportunity to stimulate thought on the relationship between the world of fashion and the animal world – an important and delicate relationship, which represents a key moment in the definition of a future ethical and sustainable fashion”, he says Ferdinando Verderi, creative director of Vogue Italia.

Among the fashion shoots, a work by photographer Pieter Hugo in the Greater Kruger Area, South Africa, starring the women of the Black Mambas Antipoaching Unit, the rangers who protect the animals of the reserve against poaching; and the curious story shot by the top model Anja Rubik, who chose to portray herself in the company of a rat, the humblest of animals with which, as she tells the magazine, in the past she shared «a love story».

The issue also features various prestigious contributions including those of Antonio Spadaro, director of Civiltà Cattolica, of the scientific director of WWF Italy Marco Galaverni, of the German biologist Karsten Brensing, of the writers Sam J. Miller, Muriel Barbery, Howard Jacobson and of Filelfo , author of the recent The assembly of animals (Einaudi).

On the occasion of the release of this issue, Vogue Italia and WWF Italia announce a media partnership that will continue throughout 2021, in order to spread greater awareness on the conservation of nature, habitats and endangered species through the print and digital channels of Vogue Italia.

They signed the covers for this month:

Heji Shin

Born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1976, but raised in Hamburg, Heji Shin is a German photographer listed by the New York Times as one of the ‘breakout stars’ of 2019. Known for her deliberately provocative art and fashion works, and sometimes explicitly sexual, which have people as subjects

and animals often portrayed as allegories, Shin declared that “doing something just out of the desire to be transgressive and break certain taboos is very stupid.” As the image on the cover of Vogue Italia demonstrates, her research focuses on intimacy and trust – feelings threatened by contemporary media. “I don’t admire good manners or ‘right’ political views in art,” he explains. “I admire the courage.”

Tschabalala Self

A powerful feline, threatening in its attributes – nails, teeth – yet elegant and calm: it is the symbolic representation of the primeval and hieratic animal force, evoked by the American artist Tschabalala Self (1990). His collages mostly explore the intersectionality of race, sexuality and gender, and routinely focus on the black female body, as well as the more or less accepted fantasies that surround it. «Black panthers are symbolic animals», he says, «known for strength, mystery, beauty. Here I used various materials mixed with paint and thread. The silhouette of this panther is borrowed from the symbol of the Black Panther Party organization, designed in 1966 by Ruth Howard and Dorothy Zellner ».

Andres Serrano

Sacred subjects, dead animals, meat… With his provocative works Andres Serrano (1950) deals with social and religious themes. However, in this image of a beehive, the American artist expresses a happy moment. “I like bees. They have a strong work ethic and are very skilled explorers.

Some scientists think they have existed for 120 million years, and it is said that where bees go there the human race goes, such is their importance in ecological balance. While shooting, I accidentally moved one of the lights, and in a flash the swarm was gone. The queen bee, however, was locked in the hive, and the beekeeper explained that he would be back… He was right, an hour later all the bees were back there! ».

Alessandra Sanguinetti

Sanguinetti was born in New York in 1968, raised in Buenos Aires and has lived in San Francisco since 2003. At the center of his work, themes such as memory and the delicate moment of the transition of youth. Since 2007 he has been a member of the Magnum agency. For the cover of Vogue Italia Sanguinetti portrayed a small ñandu (a South American ostrich), “met” south of Buenos Aires. “He was all alone in the middle of a field, which is very rare because they are always well guarded by the males. They are the ones who incubate and look after the eggs for 40 days, almost without leaving the nest even to feed ”.

Johnny Dufort

Among the most talented fashion photographers of his generation, Johnny Dufort was born in Bristol, studied at the College of Fashion and Design in Falmouth, and in 2007 landed in London, where the vibrant world of skateboarding – the same that generated streetwear brands such as Palace and Supreme – attracted his attention. With an almost surrealist vision, the shot of his cover portrays a Belgian Shepherd – a dog breed, he explains, «very interesting. More than anything else they are known as guard dogs, police dogs and attack dogs, I believe mainly because they are intelligent and can be trained very well. The intriguing thing was to show the docile and at the same time wild side of these animals ».