Vogue Italia has produced its first issue of the new year and decade with an eye on sustainability, substituting fashion illustrations for photographs in an effort to reduce the environmental impact associated with staging fashion photo shoots around the globe.
Editor-in-chief Emanuele Farneti said the January issue was believed to be the first time a Vogue magazine has gone photo-less since photography was invented. In his editorial, Farneti detailed the 20 flights, intensive lighting and other energy demands that went into the huge September issue.
Farneti spoke of the energy it took to do a past Vogue magazine photo shoot saying it took “one hundred and fifty people involved. About twenty flights and a dozen or so train journeys. Forty cars on standby. Sixty international deliveries. Lights switched on for at least 10 hours non-stop, partly powered by gasoline-fueled generators. Food waste from the catering services. Plastic to wrap the garments. Electricity to recharge phones, cameras…”
Farneti says the illustration initiative was part of Vogue's new environmentally focused mission statement, which was articulated last month and signed by the editors of all 26 editions of the Conde Nast publication.