July 2020

The July Issue Is Dedicated To The New Front Line

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British Vogue. Photographed by Jamie Hawkesworth

Every so often a moment comes along that snaps everything into sharp focus. That moment for this issue arrived during the first weeks of lockdown, in early April. Those days were, you will recall, much like these: not a time when clarity was in abundance. As we headed towards a first peak of coronavirus infections, the death rate was rising and official figures were frustratingly opaque, while science was struggling to get ahead of the pandemic, and hospital staff lacked basic personal protection equipment. The economy teetered on the edge of the unknown. We all did.

Yet what was clear then, as it remains now that we are past that first (and hopefully highest) peak of infections, is that this chapter in history has seen society shift its attention on to some of the people in this country who are not usually afforded the spotlight. Here at Vogue we are, perhaps, not most famous for chronicling the minutiae of everyday life. Though our pages are always filled with lived experience – joy, sadness and drama – first and foremost, Vogue proudly waves the flag for fashion, in all its empowering, escapist, lavish and identity-affording capabilities. We will always do that – this issue included. But this moment required something extra special, too: a moment of thanks.

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that Vogue’s July cover stars would be Narguis Horsford, a train driver on the London Overground, Rachel Millar, 24, a community midwife in east London, and Anisa Omar, a 21-year-old supermarket worker in King’s Cross, I might not have believed you. But I can think of a no more appropriate trio of women to represent the millions of people in the UK who, at the height of the pandemic, in the face of dangers large and small, put on their uniforms and work clothes and went to help people.

In the July issue, you will find the full 20-page portfolio of the faces we are celebrating. Naturally, it features many wonderful doctors, a profession that is often in our thoughts nowadays. But you will also find shopkeepers, postal workers, nurses, cleaners, epidemiologists, carers, teachers, ambulance drivers and volunteers from the fashion community and beyond. Over the course of 10 days, photographer Jamie Hawkesworth – armed with no more than a camera, a bicycle and a face mask – travelled the capital to capture, at an appropriate social distance, the faces of those whose bravery, or simple commitment to carrying on, has helped so many.

Not only was Jamie’s unique eye the perfect match for the job, but his spirit, too. He is drawn to the extraordinary in the ordinary, as we all are now. He treats people with such care. You can see it in every one of his beautiful, moving, life-affirming portraits in this issue. When interviewing the wide variety of key workers, features editor Olivia Marks discovered a meaningful shared experience that united those from so many different walks of life. As Rachel Millar tells her, “People have rallied around family, friends and strangers like never before.” It is a message of quiet, unflappable resilience, of kindness and hope, from the unsung who we continue to rely on for the unsettling journey ahead.

Jamie Hawkesworth

Meanwhile, I’ve been so touched to see how my own industry has been rallying at this time. Some of fashion’s leading models take part in a special Vogue project to raise money for NHS Charities Together, by each selecting a look from their own wardrobe to auction off. Kate Moss, Christy Turlington Burns, Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Adut Akech lead a galaxy of catwalk stars who have self-documented – in spectacular style – and written about treasured pieces. Their at-home photographs are so joyful, and their choices so personal, I hope you will all be encouraged to bid.

And through it all, creativity endures. Photographer Juergen Teller brings his imaginative take to a new world order by flipping the conceit of his famous go-see photographs of the late 1990s. Back then, you hadn’t earned your stripes as a new model until you’d been photographed outside Juergen’s west London studio on fashion’s equivalent of an audition, with the images – featuring every pre-fame model of the day, including a fresh-faced Gisele – being published in his seminal book Go-Sees in 1999. More than 20 years on, when having multiple arrivals at one’s home is no longer an option, Juergen turns go-sees into go-and-sees, hitting the streets to photograph the rising stars of the London modelling scene on their doorsteps instead. Sometimes it’s the little things that gladden the heart at this time, and a reverse go-see certainly does that.

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