This week’s fashion behemoth Vogue Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, published a cover story of her looking impish against a backdrop of sandbags and once-convincing marble pillars. In the magazine, more photos will follow. One that stands out in particular, in a controversial scene, is where Zelenska stands in a navy blue coat over a long skirt to protest the war in the country.
But July 26 is not the first Vogue Crisis beautifies him. In the year In 2010, the magazine featured model Christine McMenamy draped and surrounded by spiky black oil – a response to the then-devastating Gulf oil spill. But perhaps the most enduring photograph is from June 1941. The black-and-white photo, titled ‘Fashion Does Not Corrupt’, shows a woman in clean clothes standing in the rubble of a bombed-out building.
Zelenska’s coverage this week drew a divided public response, with some feeling it was a way to deal with the emotional stress of the brutal war in Ukraine, while others felt they were romanticizing armed conflict and thus minimizing its damage. But fashion and war go way back, making the argument less straightforward than it seems. “Although it seems like an art facilitator at the time, fashion combined with journalism is said to have the power to not only reflect the times but also influence changes (both negative and positive), especially in the process of shaping the minds of future generations,” NSSMag said.
Fashion magazines – once interchangeable with ‘women’s magazines’ and ‘women’s’ magazines‘ – They played an important historical role in reconciling conflict to a people struggling with its meaning. For example, during World War II, Vogue It played an important role: the editors of the magazine worked with the British Ministry of Information as a channel to reach out to the country’s women and indirectly educate them about their role in the war.
“During the war, women’s magazines had a special place in the government’s thinking because, along with men in the armed forces, women took full responsibility for family life; “The way it got women’s attention was through the pages of a magazine that was read by almost every woman in the country,” said Briton Audrey Weavers. Vogue’s War editor during WW2. “… every subject in which an intelligent woman is interested at the present time,” Withers wrote of the future in a letter to Edna Chase, editor-in-chief of America at the time. Vogue
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During World War II, Withers commissioned American model and photographer Lee Miller to document the war from the front lines. Miller’s illustrations included a picture of herself in Hitler’s bathtub after fleeing his own residence – offering readers of the women’s magazine a way of defiance, resistance and, above all, not just information but an intellectual engagement with politics.
In the year The subtle message behind Zelenska’s cover in 2022 is no different: “Women’s voices in this war must be heard, must be represented… [Zelenska is] It was the first account of the human experience of war.” Vogue Tetiana Solovey, former editor of Ukraine, quoted. The cover story itself explores the inner world of the First Lady who has come to stand as the emotional nerve center of the war — a world away from the brutality of geopolitical diplomacy.
But there is more to this issue: the text consistently highlights her role as wife and mother – placing her at the delicate intersection between vulnerability and recovery and thereby reinforcing gender roles at a time when control is being lost in other domains in the country. Placing her in the heart of war and destruction, then, makes for a wonderful image. Some might argue that this is the point: besides VogueOther women’s magazines played an important role in normalizing gender expectations during the war – informing readers of the war and emphasizing femininity.
Some commentators rightly note that fashion and politics are inseparable – fashion magazines have at various times exercised soft power in shaping political discourse among demographics. When women express their interest in fashion, they are often used as weapons to deny [them] Accessing political conversations,” said Lauren Duka. Teen Vogue. For example, in In 2016, following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, many fashion magazines took a political stance.
Even so, photography in the wreckage of the ongoing crisis is at best insensitive and offensive at worst. The photo shot does not capture the front line the way the Withers case photo did. While fashion magazines and wars create a complicated story, there is still a hard line that separates photojournalism from photoshoots – Zelenskyy’s cover story falls into the latter category, trying to tell a story that does a real disservice by erasing the brutality of the conflict. More about a man than a war.
