Vogue Italia honors COVID-19 frontliners with first ever white cover
MANILA, Philippines — Vogue Italia published a blank white page cover for its April issue due to the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
In the magazine’s Instagram account, editor-in-chief Emanuele Farneti said that the Vogue Italia April issue will be out next Friday.
“In its long history stretching back over a hundred years, Vogue has come through wars, crises, acts of terrorism. Its noblest tradition is never to look the other way,” he said.
“Just under two weeks ago, we were about to print an issue that we had been planning for some time, and which also involved L’Uomo Vogue in a twin project,” he added.
Emanuele said that the decision to print a white cover signifies many things at the same time.
“But to speak of anything else – while people are dying, doctors and nurses are risking their lives and the world is changing forever – is not the DNA of Vogue Italia. Accordingly, we shelved our project and started from scratch,” he said.
“The decision to print a completely white cover for the first time in our history is not because there was any lack of images – quite the opposite. We chose it because white signifies many things at the same time,” he added.
For the prestigious magazine, white represents respect, rebirth, uniform worn by those frontliners and it is not a sign of surrender but a blank sheet waiting to be written.
“White is first of all respect. White is rebirth, the light after darkness, the sum of all colours. White is the colour of the uniforms worn by those who put their own lives on the line to save ours. It represents space and time to think, as well as to stay silent,” he said.
“White is for those who are filling this empty time and space with ideas, thoughts, stories, lines of verse, music and care for others. White recalls when, after the crisis of 1929, this immaculate colour was adopted for clothes as an expression of purity in the present, and of hope in the future. Above all: white is not surrender, but a blank sheet waiting to be written, the title page of a new story that is about to begin,” he added.
At least 80,142 people have died around the world in 192 countries, since the virus emerged in China in December, according to an Agence France-Presse tally today, based on official sources.
The pandemic has killed more 57,351 people in Europe, including 17,127 in Vogue Italia's home, Italy.
RELATED: Rajo Laurel, Filipino designers design PPEs, masks for COVID-19 front-liners
SM, Uniqlo donate groceries to Yolanda victims amid COVID-19 crisis
