Has the promise of a new season ever held as much allure as this coming spring? After a long and bleak winter – a long, bleak year, frankly – thoughts of bright mornings, fresh air, new fashion and a change of scene almost feel like impossible wonders.
This March, of course, brings with it the anniversary of the first pandemic lockdown in the UK. Most days, I do at least feel grateful for how far we’ve come, and especially so for all the extraordinary people – in the medical profession and beyond – who continue to hold it together for the greater good. I am awed by our vaccinologists, by the global scientific effort that has brought a great deal of hope to a situation that often seems hopeless.
Yet there are difficult days, too, when it still feels as though things have hardly moved on at all. As I sit writing this in my home in London, many of us are once again confined to our houses, nervously monitoring hospital statistics and R numbers, worrying for our family and friends, and wondering if any of those too bold promises that have become such a disturbing feature of political life will ever turn out to be true. It has been tough. Tough on the fashion industry, tough on the arts, tough on everyone.
But it never ceases to amaze me how, for many creative minds working today, it has not meant the end of inspiration. Anyone who knows me knows the thing I’m drawn to more than anything is talent. More than beauty, more than buzz, it’s the thrill and hope instilled in people who bring their creativity to bear to inspire us, to reshape our opinions and move society on for the better that really make my heart soar.
It is the greatest privilege of my job to champion innovators, budding or established. As we live through another chapter in this pandemic, it feels ever more urgent to do so, especially for the younger generation, many of whom have had such a tricky time of it this past year. And so, I tasked some of our esteemed editors and contributors to each nominate a young creative from a variety of fields for a portfolio of the new guard set to dominate, and to lift our spirits, in the months and years ahead. From the designer finding new, collaborative ways of working to the gifted photographer and the curator making waves, to the next big things in art, music, cinema, tech and beauty, it is a promising roll call.
Photographed in three continents, these young people give me faith in the resilience of the creative spirit – and, on darker days, make the future both easier and more exciting to imagine. They’re a welcome reminder that this too shall pass. In addition to my duties as editor-in-chief of British Vogue, I’ve recently taken up the role of Vogue’s European editorial director, across our editions in Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. I’m so excited to be working with the teams, and it is certain creativity will remain the cornerstone of all we do.
With the start of spring, a new season in fashion begins in earnest. Certainly, our style habits remain somewhat adjusted, but there is plenty to adore. Finally, after a year of debate, we offer the definitive take on dressing for the home office, courtesy of photographer and stylist Venetia Scott. Photographer Charlotte Wales assembles a vibrant cast, from Ajok Daing to Yasmin Le Bon in an ode to body confidence, and you will also find a rundown of the season’s most-wanted accessories.
I am especially grateful to designer Kim Jones, newly appointed artistic director of womenswear at Fendi, who has given us an exclusive first look at his debut couture collection for the Italian house. Travelling to Sussex with Kate Moss, along with photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, we immersed ourselves in the long shadows of the Bloomsbury Group; Virginia Woolf, having once lived a few doors down from Jones’s childhood home near Lewes, provided indelible inspiration for the collection. Elsewhere, in Truth Be Told, writer and Vogue contributing editor Afua Hirsch meets the American author Isabel Wilkerson. If you haven’t read Caste yet, you absolutely must. Impressively researched and well written, it has been gathering fans for months now for its important theses. In a rare interview, the elusive Pulitzer Prize winner lets us in on her writing process.
Then, towards the end of last year, I had the great pleasure of interviewing the incandescent Angelina Jolie, as well as styling her for this month’s cover story. She is a woman I have always admired – a fearless performer and director who, for 20 years, has also worked tirelessly as an activist and humanitarian (long before it became commonplace for those in the public eye to do so). Seeing her and her wonderful children at home together was a joy, and she has much to say about motherhood, movies and making a difference. “I’m trying to be hopeful,” she told me as she considered the months ahead.
Aren’t we all – though sometimes hope can feel all too challenged. When the news came just before Christmas that Stella Tennant – pioneering model, loving mother and a brilliant creative herself – had passed away at the age of 50, it shook many of us in the industry to the core. Contributing editor Ronnie Cooke Newhouse writes in tribute to Stella and all that she stood for. Rare is the model who defines an era, let alone one who, like Stella, spent 30 years at the top of her game without ever losing an ounce of kindness or cool. From our first days working together as teenagers to our more recent shoots together in our forties, she was a remarkable woman who an entire industry is mourning. Her extraordinary contribution to British fashion will live on.
The March issue of British Vogue is on newsstands on 5 February.
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