Editor's Letter:

(English Text)
A conversation
What happens if a women’s magazine and a men’s magazine enter into a dialogue with each other, pooling their ideas, contributors, formats and opportunities? This was the plan: to try and think undogmatically about the extent to which the gender factor is relevant today for our society, of which fashion is an effective reflection and sometimes ahead of the times.
Will the polarities – in the way we dress, write and photograph – still make sense in the world that awaits us? And will it still be possible for fashion’s production cycles to be anchored in the seasonal rhythm of men’s and women’s shows?
With these questions in mind, Vogue Italia and L’Uomo Vogue, which are on newsstands together this month, have become the place of a publishing experiment, along with their respective social media profiles. They are welcoming a free and easy (as far as possible) creative exchange, providing an open space into which writers, artists, journalists, photographers and designers have poured their voices. We have delved into the archives and memory, and examined technology to search for new possible forms of social relations to come.
Four stories, four photographers, eight covers. In this game of mirrors straddling the pages of the two magazines, identities become fluid, and the changing clothes show that the essence of things doesn’t change. In one of these works, we simply see the same girl twice. In the others we find two couples, symmetrical and asymmetrical. Then there’s a portrait and a self-portrait. Two of two of two of two, revealing different, infinite possibilities.
Giorgio Armani, who with his ideas of style has given strength to women and liberated men from age-old rigidities, talks about himself in a two-part interview. In the short stories by Richard Mason and Jessica Fellowes, we playfully discover how the same story can sound different if told by him or her. Lila Azam Zanganeh delicately tackles a complex issue: what is still and what is no longer acceptable in the dialogue between the sexes, in the rules of seduction?
When this project began a few months ago, the world was obviously a very different place. But as we patiently and respectfully set off towards a slow recovery, it is crucial that we do not brush aside certain topics that are of paramount importance – such as the fight to remove all obstacles hindering gender equality, and the commitment to constantly support the choices of identity made by each and every one of us, which by definition must be free, personal and incontestable. Let’s get back to talking about these things. They are vital elements to make sure that the new age that awaits us will be able to learn from the mistakes of the past.
Vogue Italia Digital Edition; vogue.it