Vogue Italia is highlighting the need for more sustainability in fashion with its first issue of 2020, in which photos are replaced with illustrations.
ADVERTISEMENTA magazine in Italy has swapped photos for illustrations in its latest issue to help reduce its carbon footprint.
Vogue Italia aims to reduce the environmental impact associated with photoshoots, which includes flying to photoshoots around the globe.
The January issue is the first time a Vogue magazine has gone photoless since photography was invented, Vogue Italia editor-in-chief Emanuele Farneti wrote in an editorial.
"We want to prove that it's possible to show clothes without taking their photo", the editorial reads.
The editorial enumerates the impact on the environment for just one photoshoot.
“One hundred and fifty people involved. About twenty flights and a dozen or so train journeys. Forty cars on standby. Sixty international deliveries. Lights switched on for at least 10 hours non-stop, partly powered by gasoline-fueled generators. Food waste from the catering services. Plastic to wrap the garments. Electricity to recharge phones, cameras…,” Farneti wrote.
The illustrated issue initiative, Farneti wrote, is part of the magazine's new environmentally-focused policy, which has been signed by the editors of all 26 editions of the Conde Nast publication.
The January issue includes eight different illustrated covers that were produced without the environmental costs of photoshoots, as well as articles about clothes made from scrap fabric and second-hand pieces.
The savings from producing an issue without costly photo shoots will go toward restoring a Venice student foundation that was severely damaged by high tide floods in November, Farneti said.