Editor’s letter
Magazines are rather autocratic by nature, but at Vogue over the past 10 years, we have become so much more than just a magazine. This is the 10th edition of the September issue of Vogue Australia I’ve edited, and, as with all the others, it is the impressive sum of the work of the many brilliant people who have contributed to it. It’s the team and the creativity and passion they bring to their work, and the people who entrust their stories and images to us, who really make an issue of Vogue sing. It has never seemed fair to me that only I write the opening remarks in this letter, perhaps suggesting the ideas and pages are magically all my doing.
The story of our cover started with a conversation between international Vogue editors, led by Anna Wintour and Edward Enninful, suggesting theming our September covers globally around the concept of ‘new beginnings’, and photographing them before a sunrise to signify this.
From the spark of this uniting, positive idea, our team pulled together an Australian interpretation of the concept featuring the proud Yolngu woman Magnolia Maymuru and her baby daughter Djarraran. We did not know when we first discussed Magnolia featuring on the cover that where she comes from, Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory, is known as sunrise country. Her story is retold beautifully in conversation with award-winning Yuwaalaraay writer Nardi Simpson.
Magnolia modelled the work of First Nations’ designers Lyn-Al Young and Maree Clarke in December 2019, to mark Vogue Australia’s 60th anniversary. At the time, I noted that looking back over 60 years of magazines, I was ashamed of our lack of Indigenous storytelling within them, and committed to doing better. Since then, I am pleased to say we have been generously advised and guided by many ongoing, including curator Myles Russell-Cook, Wiradjuri woman Yvonne Weldon, designer, artist and mentor Grace Lillian Lee, and now model Charlee Fraser (see page 76) to do better.
Last year’s September ‘Hope’ cover featuring the painting Healing Country by Betty Muffler was a career highlight for me, and I think a significant moment in Australia’s cultural history. The actual work now hangs in the National Gallery of Australia as a gift commission from Vogue Australia. The day I went to Canberra to see it for the first time and gazed into its wonder, I found myself surrounded by a group of schoolchildren being told Betty’s story, the meaning behind her art, and the fact she featured on the cover of Vogue.
This job allows me to be the custodian of Vogue Australia for a period of time and there have been many occasions when I think we have been able to contribute to making a better Australia, such as starting broader conversations around encouraging greater diversity in the tech industry, and better participation rates of young women in STEM, through our Vogue Codes program, presented by Optus. We have helped retailers come through tough times with Vogue American Express Fashion’s Night Out, and In, and Vogue’s Online shopping nights and Vogue Fashion Relief, which assisted Australian designers to sell stock from cancelled wholesale orders at the beginning of Covid, direct to our digital audiences. We have championed sustainability with Emma Watson as guest editor, as well as women in business and sport, particularly those in male-dominated fields and codes. And, Vogue continues to celebrate the many extraordinary creatives who belong to Australia’s LGBTQI communities.
But of all that wonderful work, and of all the covers I’ve published featuring the most incredible fashion as imagined by the most talented designers and artists on earth, worn by the world’s most beautiful people with interesting stories to tell, I have never been more proud than I am of this cover: a beautiful woman and her baby girl before an Australian sunrise.
So raw and so stunning, full of meaning, and pointing to new beginnings, which are calling us all.