The special issue of Vanity Fair, directed by the great artist Francesco Vezzoli and dedicated to Italian women, arrives on newsstands on Wednesday 23 September.
Women who are symbols of Italy and the world, examples of a progressive culture that seeks dialogue and opposes the patriarchal scheme to eradicate gender stereotypes.
On the cover, a declaration of intent: the model Roberta De Titta Graziano, one of the transgender women portrayed in the newspaper by Francesco Vezzoli, for the first time a photographer for a fashion shoot. Roberta's choice is a symbol, the emblem of the provocative message that this special issue of Vanity Fair wants to launch: the need for everyone to transition from a male-dominated culture to a more inclusive, open and feminist one.
"There is a historical cultural leap for everyone to make. Men, women, everyone. We are called to finally abandon a patriarchal culture that imprisons us in a perverse, abusive, violent and above all non-inclusive logic , declares the director of Vanity Fair Simone Marchetti. "This issue of Vanity Fair, wonderfully orchestrated by the imagination of Francesco Vezzoli, highlights this epochal turning point with the contribution of great and powerful Italian women who are able to perfectly embody the change taking place. We have analyzed all this in a beautiful balance of art and information. "
Inside, the newspaper develops like a path through a contemporary art gallery with large portraits of women. The magazine thus becomes a book to collect and the protagonists, indeed, the protagonists are big names who interview great women. Daria Bignardi, journalist and author of Vanity Fair, interviews the writer – international phenomenon – Elena Ferrante, who here reveals herself for the first time as she has never done before. The journalist and former director of Vanity Fair Daniela Hamaui interviews the Minister of the Interior Luciana Lamorgese in a dialogue on the value of the state. Actress Isabella Ferrari interviews Caterina Caselli, one of the greatest Italian voices. Singer Emma Marrone interviews one of the most influential politicians ever Emma Bonino, discussing the duty of civil commitment. The journalist Agnese Pini, the only woman to direct a newspaper in Italy today, interviews the parliamentarian Lucia Annibali, scarred with acid at the hands of her ex-boyfriend. And again, the list of great Italian women continues with Miuccia Prada and Chiara Ferragni interviewed by the director Simone Marchetti, Barbara D'Urso interviewed by Michele Masneri, Maria De Filippi in a dialogue with Francesco Vezzoli and the deputy director Malcom Pagani who also interviews the cult actress of Italian erotic cinema Zeudi Araya.
The great portraits do not end there: among them, a tribute to the internationally renowned architect and designer Cini Boeri – recently deceased – written by another great woman of design and architecture, Patricia Urquiola; but also Dacia Maraini who at Vanity Fair talks about her friendship and travels with her friend Pier Paolo Pasolini.
To each of these women, Francesco Vezzoli has dedicated a new work of art created exclusively for Vanity Fair, portraying them through artworks that make this issue a collector's edition. In this hyperbolic gallery of contemporary faces, Chiara Ferragni becomes the Madonna of Giovanni Battista Salvi known as Sassoferrato, Barbara D’Urso the Countess du Barry, Luciana Lamorgese Giovanna D'Arco and Emma Bonino the Mahatma Gandhi.
The fashion section, on the other hand, focuses on the feminist and feminist analysis of the contemporary fashion system, developing the three key themes that characterize the work of the biggest fashion houses and the best creatives today: feminism, anti-feminism and issue like that. The first theme, feminism, is represented by the work of the great Italian artist Paola Mattioli, created exclusively for Vanity Fair, with an author's comment, indeed by authors, conducted by the art expert Raffaella Perna and Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of Dior's women's lines. The second, anti-feminism, is embodied in Valentina, the cult character of Guido Crepax's comics, redesigned by Francesco Vezzoli with a wardrobe that brings together the most daring garments of the recent autumn winter fashion collections. Finally, the gender issue is told in a work by Vezzoli that portrays a casting of transgender women dressed, not surprisingly, with the enemy's dress, the look conventionally belonging to the bourgeoisie, in a reversal of an aesthetic that historically it has excluded and today, on the contrary, it becomes a weapon of inclusion.
With this issue, Vanity Fair continues its mission: to bring art to the pages of the newspaper and physically also to the streets to create debate, knowledge and emancipation. This new path of the newspaper, which began last year, was strengthened even more during the lockdown with the contribution, among others, of the Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino, and continued in May with JR, one of the most famous photographers and street artists of the world for the creation of a mural in Paris (which later became a cover of Vanity Fair) and arrived in Paliano, last week, with the Italian artist Ozmo who created a mural with the face of Willy Monteiro Duarte in the city, died after being beaten by some peers. Francesco Vezzoli, after having created in April an exclusive work for Vanity Fair in homage to Lucio Fontana (a torn flag that was sold at auction at Sotheby's and whose proceeds totally donated to charity) returns to collaborate with the weekly Condé Nast Italia and entirely directs this issue.
All Italian women and Vanity Fair readers will be invited to tell, through the "Ask Questions" feature on Instagram, what it means to be a woman and the beauty of it. The answers received will become a sort of digital encyclopedia, to which the protagonists of the issue will also contribute, which tells about Italian women through their words published on the Vanity Fair Instagram profile.
The Vanity Fair Italia website reaches 9.7 MIO users, an increase compared to the past period and almost 86 MIO pages viewed with a + 17% MoM. The overall social fanbase is 3.1 MIO – with YOY growth of + 15%.
