In Ukraine, they are fighting again over the fashion magazine Vogue. On the cover of the Ukrainian March issue, cadets of the Ivan Bohun Kyiv Military Lyceum are depicted in the background, and in the foreground is model Karina Mazyar, "not a military person, but a smiling civilian," users on social networks reproach the magazine.
This is a frame from a photo essay by Brett Lloyd called "Ukraine Today". The famous photographer, who shot for Dior, Louis Vuitton and Calvin Klein, came to Ukraine twice. He filmed in Kyiv, Kharkiv, 17 kilometers from the front line in Kostyantynivka, near Kupyansk, and also in mutilated Toretsk.
His photo essay in Vogue Ukraine Edition 5 is "an uncommitted view of the artist on everyday life in a country where there is a war," the website of the Ukrainian Vogue magazine explains.
The heroes of Brett's photos are current and future military personnel, veterans, doctors, village priests, students and actors of the capital's Franko Theater.
"In the midst of all the disaster of the war, I met so many kind and talented people," Lloyd shares his impressions. - It's incredible - what a rich and turbulent life in Ukraine. I want an international audience to see it."
Along with Brett's photo, there are many stories about Ukrainians who are changing the world and the industry.
Designer Svitlana Bevza from the New York catwalk talks about Ukrainian cultural codes, retailer Khrystia Hranovska is exhibiting diaries of children who survived the occupation in Europe. Patron Tetiana Verevska helps young musicians develop their talent and win prizes at the world's main competitions.
Also in the publication is the photo project "Roots" about a collective portrait of Ukrainian youth scattered around the world.
But in social networks, it is not this, but the magazine covers that are being discussed. There are two of them – one for the paper version, the other for the digital version.
The digital one shows a photo of Ukrainian military Oksana "Ksena" Rubanyak with a long red braid. She is the commander of the Armed Forces unit from Verkhovyna. The girl was only 19 when the great war began. In the spring of 2023, a military woman was wounded in Ugledar.
But Ukrainians were outraged that another photo appeared on the paper, that is, the main cover of Vogue - with cadets from the Ivan Bohun Kyiv Military Lyceum and "civilian", smiling model Karina Mazyar.
There is a real storm under the Instagram post of the Ukrainian magazine Vogue. Here are just a few user comments:
"So the model tries on the image of a military woman, and the guys from the Bohun Lyceum just create the necessary pixel background?"
"Seriously? Maybe we won't glamorize the war? Why smiles, we have a lot of fun?”
"Everything about this cover is wrong, from the civilian model to the happy vibe of 90s teen magazines in a country and time where these kids could end up in the meat grinder of war tomorrow."
"Ukrainians: risk their lives to protect the state, lose their homes, jobs, loved ones, live under shelling and anxiety every day. Vogue: on the count of three we smile and say "war".
"Why this romanticization of war?"
AUTHOR OF THE PHOTO, INSTAGRAM VOGUE UKRAINE Caption for the photo, Ukrainian Vogue is not the first time to publish photos of the military. In the photo - Klementina "Kafa" Quindt
The photographer got it too. Under the photo of the military, users write "how much did the photo session cost" and "why is the photographer not Ukrainian or Ukrainian."
To some, on the contrary, the cover seemed "very strong", "eloquent", with "powerful subtexts" and they react with surprise to those who think differently.
A user who calls himself military writes that he was happy with the covers until he saw the comments.
This cover is a "mirror of today", he believes.
"There are children in the photo, they are not even 18 years old. High school students are the future defenders of our country. You will see just such teenagers in the corridors. But by no means sad and scared. This is the flower of the nation. Do you think Ukraine should be shown only in fear and blood? Leave it to us, please. Has life stopped? Don't the children smile?" - he writes.
And the model does not have a uniform, but designer clothes in khaki color, other users draw attention.
"Ukrainians, who should unite and support, instead harass each other in the comments. Shame. We still have a long way to go to victory," the soldier writes.
"When did Ukrainians become so sensitive?"
Photographer Serhii Morgunov, who works in the Ukrainian bureau of the Washington Post, also drew attention to the discussions that broke out in social networks. In his opinion, the Vogue cover is not a "romanticization" of war, but a "romantic depiction of dark times" because there are no weapons in the photo.
"There are children here in military uniform. If you go to the military school in Kyiv, you will see the same bright and young faces in the uniform of the Armed Forces. This is the tragedy - they are bright, smiling and full of life," the photographer writes on Facebook.
He considers it a "fair criticism" that the cadets on the cover appear as a background, and their names were not mentioned in the magazine.
But the perception of a photo depends "on the lens through which you look at it," writes Morgunov. "Since when did Ukrainians become so vulnerable that the cover of a fashion magazine with Ukrainian cadets and a Ukrainian model in the center offends us as a nation, if we already generalize to "insensitive to Ukrainians"?" - asks the photographer.
Incidentally, the Ukrainian cover was criticized not only by Ukrainians. In social networks, you can also see the reflections of foreign users.
"It's strange," some foreigners write.
A user from Poland agreed with the Ukrainians: "This cover is terrible. War is a massacre, a nightmare for people and what? Vogue decided to make a cover with models in soldier's clothing. What's next? Playboy?”
The editors of the magazine have not yet responded to discussions on social networks.
The team plans to present its new cover on March 3 at Paris Fashion Week. The Vogue Ukraine Showcase exhibition, dedicated to the Ukrainian fashion industry, will be held there, where Brett Lloyd's photos, works of Ukrainian designers and a limited souvenir collection of Ukrainian Vogue, designed by Volodymyr Kaminetsky and Anton Belinsky, will be shown.
The editors say that part of the profits will be donated to the "Veteranka" fund.
Not the first scandal
In the last month, this is the second scandal that broke out in Ukrainian social networks because of Vogue magazine, which is also called the "fashion bible".
In February, Ukrainians were enraged by the cover of British Vogue, where the famous Russian model Iryna Shayk, who was dressed in a Ukrainian bra, appeared among 40 world-class stars.
PHOTO BY VOGUE UKRAINE Photo caption This famous cover with the first lady has also been criticized. Olena Zelenska allegedly "doesn't sit on it in a feminine way"
When the first lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska appeared on the cover of the American Vogue magazine in July 2022, photographed by the legendary Annie Leibovitz, many Ukrainians also criticized the photos.
Some liked them, some found them inappropriate, artificial, and many others criticized the "unfeminine" pose of Zelenska.
This led to a flash mob on social networks, where celebrities, politicians and patrol policemen demonstratively sat on the stairs exactly like Zelenska, expressing support for her and other women "who can sit as they want."
