The now 18-year-old Greta Thunberg, renowned climate activist, has made her debut on the cover of Vogue Scandinavia‘s debut edition. Fitting to the theme of fashion and clothing, Thunberg focused her statement on fashion brands needing to take more responsibility for their carbon footprint and the environmental repercussions of their industry.
In a tweet thread by Thunberg on Sunday, she took the time to not only highlight the ecological problems within the fashion industry, but also to call out the exploitation of workers in the fast fashion apparatus. She accused fashion brands of “green-washing” their ad campaigns to give off the image that a given company is environmentally conscious, but said that under the mass production, it is not possible to do so. A report from the United Nations claims that the fast fashion industry “is the second largest polluting industry in the world.”
Photographed by Swedish conservationist Alexandrov Klum, the cover depicts Thunberg sitting in the forests of Stockholm, in an oversized and upcycled dress and trenchcoat combo, all the while petting a horse. A naturalist aesthetic, surrounded by trees and animal life, perfectly encapsulates the message Thunberg hopes to inspire. The horse is reportedly an Icelandic horse that goes by the name of Gandalf.
Martina Bonnier, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Scandinavia, said of the cover that she is “so incredibly proud to feature Greta Thunberg,” and that “not only is she a singular Scandinavian figure and force of change, she also embodies the love of nature, pursuit of sustainability and unabashed fearlessness that is at the core of our vision.”
The fashion industry is a huge contributor to the climate-and ecological emergency, not to mention its impact on the countless workers and communities who are being exploited around the world in order for some to enjoy fast fashion that many treat as disposables. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/pZirCE1uci
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 8, 2021
Thunberg’s profile in the edition re-instates the same mission she tweeted about — the role of fast fashion in the harm towards the environment and the exploitation of workers internationally. As one of the most visible and influential climate activists of our age, Thunberg took this opportunity to address issues with the vindication we’ve known from her awe-inspiring “how dare you!” address to the U.N. Climate Action Summit.
“If you are buying fast fashion then you are contributing to that industry and encouraging them to expand and encouraging them to continue their harmful process,” she said in her profile. “Of course I understand that for some people fashion is a big part of how they want to express themselves and their identity.”
The cover of Vogue Scandinavia comes after the IPCC climate change report, which classified the climate crisis as “code red” for humanity after decades of inaction by international governments.
