To cut down on travel pollution, Italian Vogue eschews photo shoots in favour of artists' illustrations

As a new decade rolls in and humanity inches ever closer to a full-blown climate catastrophe, the Italian edition of Vogue magazine has made an eco-friendly resolution to fill its entire January 2020 issue with illustrations rather than photographs. In his note to readers, the editor-in-chief Emanuele Farneti details the ecological toll that goes into organising photo shoots and assembling the images for a single issue of the magazine, including: air pollution from flights, trains and cars; air and plastic waste from international deliveries; and food and plastic waste from catering services and materials used to protect garments. The issue—which hit newsstands today (7 January)—features illustrations of models wearing designer brands by the Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft, the Mozambican painter Cassi Namoda and the comic artist Milo Manara, among others. The move follows a pledge published last month by 26 international Vogue editors to commit to practices that “preserve our planet for future generations”. As a bonus, the money saved from foregoing photoshoots will be donated to the cultural centre Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, which was damaged in the city’s floods in November.