Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has been unveiled as the cover star of Vogue Scandinavia’s first issue.
Shot by Swedish photography and conservationist duo Alexandrov Klum, the whimsical cover shows Thunberg wearing a billowing upcycled trench coat while sitting with an Icelandic horse called Gandalf in a woodland outside of Stockholm.
“For this debut issue, I am so incredibly proud to feature Greta Thunberg on the cover,” said the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Martina Bonnier, in the issue’s editor’s letter. “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.”
Thunberg has been sounding the alarm on this emergency from every possible platform, including her Vogue cover feature, where she discusses how fashion contributes to climate change. “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,” Thunberg tweeted alongside the image of her cover, warning against the appeal of “greenwashing.”
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
“Many make it look as if the fashion industry is starting to take responsibility, spending fantasy amounts on campaigns portraying themselves as “sustainable”, “ethical”, “green”, “climate neutral” or “fair”. But let’s be clear: This is almost never anything but pure greenwash,” she tweeted.
Greenwashing occurs when corporations seek to appear socially responsible while maintaining harmful environmental policies behind the scenes.
In the cover story, Thunberg reveals she has not purchased any clothing in three years, and the last thing she bought was purchased secondhand; but she also makes clear that individual consumption changes will not meet the needs of this moment. “You cannot mass-produce fashion or consume ‘sustainably’ as the world is shaped today. That is one of the many reasons why we will need a system change,” Thunberg continued in her Twitter thread.
