Models poses in yellow with sunflowers, as Vogue Portugal honors Ukraine.

Brazilian photographer Lufre [IG] shoots Vogue Portugal’s April 2022 cover story ‘Same, same, but different’, styled by Alexandre Dornellas. The model cast includes Alamada Bidiande e Guive, Beatriz Cortes, Camila Simões, Gabriel Neres, Lara Bawar e Mara Bawar, Luana Vintrin, Oda, Sara Rismo, Tau and Raiza Bernardo wear Burberry, Chanel, Hermes, Moncler, The Attico, Valentino and more.

Coincidentally, the yellow and aqua blue colors of the cover are the colors of Ukraine, and the magazine stresses this connection. The human suffering we are witnessing in Putin’s goal to level Ukraine and destroy everything in sight — its people, its babies, its economy, its heritage — takes us deep into the terrifying, deadly and destructive themes of humanity.

It’s the role of the warrior goddesses to stand against this global destructive impulse. Whether the impulse is more male than female is not subject to debate in my world. The global institutions — and especially religious institutions — do not agree with me.

In fact, the alleged irrational, hysterical, women running wild without male supervision and wisdom is the most universal theme of modern civilization.

In case, you need a real world example of how this operates, Kanye West is giving us a brilliant and vivid example — not only of his own misogyny — but how it is deeply attached to his belief that he has been tapped by God to keep Kim Kardashian in line. Increasingly even men of color are uneasy about Kanye West’s behavior, and they are speaking out against his beliefs and very public statements about his supervisory rights over his wife and family.

Male aggression against women resides in this alleged God-mandated role from Trump-Republicans in America to an entire culture in Saudi Arabia.

Two fashionistas in field of sunflowers.

In writing about the video and fashion story, ‘Same, same, but different’, Vogue Portugal articulates a closely-held sentiment we share in both Portuguese and English. The cover conceptually centers on the trans-national borders human family and the concept of ‘ubuntu’.

We are all connected in the rhythm of energy of the universe. The suffering of one group is shared by us all.

The original theme of the issue is focused on diversity in bodies — including skin color — and AOC believes that once again Vogue Portugal is channeling women’s history — and the history of humanity — on a much deeper level.

The magazine accomplishes these psychological and historical excavations in a way that most Vogues do not. It’s also important to understand the deeply intertwined emotional, psychological and historical connections of Africa, Brazil and Portugal in the realities of human history and the human experience.

In speaking about the April 2022 issue cover story ‘Same, same, but different’, Vogue Portugal writes:

Ou melhor, different, different, but same. Parecemos diferentes – no tamanho, na forma, nos tons, nas crenças, nas orientações, mas somos iguais. Ou melhor, somos diferentes nas silhuetas, na postura, no modo como nos apresentamos, mas somos iguais na essência humana, na importância na comunidade, no respeito que merecemos. De resto, é nas distinções que garantimos que o dia a dia não é todo igual, que o mundo fervilha de uma multiplicidade de corpos e atitudes, que o planeta é mais colorido porque somos iguais no que diz respeito a celebrar as diferenças.

Translated via Google:

Or rather, different, different, but same. We look different – in size, shape, tones, beliefs, orientations, but we are the same. Or rather, we are different in silhouettes, in posture, in the way we present ourselves, but we are equal in human essence, in importance in the community, in the respect we deserve. Moreover, it is in distinctions that we guarantee that everyday life is not all the same, that the world is teeming with a multiplicity of bodies and attitudes, that the planet is more colorful because we are equal when it comes to celebrating differences.

Vogue Portugal spoke to these themes indirectly in photographer Carlos Teixeira’s fashion story with Thais Borges in a spring 2020 fashion story.