Madonna covers the ICONS issues of Vanity Fair Italy, France, and Spain in a first-ever joint collaboration among the magazines. The new annual “Icon Issue’ project celebrates legends who “contribute[s] to shape the modern culture.”

September 2023 Milan Museum Exhibition

The project is massive and we do not yet have all the images, photographed by Madonna’s close friends Luigi & Iango [IG]. Way back — perhaps a decade — I told these guys that no one understands the story of women’s history better than these two artists.

Madonna’s regular stylist, Swedish B. Åkerlund [IG] chooses Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano for Maison Margiela and more for the two-day shoot that involved more than 80 collaborators.

Fashion editors Michael Philouze and Marcus Chang styled the cast. For Madonna: Makeup by Stephane Marais; hair by Andy LeCompte

Images from the shoot will be part of a Sept. exhibition by Luigi & Iango at the Palazzo Reale Museum in Milan.

Note: we’ve looked at about 10 versions of this story. One had the full models list, but now I can’t find it. We can confirm Guinevere Van Seenus, Sara Grace Wallerstedt, Tianna St. Louis.

“Madonna’s career has a biblical dimension, a universal scope,” Galliano advised Vanity Fair. “The first time I saw her, she was already inspired, fearless, with integrity and artistic pride.” VF‘s European editorial director Simone Marchetti, who conducted the interview, added, “Madonna accepted not only to be part of a fashion shoot but on an artistic project that is the representation of the values that she embodied in the last 40 years. Each image is like a reflection on Madonna’s extraordinary contribution to the culture of the last decades. Those pages are the milestones of a discussion, a progress and a commitment that does not stop here. A commitment that we strive to tell, explain and illustrate in every issue of Vanity Fair.”

The Italian edition of VF was released today with Spain and France editions released on Jan. 25.

Upcoming ‘Celebration’ Tour

On Tuesday, Madonna announced a 35-city global tour, featuring special guest Bob the Drag Queen. The ‘Celebration’ Tour honors Madonna’s 40 year-career as a pop star.

The tour kicks off in North America on July 15 in Vancouver, then hits American city big and small like Austin and Tulsa before swinging back to Toronto and Montreal. The full tour list is on Madonna’s website.

Europe kicks off Saturday, Oct. 14 in London and travels to Antwerp, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Barcelona, Lisbon and on through all the main cities.

Madonna and Religion

While we all can relate to Madonna being portrayed as the Virgin Mary with daggers in her heart — given her history of fighting with the Catholic Church for women’s control of our own bodies; fighting against homophobia and the denial of LGBTQ rights; and numerous other fights that educated, research-hungry people know about the history of religion.

Madonna makes it clear in her interview that Luigi & Iango are the creative masterminds behind this visual imagery. Their ideas sync absolutely with her own, but Madonna is quick to take no creative credit for this timely, philosophical visual imagery on the decline of women’s status globally in recent years.

As society, are we moving on from that [patriarchal] world?
We definitely are not moving on, we are moving backwards. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be having discussions on whether or not women are allowed to make choices over their bodies in America.

Are you a pessimist?
I have to be optimistic otherwise I don’t know how I could go on.

Note that is the identical viewpoint expressed by Natalie Portman in our Miss Dior fragrance post yesterday. I do believe, however, that we must take a new approach.

For AOC that is walking straight into the lion’s den about the actual formation of the Abrahamic religions. We have way too much evidence and learning on the internet not to challenge the rigid religious truths being told today.

Religion and Mysticism

Just last night, I was buried deeply in studying the use of psychedelic drugs for religious rituals in the Levant [all the land bordering the Mediterranean from Egypt and the Holy Lands on the south to Greece and Turkey on the north]. Specifically my focus was the founding of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Madonna is fully aware of this history because she took up the study of the Kabbalah [Jewish mysticism] in the early 2000s. I have personally defended Madonna online multiple times over her Kabbalah studies.

We must have Madonna’s 2013 Harpers Bazaar interview on AOC [first in line now for renewal in larger images]. At the time, the star explained the problem with studying Kabbalah, and AOC adds Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam.

Searching Google now for “sufism and psychedelics”, the top three returns are ‘Parallels Between Sufism and Psilocybin Mushrooms As A Spiritual Tool’ followed by ‘Sufism, Shrooms, and Seeking Connection’, and then ‘The psychedelic world of Sudan’s Sufis’.

Speaking about public reaction to her Kabbalah studies, Madonna told Harper’s:

“When the world discovered I was studying Kabbalah, I was accused of joining a cult. I was accused of being brainwashed. Of giving away all my money. I was accused of all sorts of crazy things,” she said.
“Kabbalah really freaked people out. It still does,” she continued. “Now, you would think that studying the mystical interpretation of the Old Testament and trying to understand the secrets of the universe was a harmless thing to do. I wasn’t hurting anybody. Just going to class, taking notes in my spiral notebook, contemplating my future. I was actually trying to become a better person.”

Waking up this morning after an unusually restless night, I took one look at the Vanity Fair headlines and packed up all my notes from last night and sent them to the London writers now working with AOC. Make haste, I implored them.

Madonna is surely as knowledgeable as I am about the circumstances surrounding the founding of Christianity. This New York Times archives article can’t be gifted to readers, but if you are a subscriber, the 1970 article Jesus Christ as a crimson-spotted fungus is an excellent read.

There’s a strong argument to be made that the ancient world better understood higher consciousness and a spiritual connection to the universe that today’s Abrahamic religions.

It will be so interesting to learn the main messages Madonna will be making on her upcoming tour. Do we think Florida governor DeSantis will try to ban her opening act ‘Bob the Drag Queen.’

Will Trump and DeSantis get in a fight over who banned ‘Bob the Drag Queen’ first?

Seriously, I hope Madge has awesome security for all, as she once again tries so spread TRUTH to America. We’ve got more way more loose guns piled up in this country than last time Madonna toured.

I love you guys to death — Luigi & Iango —and your blonde-haired friend isn’t too shabby either. ~ Anne