about working in fashion is seeing how, over the course of
their careers, friends and colleagues evolve in such exciting
ways. Take the model Amber Valletta, who this month
joins British Vogue as the magazine’s first contributing
sustainability editor. I’ve known Amber since she was a
teenager. In the early 1990s I styled her debut cover for
i-D (and remember it like yesterday). One of the new
faces ruling the decade, along with Kate Moss and Shalom
Harlow, she became family the minute we met. We’re
about the same age, so we spent a lot of fun times together.
She lived the wild life of a supermodel: she was young,
she was beautiful, she was rich. There was a point when it
seemed she had more contracts than any other model
working, to say nothing of Vogue cover after Vogue cover.
She became a star.
But Amber has always had a social conscience, too. You’d
go to a party with her back in the day and people would
ask, “Who’s the pretty girl talking about politics?” It came
from her upbringing in Oklahoma, which gave her an innateOne of the thingsI adore...respect for the preciousness of the natural world, and the
interplay between the political, the personal and the planet.
Fearless and outspoken by nature, no wonder she was one
of the first of her generation of models to speak out on the
subjects that mattered to her.
As an experienced and knowledgeable force in fashion,
Amber’s focus soon turned to her own industry, which is
why I have enlisted her expertise at Vogue: to help steer our
sustainability coverage. The reality of climate change means
the need for action could not be more pressing – and with
the fashion industry a prime factor, I take this magazine’s
duty to build change from the inside out seriously.
Amber doesn’t pretend to have all the answers, which is
part of what I love about her. From her close work with brands
such as Stella McCartney, and environmental charities including
Oceana, she is a woman I admire enormously. She places
herself at the front of the most pressing conversations of our
time, but also breaks it down with common-sense advice,
information, and a sense of humour, as well as style. > 46This month, Amber Valletta- who has modelled in British
Vogue for three decades, left
and below – joins the team as
contributing sustainability
editor. Turn to page 114 to
read the first of her regular
contributions for the magazine
MERT ALAS & MARCUS PIGGOTT; OLIVER HADLEE PEARCH; NICK KNIGHT; RAYMOND MEIER43EDITOR’S LETTER04-20-Eds-Letter_2047668.indd 43 14/02/2020 11:33