English Version | Editor's Letter: The 20th Anniversary Issue

“Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time." - Debbie Milman

In 2002, the story of Vogue in Portugal began, a story that intertwines with my own personal history. At the time, as art director and unfolding between the creation of the design project for the first edition, a thousand prints and another thousand meetings, my daughter Maria was born, the “Vogue baby”, as the whole team affectionately called her. With the necessary distances, they were still two births at the same time and, today, both Vogue and Maria have reached adulthood, or at least an older age, with all the changes that are part of growth, adaptation, and above all, of affirmation in the world we live in.

20 years. A challenge arises when we do something for a long period of time. As we mature, we become the sum of experiences, memories, knowledge, and self-knowledge — and what we do must evolve accordingly. This is an added responsibility, which extends to the act of editing Vogue Portugal. I have always stood behind the idea that publishing a magazine is also an act of love. At least that's how it is with this team and everything that each of those involved gives in creativity, talent, perfectionism, energy, and time… time, the most valuable asset. When we celebrate a birthday, one cannot avoid looking back, thinking about the future, but it is the present that we must live in and feel. It is said that 99% of people suffer for what hasn't happened yet, and live in the pain of past events... and indeed end up never living in the present. 

The world has changed radically over these 20 years, as has the world of Fashion, which has always been a sociological reflection of what is around it: the rise of new brands and designers, the fading of others, the growing relevance of essential values ​​such as sustainability, ethics and inclusion, the technological revolution along with a return to craftsmanship and the roots of manual production, all these changes anticipate a very different future, both in the priorities of those who create and produce Fashion and of those who consume it. But one truth is immutable: Fashion will always maintain its identity as a form of escapism, art and, above all, of individual expression. And it will continue to be a mirror of the society we make and build. It is the present that we live in and that we write the future. And it is in the present that we celebrate these 20 years of history with you, with the same passion with which we want to continue to reflect on the world around us through Fashion, art and the emotions that connect us all.

Thank you to everyone who is part of this story, everyone who collaborated, and collaborates, over these 20 years, and to everyone who allows the dream to continue to be printed in the form of a magazine — without the support of advertising brands, this would not be possible. And above all, thank you to all readers, who are, and will always be, the only and true reason for Vogue's existence, in Portugal and in the world.

Translated from the original on The 20th anniversary issue, published november 2022.Full story and credits in the print version.