Vogue India releases August 2022 cover titled 'Come as you are'

Vogue India's Head of Editorial Content Megha Kapoor introduces the August issue

Given below is an excerpt from the Editors Letter:

Come as you are

Photographer: Kalpesh Lathigra

Stylist: James Lalthanzuala & Samar Rajput

Vogue India’s Head of Editorial Content: Megha Kapoor 

Vogue India's Head of Editorial Content Megha Kapoor introduces the August issue - It’s here, it’s queer. Vogue India’s August issue comes together as a joyous tribute to the fearless and fabulous LGBTQIA+ community within the subcontinent and around the globe.

Looking back through history, it’s clear that our heritage, our art and our stories didn’t limit expressions of love or self by gender or other prescriptive notions. The sculptures of Khajuraho built in the 12th century; medieval depictions of chapti (sapphic love) in Urdu poetry; pre-modern writings of Sufi poet Bulleh Shah about his love for his murshid—India’s history is teeming with homoerotic references of same-sex love and influence. We open our style section in this issue with Chand Bibi, the iconoclastic female warrior who introduced androgyny into her wardrobe on and off the battlefield way back in the 15th century. Fast forward and one can trace a timeline of “conformity and colonialism, power and misogyny” as ALOK frames the subsequent standardisation of self-expression, gender, love and sex codified by the British Raj in 1861 which criminalised homosexuality and reflected Victorian English morality rather than Indian instincts.

Yes but, “You Won’t Break My Soul”. This issue is a resounding testament to that—and we’re telling everybody.

Two queer icons from different generations, ALOK and fashion designer Manish Arora, wax lyrical about their respective journeys as pioneering queer artistes; maverick photographer Sunil Gupta, who championed the gay gaze through his compelling imagery, talks about his powerful body of work and how it could never be divorced from race and politics; artists Richie Nath, Gurjeet Singh and Devashish Gaur elucidate how they centre identity and queerness through their practices; and photographer Aditi Jain shares an intimate view into the everyday life of trans women in Delhi. Photographer Kalpesh Lathigra travels across India capturing a sweeping series of non-heteronormative storytelling comprising drag queens, a throuple, a trio of models, a community art collective run by women and trans artists, a brown male makeup artist and the incredible first-of-its-kind transgender football team from India’s north-east, Ya-All FC (Manipuri for ‘revolution’).

There’s a resounding, unifying thread woven throughout the stories told in our August issue which speaks to the inherent need for self-expression and the right to be who one is or wants to be, without the fear of violence. Fashion was one of the first spaces for the queer community, eloquently described by ALOK as a template for possibility.