Thaleia Karafyllidou, Vogueโs youngest director worldwide, earns a well-deserved spot on the WomenWeLove list. With studies in Law and Communication and having worked in the field of communication for a decade at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, she undertakes legal mediation, so that Vogue can establish a position in our country. And she succeeds, and her achievement is accompanied by a proposal to assume the position of editor-in-chief.
With the acceptance of the proposal, her journey begins in the now relaunched Greek Vogue โ with the new name Vogue Greece instead of the older Vogue Hellas โ while the Greek public gets to know for the first time, perhaps, the 29-year-old girl who is behind it. The challenge was great, as was the shock of realization. Many were those who questioned her, who judged incorrectly, prejudging the result. She herself does not dispute that at the beginning she was dominated by fear for the fulfillment of this enormous undertaking, the reins of which were now in her hands (1). With stubbornness, patience, accepting her mistakes and putting passion and soul into her work, she manages to come out vindicated.
The first big challenge accompanies the publication of the first issue of Vogue Greece, on April 6, 2019, with the theme โEyes on the futureโ. A cover that combines the glamor of the past with the magic of what is expected to come. It may also be a clear parallel for what both Thaleia and the entire Vogue Greece team will embody; a new and brilliant path that will be based on the new circumstances, accessible to the public, informed about the latest news, which the magazine will be able to support and follow.
Thatโs why her team is made up of people of every age group โ Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z โ with everyone doing their small bit, so that the ideas spread and the effort bears fruit. Thaleia trusts and supports her partners, she believes that they themselves know so well what they have to do โ after all, it is their job โ that an intervention of her own might alter the final result. She intervenes only where it is necessary to intervene and only when she deems it absolutely necessary (1). Even then, her goal is to create a vibe that favors a constructive dialogue through which creativity will gallop. After all, as she says, sometimes they are right and sometimes I am, but in any case, the solution to the problem is always given (1).
Undeniably, Vogue is a fashion magazine: new trends, fashion houses, seasonal and non-seasonal collections. In short, fashion leads the way โ after all, this is what the Vogue brand itself stands for. However, through Thaleiaโs eyes, fashion can pass and has indeed passed shocking messages and that is why the Greek version of the magazine does not aim to oppress, to lay foundations for molds into which we should โfitโ โ after all, people do not seek perfection, nor do they believe in it. The ultimate goal becomes the search for our real and true self (1).
This, because we are complete beings. Beyond fashion, Thaleia wanted to focus on culture, lifestyle, ideas. Even the people who would be photographed for the pages of the magazine, she wanted them to have something to say. For the audience to be able to keep something after reading. She believes that people have very beautiful stories to tell, which should be heard, and which have the power to inspire and awaken (2).
The magazineโs philosophy is based on values, which Thaleia herself advocates and tries to highlight through its pages: respect for human existence; self-determination, which is based on the magazineโs refusal to photograph underage models, as she believes itโs necessary to have any humanโs personal consent in whatever they attempt to do (2); feminism and women, with feminist movements dominating and with Vogue Greece taking a stand in current affairs; the term โdiversity โ, with which an entire issue was named, celebrates diversity, inviting the readership to do the same, to rejoice in its uniqueness; the concepts of โsustainabilityโ and โethical fashionโ, concepts that have deeply concerned and which are now also part of this project.
Thaleia, through Vogue Greece, takes up the position to create the foundations of a promising future. She undertakes to highlight the hidden creative aspects of Greek reality. She aspires for the creators and talents that this country has given birth to to be brought into the light of the publicity they deserve beyond its narrow borders. After all, she also belongs to this crisis generation, which was deprived of a large part of the prosperity that had existed before. Thus, with the least but also with the most available means, this generation is called upon to lift something much bigger on their backs and highlight aspects that have been hidden for a long time. Thaleia, during these 4 years of operation of Vogue Greece, managed to highlight these aspects and approach them with the cool look of a newly created vision.
We wish her many more successes in the future.
References
1.Spotify, #ฮฃฯฯ ฮป ฮผฮต ฯฮทฮฝ ฮฮฟฯฮฏฮฝฮฑ ฮฯฮฟฯฯฮนฮฑ (2020, ฮฮฌฯฯฮนฮฟฯ), podcast
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6sdyW4A4cYiZJI5bx17E9g?si=ro1gl6cISWmLZN2uOamcug
2.Lifo.gr, ฮฮปฮญฮพฮฑฮฝฮดฯฮฟฯ ฮฮนฮฑฮบฮฟฯฮฌฮฒฮฒฮฑฯ (2019, 21 ฮฮฑฯฯฮฏฮฟฯ ), ฯฯ ฮฝฮญฮฝฯฮตฯ ฮพฮท
