'Make Love Not War' by Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia September 2007

There are moments when I feel whacked on the side of the head about just how much our fashion photography has changed in the last decade. It’s so sanitized today. We very rarely tell stories any more, and so much of the artistry is gone.

I went looking for this 2007 Steven Meisel story ‘Make Love, Not War’ today, because AOC is launching an ongoing, really deep dive into psychedelics and all matters related to fungi or mushrooms.

Much research is going on today on the positive effects of medically-administered psilocybin in treating war-related trauma, depression, fear of assault weapons on America’s streets. America shut the door hard on any research into psychelics as part of President Nixon’s war on drugs.

Fifty years later, that door is finally opening and AOC can’t help but thinking that we would be a more advanced world, had we not shut down all the research.

AOC has hired a writing team to work with me on this effort of exploring shrooms and all the parts of our lives that are connected to the world of funghi. The more I learn, the more fascinating this massive, layered world is to me.

Correctly or not I’ve always associated the story ‘Make Love, Not War’ published in Vogue Italia [link]September 2007 with the Vietnam War. The visual themes involved here are very rooted in that particular time in our American history.

Steven Meisel is so absurdly talented in translating these kinds of stories without romanticizing them. I agree that he comes close, at times. But I’ve spoken at length over the years with many Vietnam War veterans and also activists. Let’s just say that I walked on water for them, because of what they went through, and I was in a professional position to help them.

Intuitively Meisel taps into an undercurrent of those days that mixed devastating suffering and death in a foreign land with widespread drug use — just to get through the horrors — and yes, an undercurrent of sensuality that often permeated the horror.

I’ve also sat up all night in a swanky suite in Bangkok, Thailand, about six of us on the floor, as I listened to educated, entrepreneurial Vietnamese people explain to me why the war was right. They were not old people either and the night was very memorable in every aspect.

This fashion story is vast, and I will share all the credits at the end, because they go on forever. The creative endeavor very much represents the risks taken by Vogue Italia on an ongoing basis. The photography was incomparable under our beloved and heavenly EIC Franca Sozzani, who left this planet on Dec. 22, 2016 at age 66, taken by a rare cancer. And Steven Meisel was her photographer, clearly giving him and his creative teams tremendous artistic liberties.

Enough talk, but I will connect this story to the research on war and treatment with psychedelics we will be posting here on AOC. Hopefully you will find it noteworthy. ~ Anne

Credits: Thanks to FashionSpot whose archives are absolutely in a pitiful state with most older photography long-gone after being placed on ‘free image servers’. It’s a mess over there, but thankfully, this story is intact. They downloaded it from the Vogue Italia Archives.

‘Make Love, Not War’
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Stylist: Karl Templer
Set Design: Mary Howard
Executive Producer: Ruk Richards
Producer: Delia Martinez
A.D.: Jason Duzansky
D.P.: Steven Pan
Photography Assistants: Andrew Elliott, David Diesing and Sloan Laurits
Fashion Assistants: Laetitia De L`Escaille, Karen Kaiser and Siobhan O'Brien
Digital Technician: Alan Balian
Make-Up: Pat McGrath
Hair: Guido
Makeup Assistants: Mimi Imanishi, Marla Belt, Michael Gwaltney and Ebara
Hair Assistants: Esther Langham, Syd Hayes, Ayan Taniguchi, James Vides and Anthony Turner
Set Assistants: Joe Bouillot, John Powell, Chris Widener, Enver Astudillo, Luis Martinez, Louis Sarowsky, Nick Desjardins and Reid Ramirez
Production: Barbara Tomassi, Lucas Wilson, Steven Dam, Thomas Winchester, Chase Ferguson, Micah Chartrand, Andreas Joseph, Erica Singleton, Lance Cheshire (RGH), Eric Velazquez (RGH), Dan Wonderley (RGH)
Models: Agyness Deyn, Blaine Cook, Caroline Trentini, Chad Dunn, Chad White, Daniel Pimentel, Isaac Haldeman, Julia Stegner, Missy Rayder, Nathan Nesbitt, Oraine Barrett, Raquel Zimmermann, Rodrogo Calazans & Travone Hill