“When choosing the face of our 5th anniversary party, there was never another name”: Letter from the editor

Well before the launch of Vogue Scandinavia’s first issue – before there was even an office – Paulina Porizkova appeared in the first film we ever made. It is still on YouTube: a short video to introduce this magazine to the world, and she was in it showing her support of everything we hoped to achieve. Then, in 2023, we put her on a cover, and despite knowing what an incredible woman she is, the response that those unretouched images yielded floored me. Messages arrived from women, all over the world, thanking us for spotlighting someone who is so fully, completely, unapologetically her beautiful self.

So when it came to choosing who should be the face of our fifth anniversary, there was never another name.

We have muses at Vogue Scandinavia. Swedish artist Hilma af Klint is one: a pioneer who dared to be different, and who made a remarkable impact in a world run by men. She inspired our magazine’s bespoke font and packaging. Really our whole visual world. I consider Paulina to be another muse. She is one of the most photographed women alive, but has never let her pretty looks be all that defines her. She is someone who has worked hard for her voice, and in turn has come to inspire women all over the world. She is also a completely and utterly natural person. While being born in The Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia), Paulina grew up in Sweden and she has adopted the Scandinavian way. Here, in the Nordics, everything is bound up in being down to earth, in the nature around us and the ordinary pleasures of it. It is why, whenever we can, we opt to shoot our covers in outdoor settings with natural light wherever we can. It is also why we chose Paulina to front our cover.

Related: “Life keeps making me wear dresses when I want to dig in the dirt”: Why Paulina Porizkova is Vogue Scandinvia's 5th anniversary muse

We shot this story at Ett Hem, a landmark Stockholm destination neighbouring our office, in the hours before our fifth anniversary party was hosted there. Outside, a moss-green newsstand with gold lettering was being lifted into place over the iron gates, waiting to be filled with our latest issue with HRH Princess Madeleine of Sweden on the cover. Inside, cases of equipment came through the corridors and the kitchen was already at full steam. Paulina posed in the middle of all that chaos, entirely at ease. Laughing, dancing, and making everyone around her feel just as comfortable.

That is another reason why I believe Paulina reflects Vogue Scandinavia so well. However it looks from the outside, what we do here is not easy. We cover five countries, five languages, five cultures, and all of this with a real determination to make room for what is unique in each of them. A whale museum in Arctic Norway one week, a beach house in Denmark the next. What holds this magazine together is that we care, immoderately, about the things we make. We are for real. We don't know how to fake it. Neither does Paulina.

Our office helps. A stone’s throw from Ett Hem in the neighbourhood of Lärkstaden, it is a home rather than a workplace – Nordic down to the cups we drink from. When I first walked past the door here on Sköldungagatan, almost four years ago, and saw the rental sign go up, there was no hesitation. I knew instantly, in my gut, that this was our home.

To everyone who has worked with us since we started out in the back office of a shoe shop, and to the ones who believed in Vogue Scandinavia long before there was even anything to believe in: thank you. I am grateful, still, that you are here.

Home is where the heart is. Ours is here, in Lärkstaden, and with all of you who have made Vogue Scandinavia what it is.