Not often do the worlds of video games and high fashion collide. However, when they do, it's likely that one will see Square Enix's acclaimed RPG series Final Fantasy involved — as it was just a few years ago when Final Fantasy 13 protagonist Lightning modeled for Louis Vuitton. Recently the series has been making fashion headlines again after Japanese artist and character designer Yoshitaka Amano designed one of the illustrated covers for Vogue Italia's first 2020 issue.
The artist is best known in gaming circles for his work on Final Fantasy: Designing characters, enemies, and those iconic logo illustrations. He says that work is what made him famous during an interview with Game Informer in 2016.
Yet Amano's talents have also extended to other popular culture mediums including anime like the 1960's Speed Racer, as well as graphic novels like The Sandman: The Dream Hunters (one book in a running series by Neil Gaiman that is being adapted on Netflix). For Vogue Italia, he created a blue-toned, airy feeling cover that depicts American model Lindsey Wixson-Young in an outfit designed by Gucci.
According to a January 2 editorial published on Vogue Italia's website by Editor in Chief Emanuele Farneti, Amano is one of eight artists who were tapped to produce art for the covers and features in their first issue of the year. The endeavor is meant to promote "intellectual honesty" by admitting the production of fashion magazines has a "significant" environmental impact, and prompting the artists to produce images of real women without the costs of traveling or shipping clothes.
The effort comes in accordance with the launch of "Vogue Values" on December 6, 2019, an initiative signed off by the 26 Vogue editions worldwide to be more environmentally sustainable. All of the Italian issue's saved proceeds will reportedly go toward repairing a cultural institution and nighttime shelter for students in Venice that was damaged by a flood last November.
Final Fantasy has been in the news quite a bit recently thanks to secrets being uncovered in a leaked demo for the Final Fantasy 7 remake.
The remake's released box art is a recreation of the North American art from 1997. It even includes an embossed, metallic version of the gradient green meteor logo which Amano created — one of his many pieces that has since become iconic.
Anyone who has played Final Fantasy VII knows about its emphasis on environmental issues (even if some story details are being changed in the remake). With Amano's art so inextricably linked to the Final Fantasy series, it's great seeing him recognized for more beautiful work that will help to promote sustainability in real life.