Singapore — Vogue Singapore, which is scheduled to launch later in the year, has apologised for a social distancing faux pas in the midst of the circuit breaker restrictions.
The fashion magazine has been criticised online after photos showed its editorial team members posing quite closely together with the Apple products they had received.
The photos were posted by Editor-in-Chief Norman Tan on Instagram. They showed Vogue Singapore staff posing happily with their brand-new MacBooks, Apple watches and iPhone 11 Pros.
And while they were all wearing masks, they stood considerably closer to each other rather than one metre apart.
Mr Kien Lee, who is the manager of luxury and lifestyle magazine Senatus, re-posted the photos on Wednesday (June 3) on his own Facebook page of the Vogue Singapore staff at work without observing safe distancing rules.
I understand my peers will find it tough on their personal careers to call this out personally so I'll do it cos nobody…
Posted by Kien Lee on Wednesday, June 3, 2020
The photos had been taken from Mr Tan’s Instagram Stories, which are no longer available.
The New Paper (TNP) reported on Monday (June 8) that the 37-year-old Editor-in-Chief had apologised for his team’s breach of social distancing rules, acknowledging that he and the team had a “lapse in judgment”.
The team members had apparently got back to work on June 2 and had been excited to see each other again.
“We were all excited to see each other and decided to gather for a photo. It was such a joy to see members of the team in person after months of seeing them only through a screen. I recognise that this was a lapse in judgment and I apologise for the concern this might have caused,” Mr Tan said.
He added that the staff, as well as that of other publications under IMV, will be working from home for the remainder of phase one of the relaxation of circuit breaker restrictions.
On Mr Lee’s Facebook post, at least one person criticised Vogue Singapore for being “tone-deaf”, especially during this time.
In January this year, Condé Nast, the publishing house behind Vogue and other magazines such as GQ and Vanity Fair, announced that a Singapore edition of Vogue would be launched by the autumn months of this year, in collaboration with Singapore-based media company Indochine Media Ventures.
Vogue Hong Kong was launched in 2019.
The chief operating officer and president of international at Condé Nast, Mr Wolfgang Blau, said: “Vogue Singapore rejoins the market at a time when Singapore’s local fashion design and talent are rising in the country and across the entire region. Vogue Singapore will play a vital role in boosting and supporting that talent as well as in bringing regional and international ideas to this edition of Vogue.” /TISG