British Vogue features female frontline workers on July cover

The July edition of British Vogue honours essential workers. Photo / Supplied

British Vogue has paid tribute to essential workers by sharing three covers featuring those who have been working on the front line of the coronavirus pandemic.

It's a bold statement from the fashion bible which usually hosts royalty and A-list celebs on its covers.

The three editions feature supermarket assistant Anisa Omar, train driver Narguis Horsford and midwife Rachel Miller.

Their covers feature the powerful tagline: "THE NEW FRONT LINE: Celebrating courage in the face of adversity."

Britain has been one of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus, with more than 276,000 cases and 39,000 deaths.

Supermarket worker Anisa Omar features on the July cover. Photo / Supplied

British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enniful — who worked with Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, on her Forces For Change edition of the magazine last September — wrote that he had decided to feature the frontline workers in recognition of those "putting their lives on the line for us".

Enniful wrote that while he had been "cognisant that the doctors, nurses, and carers in the NHS" were central to dealing with the pandemic, he realised there were also many others quietly working on the front line.

"Our heroes today are different. There has been a shift in who we look up to and admire, and these people need to be celebrated," he wrote.

Train driver Narguis Horsford also features on a cover. Photo / Supplied

"They were always heroes, doing their jobs to keep this country on its feet – but they are also normal people. There is such a beauty in normality, but it's taken an international crisis for us to see it."

Enniful said he hopes the covers "record this moment in history" and that the recognition of essential workers leads to a cultural shift.

"I hope that the new mood of community that is filling our streets, our villages, our cities, is the beginning of something," he wrote.

Midwife Rachel Miller is another essential worker featured in Vogue. Photo / Supplied

The move was celebrated on social media where Enniful was praised for his "incredible" decision to feature frontline workers.

British Vogue isn't the only magazine to come out with a drastically different cover in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

I am SO glad that I'm alive to witness a Train Driver, a Midwife and a Supermarket Assistant grace the cover of British Vogue. https://t.co/mrp3N9a5pi

— Renata Kopinski (@Renatakopinski) June 1, 2020

In April, Vogue Italia printed a blank white cover to pay tribute to the first responders who had worked hard to treat and care for the ill.

At the time the country was in the grips of the worst of the coronavirus pandemic which to date has killed more than 33,000 Italians.