Vogue

Vogue is one of the world's most influential lifestyle magazines covering women's fashion and beauty. Founded as a weekly society paper in 1892 and purchased by Condé Nast in 1909, Vogue was the first magazine of its kind to use lavish photographic spreads and colorful graphics to highlight the latest fashion trends. So influential did the magazine become that the phrase "Vogue model" became a synonym for the highest standards in beauty, composure, and sophistication.

Under editor-in-chief Edna Woolman Chase (1877–1957) and art director Mehemed Gehmy Agha (1896–1978), Vogue published the work of leading photographers like Edward Steichen (1879–1973), Sir Cecil Beaton (1904–1980), and Baron de Meyer (1868–1949). These photographers presented their models in glamorous settings that reflected the elaborate Hollywood (see entry under 1930s—Film and Theater in volume 2) movies of the period. During World War II (1939–45), Vogue concentrated more on affordable, ready-to-wear lines of clothing but continued to emphasize quality and style.

In the postwar era, editor-in-chief Jessica Davies collaborated with art director Alexander Liberman (1912–1999) to reform the magazine using simpler, more contemporary graphics. Together with photographers Irving Penn (1917–) and Richard Avedon (1923–), they reinvented the fashion magazine with images that used starker lighting and that put a stronger focus on the model. Vogue also upgraded its coverage of contemporary events by including more serious commentaries on art, film, and theater and articles on the lives of celebrities and entertainers.

Editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland (1906–1989), credited with coining the term "youthquake," brought an edgier tone to the magazine by highlighting the colorful and revealing fashions and accessories that were representative of the "swinging sixties." Models such as Twiggy (1949–), Penelope Tree (1950–), and Verushka (1939–) became celebrities in their own right via photo shoots that showed them in action-filled, "real life" poses outside the studio. Vreeland's successor, Grace Mirabella (1929–), guided the magazine through the so-called feminist era of the 1970s, when women wanted to be taken seriously in the workplace without sacrificing elegance and good taste. During this period, Vogue itself shrank in size from a large-format magazine and became a monthly. Mirabella was succeeded as editor-in-chief by Anna Wintour (1949–), who promoted fashion trends by new designers.

—Edward Moran

For More Information

Devlin, Polly. Liberman. Vogue Book of Fashion Photography. London: Thames and Hudson, 1979.

Kazajian, Dodie, and Calvin Tomkins. Alex: The Life of Alexander Liberman. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.

Lloyd, Valerie. The Art of Vogue Photographic Covers: Fifty Years of Fashion and Design. New York: Harmony Books, 1986.