Vogue is a
fashion and lifestyle
magazine published in 16 countries + Latin America by
Condé Nast Publications. Each month, Vogue publishes a magazine addressing topics of fashion, life and design.
Style and influence
Vogue was described by book critic Caroline Weber in
The New York Times in December 2006 as "the world's most influential
fashion magazine":
[, New York Times, December 3, 2006. Accessed January 28, 2007.]Vogue is most famous as a presenter of images of high fashion and high society, but it also publishes writings on art, culture, politics, and ideas. It has also helped to enshrine the
fashion model as
celebrity.
Vogue is widely published; today, it is published in 16 countries + Latin America.
History
Vogue was founded as a weekly publication by Arthur Baldwin Turnure in 1892. When he died in 1909,
Condé Nast picked it up and slowly began growing the publication. The first change Nast made was that
Vogue appeared every two weeks instead of weekly. Nast also went overseas in the early 1910s. He first went to Britain, and started a
Vogue there, and it went well. Then he went to Spain, however that was a failure. Lastly, Nast took
Vogue to France, and that was a huge success. The magazines number of publications and profit increased dramatically under Nast. The magazine's number of subscriptions surged during the
Depression, and again during
World War II.
In the 1960s, with
Diana Vreeland as editor-in-chief and personality, the magazine began to appeal to the youth of the
sexual revolution by focusing more on contemporary fashion and editorial features openly discussing sexuality.
Vogue also continued making household names out of models, a practice that continued with
Suzy Parker,
Twiggy,
Jean Shrimpton,
Lauren Hutton,
Veruschka,
Marisa Berenson,
Penelope Tree, and others.
In 1973,
Vogue became a monthly publication. Under editor-in-chief
Grace Mirabella, the magazine underwent extensive editorial and stylistic changes to respond to changes in the lifestyles of its target audience.
The current editor-in-chief of American
Vogue is
Anna Wintour, noted for her trademark
bob and her practice of wearing
sunglasses indoors. Since taking over in 1988, Wintour has worked to protect the magazine's high status and reputation among fashion publications. In order to do so, she has made the magazine focus on new and more accessible ideas of "fashion" for a wider audience.
[. Time magazine, February 9, 2004. Retrieved January 29, 2007.] This allowed Wintour to keep a high circulation while discovering new trends that a broader audience could conceivably afford.
For example, the inaugural cover of the magazine under Wintour's editorship featured a three-quarter-length photograph of Israeli super model Michaela Bercu wearing a bejeweled
Christian Lacroix jacket and a pair of
jeans, departing from her predecessors' tendency to portray a woman’s face alone, which, according to the
Times', gave "greater importance to both her clothing and her body. This image also promoted a new form of chic by combining jeans with haute couture. Wintour’s debut cover brokered a class-mass rapprochement that informs modern fashion to this day."
[, New York Times, December 3, 2006. Accessed January 28, 2007.]] Wintour's
Vogue also welcomes new and young talent.
Wintour's presence at fashion shows is often taken as an indicator of the designer's profile within the industry. In 2003, she joined the
Council of Fashion Designers of America in creating a fund that provides money and guidance to at least two emerging designers each year.
[. Time magazine, February 9, 2004. Retrieved January 29, 2007.] This has built loyalty among the emerging new star designers, and helped preserve the magazine's dominant position of influence through what
Time called her own "considerable influence over American fashion. Runway shows don't start until she arrives. Designers succeed because she anoints them. Trends are created or crippled on her command."
The contrast of Wintour's vision with that of her predecessor has been noted as striking by observers, both critics and defenders. Amanda Fortini, fashion and style contributor to
Slate argues that her policy has been beneficial for
Vogue:
[. Posted Thursday, February 10, 2005. Retrieved January 29, 2007.]Criticism
As Wintour came to personify the magazine's image, she and
Vogue drew critics. Wintour's one-time assistant at the magazine,
Lauren Weisberger, authored a
roman à clef entitled
The Devil Wears Prada, a best-selling novel published in 2003 which was made into a highly successful,
Academy Award-nominated
film in 2006. The central character resembled Weisberger, and her boss was a powerful editor-in-chief of a fictionalized version of
Vogue. The novel portrays a magazine ruled by "the Antichrist and her coterie of fashionistas, who exist on cigarettes, Diet Dr. Pepper, and mixed green salads", according to a review in the
New York Times. The editor who personifies the magazine she runs is described by Weisberger as being "an empty, shallow, bitter woman who has tons and tons of gorgeous clothes and not much else".
[. New York Times, April 13, 2003. Retrieved on January 29, 2007.] However, the success of both the novel and the film have brought new attention from a wide global audience to the power and glamour of the magazine, and the industry it continues to lead.
[. New York Times, December 28, 2006. Retrieved January 29, 2007.]In 2007,
Vogue drew criticism from the anti-smoking group, "Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids", for carrying tobacco advertisements in the magazine. The group claims that volunteers sent the magazine more than 8,000 protest e-mails or faxes regarding the ads. The group also claimed that in response, they received scribbled notes faxed back on letters that had been addressed to editor Anna Wintour stating, "Will you stop? You're killing trees!"
A spokesperson for Condé Nast released an official statement saying that, "
Vogue does carry tobacco advertising. Beyond that we have no further comment".
In April 2008, the American Vogue had a cover shot by famed photographer
Annie Leibovitz, featuring supermodel
Gisele Bündchen and basketball superstar
LeBron James. This was the third time that Vogue featured a male on the cover of the American issue (the other two being
George Clooney and
Richard Gere), and the first time with a black man. Criticism was immediate from many commentators because it was perceived as a prejudiced depiction of James beside the much smaller Gisele in a pose reminiscent of
King Kong carrying off
Fay Wray. Further criticism arose when the website
Watching the Watchers analyzed the photo alongside the World War I recruitment poster titled
Destroy This Mad Brute.
Other editions
In 2005, Condé Nast launched
Men's Vogue and announced plans for an American version of
Vogue Living launching in late fall of 2006 (there is currently an edition in Australia). Men's Vogue ceased publication as an independent publication in October 2008 and is now a twice-yearly extract in the main edition.
Condé Nast Publications also publishes
Teen Vogue, a version of the magazine for teen girls, the Seventeen demographic, in the United States.
South Korea and
Australia has a
Vogue Girl magazine (currently suspended from further publication), in addition to
Vogue Living and
Vogue Entertaining + Travel.Vogue Hommes International is an international men's fashion magazine based in Paris, France, and
L'uomo Vogue is the Italian men's version. Other Italian versions of
Vogue include
Vogue Casa and
Bambini Vogue.
Until 1961, Vogue was also the publisher of
Vogue Patterns, a home sewing pattern company. It was sold to
Butterick Publishing which also licensed the Vogue name.
October 2007 saw the launch of
Vogue India, which featured
Gemma Ward,
Bipasha Basu, and
Priyanka Chopra on the cover.
Media
In 2009, the feature-length
documentary The September Issue was released; an inside view of the production of the record-breaking September 2007 issue of U.S.
Vogue, directed by
R. J. Cutler. The film was shot over eight months as editor-in-chief Anna Wintour prepared the issue, and highlighted the sometimes difficult relationship between Wintour and her creative director
Grace Coddington. The issue ended up being the largest ever published; over 5 pounds in weight and 840 pages in length, a world record for a monthly magazine.
Editors-in-Chief
The following individuals have served as editor-in-chief of the American version of
Vogue:
See also
