Vogue (magazine)
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- For other meanings, see vogue.
| Vogue | |
 Kate Moss on the cover of a 2003 issue of British Vogue |
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| Publisher: | Condé Nast Publications |
| Language | English, Italian, French |
| Editor | Anna Wintour, Franca Sozzani, Carine Roitfeld |
| Country | United States of America (many other countries also have their own versions of Vogue) |
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine published in several countries around the world. It is published by Condé Nast Publications, headquartered at the Conde Nast building at 4 Times Square, New York, NY.
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[edit] History
Today, there are different editions of Vogue are published around the world: Australia, Brasil, China, Germany, Greece, Italy, Korea, Japan, Mexico, France, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States.
However Vogue Paris and Vogue Italia are arguably the most influential magazines of the fashion world.
Under the ownership of New York-based magazine publisher Condé Nast and through a succession of women editors, Vogue is most famous as a presenter of images of high fashion and high society, but it is also publishes writings on art, culture, politics, and ideas. On the way, it has helped to enshrine the fashion model as celebrity. Its success and influence have not been universally lauded, and Vogue is regularly criticized, along with the fashion industry it writes about, for valuing wealth, social connections, and low body weight over more noble achievements. The magazine surged in subscriptions during the depression and World War II. Its photography at the time reflected the imagery of contemporaneous Hollywood films: staged and luxurious. Vogue is celebrating it's 90th birthday this year
The historic relationship between Vogue and supermodels began with top fashion model Lisa Fonssagrives who appeared on over 200 Vogue covers. As shown on the cover to the right, Fonssagrives at the height of her career could be both sophisticated and yet a cook, something with which every American woman could identify. Her presence in nearly every fashion magazine from the 1930s to the 1950s, from Town & Country, Life, Vogue, and the original Vanity Fair to the cover of Time helped to build her name recognition, and the importance of Vogue in helping a model reach "supermodel" status. Being on the cover of Vogue became a symbol of success for models. Regular appearances on the cover of Vogue establishes supermodels such as Gemma Ward, Jessica Stam, and Daria Werbowy. Multiple Vogue covers becomes a cornerstone of being considered a supermodel.
But Vogue truly hit its stride under the leadership of editor-in-chief Jessica Daves and art director Alexander Liberman, when it began to publish the work of photographers Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. Penn and Avedon broke decisively with the stuffy conventions of previous fashion photography: Penn by a stripped-down minimalism that left his subjects in bare studios against stark empty backgrounds; Avedon by breaking out of the confines of dispassionate, static studio tableaux and shooting dynamic pictures of models at the height of emotion and in the middle of action. The influence of both approaches to fashion photography can still be seen in the pages of every fashion magazine today.
In the 1960s, with famed editor-in-chief and personality Diana Vreeland in charge, the magazine rose to the occasion of this candy-colored, youth-oriented decade of sexual revolution by focusing more on the exciting fashions of the times, through daringly playful, theatrical, and straightforwardly sexual editorial features. Vogue also continued making household names out of pretty faces, a practice that continued with Suzy Parker, Twiggy, Penelope Tree, and others.
Under the tenure of editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella through the 1970s and 1980s, the bimonthly magazine became a monthly, and the revolutionary air of the sixties gave way to more practical clothing. The magazine's female audience was no longer in the kitchen dreaming of a better life. It was heading out every morning for work, and editorial changes reflected this new reality.
The current editor-in-chief of American Vogue is Anna Wintour, noted for her trademark bob and her practice of wearing sunglasses indoors. Wintour's Vogue aggressively nurtures new design talent, and her presence at fashion shows is often taken as an indicator of the designer's profile within the industry. Wintour's notoriously demanding personality at Vogue was the subject of a roman à clef titled The Devil Wears Prada, which has also been made into a film.
One sign of Vogue's continuing success is the number of advertising pages it manages to sell, which contributes to its reputation as the fashionista's doorstop: as one reviewer on Amazon.com points out, the September issue, which covers fall fashion, can weigh in at over 700 pages.
[edit] 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).
Condé Nast Publications also publishes Teen Vogue, a version of the magazine for a younger girls in the United States. Australia has a Vogue Girl magazine, 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. .
[edit] Editors-in-Chief
Edna Woolman Chase (1914-1951)
Jessica Daves (1952-1962)
Diana Vreeland (1963-June 1971)
Grace Mirabella (July 1971-October 1988)
Anna Wintour (November 1988-to present)
