Carmel Snow

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carmel Snow (born 1887 - died 1961) was an Irish fashion journalist, best known as the editor of the American Harper's Bazaar from 1934 to 1958. She is famously quoted as saying 'elegance is good taste, plus a dash of daring'.

The Irish-born magazine editor Carmel Snow changed the course of American culture by launching the careers of some of today's greatest figures in fashion and the arts. A former fashion editor at American Vogue (in the 1920s), she later became editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar (from 1934 to 1958). She famously described her goal at the latter publication as creating a magazine for "well-dressed women with well-dressed minds." Her influence at both magazines went way beyond fashion: she brought cutting-edge art, fiction, photography, and reporting into the American home.

Snow was particularly gifted at discovering new talent, as well as fostering new avenues of exploration among previously-established artists. In the 1920s, she worked closely with Edward Steichen, already a world-famous photographer, helping him to apply his talents to fashion photography, which he did to great effect, well into the 1930s.

In 1932, she hired Martin Munkacsi, the great Hungarian photojournalist, to take his first fashion shots; she brought him and model Lucille Brokaw to a cold, windy, autumnal beach and, in the course of an afternoon, Munkacsi created history, by coming up with the first fashion photographs shot outdoors and in motion -- a revolutionary act.

Snow hired her famous art director Alexey Brodovitch on the basis of an exhibition of his work in graphic design, and found her fashion editor, Diana Vreeland, after noticing her, with her estimable chic, dancing across a crowded room. Between the three of them, Snow, Brodovitch, and Vreeland turned Harper's Bazaar into the most admired magazine of the last century. Among the now-household-names whose careers Snow encouraged are: Andy Warhol, Maeve Brennan, Truman Capote, Jean Cocteau, Cecil Beaton, Christian Dior, Cristobal Balenciaga, Carson McCullers, Kenneth Tynan, and numerous others.

Snow once famously said that "Elegance is good taste plus a dash of daring." She lived that saying in every aspect of her professional life, until her forced retirement from Bazaar, when she was in her seventies, brought her career to a rapid, and poignant, halt. She died in 1961. Famous at the time of her death, she soon sank into obscurity.

As to why her reputation faded, while Vreeland went on to become a legend, photographer Richard Avedon (quoted in "A Dash of Daring: Carmel Snow and Her Life in Fashion, Art,and Letters," a well-received biography by Penelope Rowlands that was published in 2005) said: "She was older, right? and she died before stardom was the thing."

He added that: "Carmel Snow taught me everything I know." Many others, and particularly photographers, also credited her with helping them to hone their craft. Henri Cartier-Bresson, with whom she worked closely, beginning in the 1930s, described her as "magic." And when the great Hungarian photographer known as Brassai heard of Snow's retirement, he was said to have abandoned photography for good.