History into Vogue Magazine
Vogue magazine has influenced American society for over a hundred years. The magazine has evolved to reflect modern women. Vogue has gone through many changes and has created a market for women’s magazines. Originally, Vogue was more of a high society paper than a mass marketed magazine.
Vogue was founded in 1892 by Arthur Baldwin Turnure. Turnure’s original vision was to be a social gazette for New York’s elite. Turnure’s investors for Vogue included the Vanderbilts, A.M Dodge, William Jay, and Marion Stuyvesant Fish. Turnure hired a staff with a higher socialite status rather than a staff with literary talent. Socialite Josephine Redding was the magazine’s first editor. By all accounts, Redding seemed less worried about fashion and more passionate about animal rights.
Vogue was a weekly journal that aimed to appeal to only high society women and gentlemen. Originally men’s sports were chronicled in the magazine. Fashion was not the focus. Rather, the focus was the traditions of high society; fashion was only mentioned when talking about what was appropriate to wear to an occasion. Vogue had articles reviewing plays, books, music, and discussions of the societal etiquettes of the time. Two regular articles were called “As Seen by Him” and “Of Interest to Her.” “As Seen by Him” was particularly snobbish with articles like “A Word about the Treatment of Servants”. The staff also included “Society Snapshots” which were features of their friends and socialite acquaintances.
Conde Nast died in 1942. Time Magazine said that, “for a generation he was the man from whom millions of American women got most of their ideas, directly or indirectly, about the desirable standard of living.” The Conde Nast Corporation still lives on today. Anna Wintour became Editor in Chief of Vogue in 1988. Anna Wintour expanded the magazine’s role to include charitable organizations to help in AIDS research and to benefit emerging American fashion designers. Within the magazine, Wintour encouraged reporting on cultural and political issues to reflect the concerns of a modern working woman. Wintour also began Teen Vogue in 2001 and Men’s Vogue in 2005. Currently Vogue has a circulation of about 1.3 million. It continues to validate new designers and trends more than any other fashion magazine. The issues of Vogue are like a history of women’s ideals and fashions since 1892.