task 3

http://students.cis.uab.edu/juli305/finalpaper.html

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.

Vogue was not focused on advertising sales and revenues were decreasing for its wealthy stockholders. This soon changed when Conde Nast bought Vogue in 1909. Conde Nast graduated from Georgetown where he became close friends with Robert Collier. Robert Collier soon inherited Collier’s Weekly from his father and gave Nast a job as an advertising manager. Under Nast’s management, Collier’s Weekly became first place in advertising revenue for magazines. His salary grew to forty thousand dollars a year at Collier’s Weekly. Nast then left the magazine to build the Home Pattern Company. Nast desired to expand his business into fashion news and set his sights on Vogue.

Conde Nast admitted that he was not creative but was an advertising and sales genius. He transformed Vogue’s advertising base. Because the magazine appealed to high society readers, he courted high-end advertisers who were willing to pay more for a wealthy audience. Nast made Vogue a completely women’s fashion magazine. He also pushed for the covers of Vogue to be done by the best illustrators and photographers. Thus, the covers of Vogue became notable and reflected the art movements of each decade of the twentieth century. With Nast’s previous experience with the Home Pattern Company, he expanded the pattern section in the magazine even though this caused controversy within the staff. Vogue patterns were very successful and gave all of the readers a chance to make their own fashionable pieces. Even women with higher incomes used the patterns. Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly acknowledged that she used the Vogue patterns for herself and her children.

Nast had a constant need to expand his company. In 1916, he established a separate British Vogue and later a French Vogue. Today Conde Nast publications owns many magazines such as Glamour, Allure, W, Self, GQ, Details, Elegant Bride, House and Garden, Domino, Lucky, Golf Digest, and The New Yorker, just to name a few. In addition, Vogue has versions in nine countries including Austrailia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and Spain.

During the war and the Great Depression, high tariffs were imposed on imported French designs and many French designs were not being made because of the state of France after the war. America had always looked to France for the latest fashions and Vogue editors were worried about the effects of the lack of French fashion. The magazine started to look to American designers. At first, they were only a substitute for French designs. However, by WWII, American designers were seen as a separate category. Vogue began to dedicate much of the magazine to the runway fashions in New York. Edna Chase even started Vogue fashion shows. This lead to the growth of American designers and fashion houses.

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.




No longer just a pretty face: Fashion magazines' depictions of ideal female beauty from 1959 to 1999

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eat.20039/abstract


http://www.articlealley.com/article_14099_28.html

One of the planet's most famous womens' fashion magazines is, undoubtedly, Elle Magazine, which was created in France in the 1940's (and is still owned by the Lagardere Group of France, but is being published by Hachette Filipacchi Media US to this day). Not only does Elle focus on women's fashions, it also publishes articles on the beauty, health and entertainment inspired by today's modern woman.

Elle Magazine is most definitely the largest fashion magazine in the world with thirty-six editions on six continents throughout the world. The magazine also has offshoot companies such as Elle DÉCOR (with nineteen editions), Elle girl (nine editions), Elle Cuisine (five editions), elle.com (sixteen websites) and high quality products such as books, footwear, eyewear and other fashion related accessories. The U.S. edition alone reaches an audience of almost five million women who find in Elle Magazine a sharp style and substance with a more independent point of view than other magazines of its genre.


The innovators behind Elle Magazine are now located in New York where its main focus is on "fashion, beauty and style – with a brain." One of the best creations of the ELLE staff was the online version which has benefited with archival articles from the previous year along with sections on fashion (well, of course!); catwalk trends ("runway"); beauty; and style. Also included and quite popular with the readers is the discussion forum and the opportunity to subscribe to an e-mail newsletter. This site is an amazing insider's style guide with a worldly outlook which provides both leisurely convenience and an addictive high-end inspiration to boot. Not bad, huh?

Magazine showcases some of the most affordable designer clothing along with top quality articles that are quite informative (and actually quite interesting!). There are also updated CD, art and book reviews in each and every issue. Subscribers exclaim about the magazine layout and even the quality of both the cover and paper stock are raved about in the forums. Elle Magazine is wonderful for giving its large readership information on the latest pop culture trends both in the United States and abroad while roaming away from what is presented in our present day mainstream culture.