Don’t look for ordinary people here; only the rare, the classy, the sophisticated are part of this fascinating history of a magazine that is synonymous with high fashion the world over. And oh, almost forgot to add, that the one thing that binds the women, and the men, whom you will meet here, is vaulting ambition, singular passion and an unblinking ruthlessness.
Nina-Sophie Miralles has dug deep into the annals of Vogue’s history to write the story of the magazine that was created and launched in the late 19th century by Arthur Turnure with all the love a doting father expends on a debutante daughter, and which has survived wars and depressions and sweeping pandemics to hold its place as the fashion bible across 30 countries.
Focusing mainly on the British and French editions besides the original American Vogue, Miralles introduces us to its list of owners; all men with sharp marketing skills who trained their sights on a generation of younger women, with a view to shaping their aspirations to be fashion-plates, while persuading them to ‘buy, buy buy’.
The editors are an equally exotic clan. Miralles introduces us to the entire gamut, from Josephine Redding the very first woman at the helm of Vogue to the unsung Edna Woolman Chase, crowned Editor in 1914, who in her 38 year long tenure brought many changes that endure even today and mark out the uniqueness of the magazine. One of the highlights of Chase’s tenure was the fact that she got on famously with the far-sighted owner, Conde Montrose Nast, and the partnership worked wonders for the magazine that they nurtured. It is a partnership worth noting, for most of the editors locked horns with the owners, as the men held the reins right in their grasp, hiring and firing at will.
A look behind the pages into the Vogue offices shows us scenes fraught with tension and insecurity; ambition clashing with genuine passion; and editors worn out by the high life they were forced to lead. More than one editor in the New York office found herself drained.
Despite this, American Vogue editors enforced the same regimen on their staffers and their counterparts in England and France.
British Vogue editor, Alison Settle ’s diary reveals how she was forced to travel on a business trip despite having undergone major surgery, and how she suffered ‘the endless string of social engagements, jumping in and out of Rolls Royces and first class carriages while drinking champagne cocktails and trying to numb her pain with pills.’ It was all Vogue’s way of keeping the brand at the hallowed height it had managed to achieve over the years. Heartless but effective.
Yet, the passion of both the owners and editors shines through. During the war years, Vogue Paris managed to keep the Nazi effort to take over the magazine, at bay. And in an amazing display of commitment, the American manager who had recently assumed office, fled the city carrying Vogue ledgers and the liquid cash of Les Editions Conde Nast, sleeping in a field at night to keep his documents safe, and finally arriving at a chateau where 40 others connected with Vogue were ensconced till it would be safe to return to Paris.
And British Vogue faced the war by moving into the basement where the typing continued with typewriters kept on laps, and material for printing being carried in a laundry basket, even as bombs hurtled down and debris bounced up from the impact.
Of such passion is journalistic history made!
The book spends entire chapters on Diana Vreeland and Anna Wintour, drawing detailed portraits of each editor’s fearsome qualities and foibles.
Interesting milestones mark the magazine’s journey; we learn that the first ramp show was born out of a necessity to fill pages; we learn about the advent of the first paid editorials, something that is a given even in mainstream journalism today. We learn too of the continued male domination that existed in Vogue as male owners imposed their will, and made the women who created the magazine dance to their whims, firing them overnight without notice, when one dared to cross the line. The thought of being stripped of a life of luxury and descending to a more real, normal world was enough to keep many an editor dancing in step.
The growth of competition like Harper’s Bazaar, and Vanity Fair, the digital revolution and movements like ‘Me Too’ and their effect on content, photography and how the magazine is now positioned, the worry about digital advertising not holding up the bottom line, the dilution of content in the many franchises, (the Indian edition being a case in point) are some of the other territories Miralles traverses through. All in her neutral, journalist-observer voice.
It is a long journey she has taken and shared, and to her credit she leaves the reader to decide for herself, to sift the good from the awful, and decide which of the aspects can best be adopted in the making of a new trail-blazing brand that could, like Vogue, stake a claim to being immortal.
(The reviewer was the editor of Femina for 12 years and is the author of Hariprasad Chaurasia: Breath of Gold, among others)
Check it out on Amazon