In Vogue: The Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Fashion Magazine

I really enjoyed this book. It is awesome to pick up and read a few pages at a time to fill your time while relaxing.

Thoroughly brilliant - beautiful book, great photos of decades past, brilliant text and one for the mantlepiece

What attracts you to Vogue? Chances are that element is represented someplace within the pages of In Vogue. To me, the photographs are the main appeal of Vogue. Since its founding on December 17, 1892, Vogue has attempted to capture current and future fashion through its images. The magazine has been blessed by talented work done by most of the world's best fashion photographers since then who brought us the most interesting society women, celebrities, cultural icons, and, of course, fashion models. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the book contained at least a few works by each of the greatest photographers to appear in Vogue. Most of the images were known to me, but a number were new. My main disappointment was that the photographers I like the most didn't have more photographs in the book. But the book is very bulky and heavy as it is. To my interest in the photographs came many essays about why the photographers were selected and what the editors asked them to accomplish. The interaction of the art directors and the photographers was particularly noteworthy in regard to covers. I have also spent many years as a management consultant in the magazine industry. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there's a pretty complete overview of the management thinking and decisions that led to Vogue becoming so successful. But the most interesting surprise came in the extended views into the editorial philosophies and working styles of the magazine's editors. Creating a fashion magazine is very demanding, and Vogue has been fortunate in its editors both for their energy and their vision for the reader. If neither business nor editing interest you, you'll still find lots of marvelous images to help you trace the development of fashion and style in the United States over the last 100 plus years. Here are a few of my favorite photographs in the book: Helen Lee Worthing by Baron Adolphe de Meyer, September 1, 1920 (p. 61) White by Edward Steichen, January 1, 1936 (p. 67) Mademoiselle Koopman by George Hoyningen-Huene, September 15, 1933 (p. 69) Mary Taylor by Cecil Beaton, May 15, 1935 (p. 73) Lisa Fonssagrives by Horst P. Horst, August 1, 1938 (p. 76) Decor by Horst P. Horst, March 15, 1938 (p. 77) Corset by Horst P. Horst, September 15, 1939 (p. 78) Coco Chanel by Horst P. Horst, February 15, 1954 (p. 79) Cover by Horst P. Horst, September 15, 1940 (p. 89) Loretta Young by John Rawlings (p. 111) Twelve Beauties by Irving Penn, 1947 (pp. 116-117) Cover by Horst P. Horst, May 15, 1941 (p. 131) Cafe Society by Cecil Beaton, 1948 (pp. 136-137) Concentration Camp by Lee Miller, June 1945 (p. 143) Jean Pachett by Irving Penn, February 15, 1949 (p. 144) Atelier of Pablo Picasso, November 1, 1956 (pp. 156-157) Twiggy by Richard Avedon, July 1967 cover (p. 172) Marisa Berenson by Berry Berenson, 1969 (p. 179) Marisa Berenson by Irving Penn, April 1970 (pp. 186-187) Lauren Hutton by Richard Avedon, January 1, 1969

The authors of In Vogue composed a diversified chronicle of the appearance and the development of Vogue from 1892 until today. The photographs chosen portray the history of fashion photography wonderfully, each of them either a ravishing new sight or a spectacular recognition. The structuring by Decade, introduction of publishers, contributing editors, photographers, etc interposed by special contributions and excerpts of resumes offers the reader a diverting journey trough publishing history in general and the publishing of fashion in particular.

This wonderful history of pages of the fashion magazine provides a document of the tastes, styles and socio-political conditions of over a century. The first class photographs from the lenses of prime photographers, palettes and studios of some of the most famous artists of the period, supplemented with informative text, reflect times of elegance and decadence.