Monday, November 19, 2007

Vogue Cover Archives

Having just stumbled across the archive of old Vogue covers, I couldn't be happier. Each magnificent cover is accompanied by an excerpt or blurb that gives us an idea of what was new in fashion at the time.

For example:
December, 1916
"Featuring advertisements from Mappin & Webb and Waterman's fountain pens ('Send it to Daddy – so that he can write long letters to Mummy'), this issue announces that the prevailing trend is one of green: 'The time, the place, or the fabric makes no difference; the Parisienne's day is not complete unless she wears the colour of spring.'"

July, 1926
"Masculine influence tends to be farther and farther removed from the mode. The large quantity of silks employed make for a softer, more feminised mode."

April, 1940
"The Vogue woman is instructed on how to handle welcoming back her husband home for leave from the war: 'He likes to spend some evenings quietly at home; comfortable chairs; easy, idle talk. You in a dress with a sweeping feminine skirt and gentle colours: Worth's dinner dress – the skirt in linen, plaided blue, pink and magenta; the bodice in lilac angora discreetly banded with amethyst stones and sequins.'"

December, 1970
"With Zandra Rhodes' feather print satin dress on the cover, the issue features tunics, smocks and kaftans filling the fashion pages as Africa is the inspiration for the prints and colours of the season. Vogue celebrates the opening of Yves Saint Laurent's boutique for men in London, Revlon advertises the best in false eyelashes, from Basic to SuperSweeper with 12 choices in between, and Eric Clapton is hailed as 'god of guitar – and now of voice?'"

November, 1994
"Linda Evangelista appears in Givenchy on the cover, while Christina Ricci (Mermaid), Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone) and Elijah Wood are hailed as Hollywood's hottest child stars, Plum Sykes attempts to persuade fashionistas to embrace the new neons in place of safe neutrals, and gardening makes the style grade. Yves Saint Laurent himself appears in an exclusive interview in which he refers to himself as the third most famous person in the world – after the Pope (and he can't recall who came second)."

There are plenty more covers to be gaped at in the Vogue Cover Archives - go take a peek!

Also, another exciting development is that I just found Vogue Art on Demand, where you can purchase prints of Vogue fashion photography and cover shots. I think I'll add a few of those prints to my holiday wish list!

7 comments:

Rebecca, A Clothes Horse said...

I went ga-ga for that archive too! Talk about glamour. I think I liked the illustrations better than the photographs, you just get a great sense of mood and the patterns are lovely.

Rebecca said...

That's awesome! I'm off to check it out ...

Sarah Mendelsohn said...

these covers are beautiful !

Ali said...

Oooh, I have a whole book of Vogue Covers up to 1940s! There's so many beautiful images.

Anonymous said...

Too, too pretty. The 1916 one is perhaps my favorite.

Anonymous said...

i'm gonna make my own post about it

aprons chef said...

1940's Vogue covers are much more appreciating than the other covers. the 1994's are good also but the first cover that you feature are not that good to the eye.