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Old Vogue covers

I love old Vogue covers.

I especially love the illustrations by Helen Dryden from 1910 to 1923.

The Fug girls have a great collection of May and June Vogue covers here, here, here, here and here.

Go Fug Yourself

I agree with the Fug girls that the “Mirabella era” covers are so dull. A bit of art would have been better.

Also of interest is the period when celebrities took over the cover. I remember Anna Wintour discussing this in the Vogue documentary, The September Issue. (A fun summary of best moments from the documentary is here).

As the era of the supermodel waned, Wintour coached and coaxed a new generation of actresses to take their place. “The supermodels led us to celebrity,” Wintour says. “The generation of models who came after the supers just wanted to be models, and didn’t want that spotlight. Meanwhile, celebrities were starting to engage with fashion, realising the power of fashion to build their personality, to express who they were, on the red carpet or the front row. So the supermodels ended up being replaced by celebrities.

The Guardian

Anna’s favourite cover is her first for American Vogue:

Famously the printer’s called the Vogue office to check that they had the correct cover because it was so unlike previous covers with the model wearing jeans.