In Vogue: The way they wore

MANILA, philippines - Vogue began as a weekly gazette in 1892, a society journal chronicling the gatherings peopled by illustrious families like the Astors, Vanderbilts and Whitneys, with additional articles on fashion, etiquette, art and drama. Dedicated to documenting the comings and goings of New York aristocracy — with the kind of unfettered access most periodicals could only dream of — Vogue, during its infancy, already had the cachet that would ultimately lead to its rise as the most influential magazine in the world.

In 1909, a young lawyer would purchase the publication with plans of transforming the slim journal into a glossy focused mainly on fashion. His name? Condé Montrose Nast.

In the Rizzoli-published hardcover tome, In Vogue, a 500-page behemoth that weighs about four pounds (or thereabouts, there was no weighing scale in the YStyle office as of press time, unlike Anna Wintour and French Vogue’s Carine Roitfeld who have one in their impeccable offices), authors Norberto Angeletti and Alberto Oliva delved into the annals of the 100-plus-year-old monthly to produce a comprehensive account (with observations gleaned from interviews with former editors and photographers, along with excerpts from such august individuals as Truman Capote and Frederico Fellini) of its history.

Despite flagging newsstand sales and plunging ad revenues currently plaguing the magazine, Vogue has long enjoyed its position of power as the go-to guide for women of taste. Aspirational and of-the-moment, the magazine managed to capture the cultural zeitgeist, creating tastemakers out of high-society progeny (Brit export Plum Sykes, model Stella Tennant of noble descent, former staffer and celebutante Tinsley Mortimer, and NY social fixture Lauren Santo Domingo, among others, count among the latest crop of Wintour-approved personnel) who were endowed with trust funds, a glittering circle of friends and a face and figure meant for the red carpet.

Angeletti and Oliva credit the magazine for discovering — and solidifying — the careers of photographers like Annie Liebovitz, Mario Testino and Steven Meisel. Legendary photographers like Helmut Newton, Irving Penn and Richard Avedon were lauded for their edgy editorials.

Under the auspices of Anna Wintour, who slowly molded the magazine into a celebrity-filed glossy (rare is the day when a model can garner solo cover status — these days only a group of high-flying models with lucrative endorsement contracts manage to make it to the gatefold cover) since her arrival in 1988, Vogue slowly began losing its edge.

Panned for its derivative work, since creative director Grace Coddington — who joined the Vogue staff on the same day as Wintour — often employs the same techniques (jumping figures clad in a single head-to-toe designer look) or narratives (the surreal fairytale or Out of Africa setting), Vogue has a history of referencing its own celebrated work.

Despite its diminishing cultural relevancy today, In Vogue offers a fascinating glimpse into the magazine during its heyday along with the woman who has become a somewhat storied figure in the fashion world.

“Vogue is both a witness to the world of fashion and a protagonist in it,” says Wintour. “We reflect what we see but we also help create what we see.”