Vogue Paris - 1968-2000: Crescent, Pringle, and Buck

1968-2000: Crescent, Pringle, and Buck

Francine Crescent, whose editorship would later be described as prescient, daring, and courageous, took the helm of French Vogue in 1968. Under her leadership, the magazine became the global leader in fashion photography. Crescent gave Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin, the magazine's two most influential photographers, complete creative control over their work. During the 1970s, Bourdin and Newton competed to push the envelope of erotic and decadent photography; the "prone and open-mouthed girls of Bourdin" were pitted against the "dark, stiletto-heeled, S&M sirens of Newton". At times, Bourdin's work was so scandalous that Crescent "laid her job on the line" to preserve his artistic independence. The two photographers greatly influenced the late-20th-century image of womanhood and were among the first to realize the importance of image, as opposed to product, in stimulating consumption.

By the late 1980s, however, Newton and Bourdin's star power had faded, and the magazine was "stuck in a rut". Colombe Pringle replaced Crescent as the magazine's editor-in-chief in 1987. Under Pringle’s watch, the magazine recruited new photographers such as Peter Lindbergh and Steven Meisel, who developed their signature styles in the magazine’s pages. Even still, the magazine struggled, remaining dull and heavily reliant on foreign stories. When Pringle left the magazine in 1994, word spread that her resignation had been forced.

Joan Juliet Buck, an American, was named Pringle's successor effective June 1, 1994. Her selection was described by The New York Times as an indication that Conde Nast intended to "modernize the magazine and expand its scope" from its circulation of 80,000. Buck's first two years as editor-in-chief were extremely controversial; many employees resigned or were fired, including the magazine's publishing director and most of its top editors. Though rumors circulated in 1996 that the magazine was on the verge of a shutdown, Buck persevered; during her editorship, the magazine’s circulation ultimately increased 40 percent. Buck remade the magazine in her own cerebral image, tripling the amount of text in the magazine and devoting special issues to art, music, literature, and science. Juliet Buck announced her decision to leave the magazine in December 2000, after her return from a two-month leave of absence. The Sydney Morning Herald later compared her departure, which took place during Milan's fashion week, to the firing of a football coach during a championship game. Carine Roitfeld, who had been the magazine's creative director, was named as Buck's successor the next April.