Vogue (British Magazine) - History

History

During the First World War, Condé Nast, Vogue’s publisher, had to deal with restrictions on overseas shipping as well as paper shortages in America. The British edition of Vogue was the answer to this problem, providing Vogue fashion coverage in the British Isles when it was not practicable to receive it in the usual way. Under the London edition's first editor, Elspeth Champcommunal, the magazine was essentially the same as the American edition, except for its British English spellings. However, Champcommunal thought it important that Vogue be more than a fashion magazine. It featured articles on ‘society and sporting news… Health and beauty advice… travelogues… and editorials’, making it a 'skillfully mixed cocktail'. Champcommunal held her editorial position until 1922.
Under its second editor, Dorothy Todd, a renowned Vogue editor due to her boldness, especially in her movement to blend the arts and fashion, the magazine shifted its focus from fashion to literature, featuring articles from Clive Bell about art exhibitions in Paris. There were also notable features from good writers such as Virginia Woolf and Aldous Huxley. Due to Todd's changes, the magazine lost much of its audience, and she spent only two years as editor. British Vogue is not believed to have really taken off until after its third editor, Alison Settle, was appointed in 1926.

Under Audrey Withers (editor from 1940 to 1960), the magazine again took a literary direction, and during the Second World War it even took part in reporting the war. In 1944, the American photographer Lee Miller persuaded Withers to send her to Normandy to produce an article on wartime nursing; Miller then followed the Allied advance through Europe, reporting the liberation of Paris and sending a story from Buchenwald.