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Harper's Bazaar turns 150: Meet the eight power editors who have shaped fashion
They painted their castles pink, started Andy Warhol’s career, commissioned Henry James and invented what a fashion magazine could be. On the 150th anniversary of the world's oldest glossy, Justine Picardie, editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, celebrates the extraordinary women who came before her
Harper’s Bazaar celebrates its 150th anniversary today, and ever since it was founded in New York in 1867, the magazine has been shaped by a series of remarkable women, who seem to me to be as inspiring today as they were during their lifetimes.
The first editor, Mary Louise Booth, set a high standard for those who followed her: for not only was she a distinguished author, she was also a determined opponent of slavery, a tireless campaigner for women’s suffrage, and a literary powerhouse who published Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and Wilkie Collins in the magazine.
Booth’s editorship proved that a fashion magazine could be as interested in brilliant fiction as it was in the latest Parisian couture; and subsequent editors continued in that fine tradition.
Her successor was the eminent writer and poet Margaret Sangster, whose achievements included the serialised publication of Hardy’s Tess of the d’Ubervilles in Harper’s Bazar (as it was known until it added the missing ‘a’ in 1929).
Sangster was followed, in turn, by Elizabeth Jordan, an active suffragette and prolific novelist who developed a lasting friendship with Henry James on one of her regular trips to London. (I rather like the sound of these expeditions, when she would ensconce herself at Claridge’s for weeks on end, and dine with the cream of British high society.)
As you might imagine, the Bazaar archives are filled with treasures – some of which had been lost or forgotten, until we embarked on reading our way through the bound volumes of magazines, in preparation for this momentous anniversary.
I am now in my fifth year as editor, and thought I knew the archives reasonably well. But even so, I was astonished to discover a great many essays and short stories by Virginia Woolf, Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford, among others, and illustrations by Cecil Beaton, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol.
Bazaar has always been famous for its fashion expertise – indeed, it is the oldest fashion magazine in the world – but what is perhaps less well known is its commitment to art and literature.
Its greatest editors – including the visionary Carmel Snow, who launched the careers of Diana Vreeland, Truman Capote and Richard Avedon – have understood that style is more powerful when seen in a wider cultural context, and that a sophisticated understanding of fashion and beauty does not preclude an interest in politics and current affairs.
Snow was Bazaar’s longest-serving editor (from 1933 to 1957) and remains the most influential – her many claims to fame include coining the phrase the ‘New Look’ for Christian Dior’s debut collection in 1947. But I’ve also grown fond of several other, less famous editors, whose distinctive voices continue to speak from the pages of the bound volumes that surround me at my desk as I write now.
Several of my favourites worked for the British edition of Bazaar (which launched in 1929, although the American magazine was available in this country before then, and in Paris). One of these redoubtable women was the Hon Mrs James Rodney, who first appeared as a society columnist in 1932, then served as fashion editor until 1939, before taking over the editorship during the challenging years of the Second World War.
A longstanding friend and champion of Elsa Schiaparelli (who often came to stay with her in London), Mrs Rodney was also a loyal supporter of British couturiers, including Norman Hartnell, and devoted her considerable energies to maintaining morale during the relentless bombing of the Blitz, when her editorial team combined their day jobs with war work for the Red Cross or as volunteer fire-wardens at night.
An unexpected consequence of this immersion in Bazaar’s past is that the future seems somehow brighter than before. True, we may be living in uncertain times; but the bold and brave women of Bazaar have already endured myriad dangers, while continuing to shine a light throughout the most troubled eras, with their grace, wit and intelligence.
All of which means that we who follow in their (well-shod) footsteps will still hold true to Carmel Snow’s motto: ‘Elegance is good taste, plus a dash of daring.’
Eight women who shaped an iconic magazine
Mary Booth, US editor, 1867-1889
November 2, 1867 was an historic moment in publishing: the inaugural Harper’s Bazar was launched as ‘a repository of fashion, pleasure and instruction’. The editor of this 16-page weekly was Mary Booth, who filled her fledgling magazine with stories by Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy. Booth was a campaigner for women’s suffrage and the abolition of slavery, and had been praised by Abraham Lincoln for her work during the Civil War.
Elizabeth Jordan, US editor, 1900-1913
Elizabeth Jordan was a suffragette and had been a reporter covering high-profile murder trials in 1890s New York before taking the helm at Bazar. She fostered a lasting friendship with Henry James after meeting him at a dinner at Claridge’s. James subsequently contributed many articles to her magazine, including The Manners of American Women, and Is There a Life After Death?
Carmel Snow, US editor, 1933-1957
A prodigious talent-spotter, Snow hired Alexey Brodovitch as her art director and Diana Vreeland as her fashion editor, and together they redefined what a fashion magazine could be. An intoxicating mix of art, culture and high fashion attracted the greatest artists to Bazaar’s pages, from the photographers Richard Avedon, Louise Dahl-Wolfe and Lillian Bassman, to Carson McCullers and Truman Capote, who contributed short stories, and Andy Warhol, who started at Bazaar as an in-house illustrator. She also championed Chanel, Schiaparelli and Balenciaga.
Mrs James Rodney, British editor, 1939-1945
The Seattle-born Mrs Rodney came to London by way of Paris and Rome, and joined Bazaar as a society columnist before being appointed fashion editor in 1934. The London couturier Digby Morton complained bitterly that he kept tripping over her black poodle, invisible against the black carpet of her office. She devoted herself to the war effort, filling the windows of New York’s Fifth Avenue department stores with British fashion. She was a friend of fashion visionary Elsa Schiaparelli and in the 1950s, after her marriage to a Scottish laird, painted several rooms of her castle in the designer’s trademark shocking pink.
Anne Scott-James, British editor, 1945-1951
Scott-James became one of the most celebrated female journalists in Fleet Street. After working as an assistant at Vogue, and then as women’s editor of Picture Post, she accepted the editorship at Bazaar in 1945 – the same year that she gave birth to her first son, Max (Hastings). Scott-James published early stories and articles by John Mortimer and John Betjeman, and launched the food writer Elizabeth David’s career with a monthly column that ran for seven years.
Diana Vreeland, US fashion editor, 1936-1962
‘Vreeland invented the fashion editor,’ Richard Avedon once said. ‘Before her, it was society ladies who put hats on other society ladies.’ In her 26 years at Bazaar, Vreeland revolutionised notions of beauty by using off-beat models such as Anjelica Huston, and her collaborations with Avedon (below left) and Louise Dahl-Wolfe gave rise to some of Bazaar’s most famous images, including the 1943 cover that launched Lauren Bacall’s career. Her eccentric Why Don’t You? column offered aphoristic advice such as, ‘Why don’t you wear a blue sapphire thistle in one ear and a ruby thistle in the other?’
Ruth Ansel, US art director, 1963-1969
Ansel was Bazaar’s first female art director, and at 24, the youngest in the industry. She helped create the aesthetic of the Swinging Sixties: her pages popped with neon colour, she put Steve McQueen on the cover and Jean Shrimpton in a Nasa space suit. ‘A magazine is meant to reflect the time we live in,’ she said, ‘and if it’s a good magazine, it reflects it provocatively. That’s what we did.’
Liz Tilberis, US editor, 1992-1999
British-born Tilberis, whose aim was to make 'the most beautiful magazine in the world’, pulled together a ‘dream team’ that included Patrick Demarchelier and her creative director Fabien Baron to create a Bazaar that captured and defined the 1990s. The much-loved editor inspired loyalty and friendship from those who worked with her: including Diana, Princess of Wales, who posed for the magazine on several occasions, and Hillary Clinton, who wrote a moving tribute after Tilberis died of ovarian cancer in 1999.