Vogue

Before heading to bed last evening, I caught a portion of The Devil Wears Prada on the CBC. Meryl Streep, as Miranda Priestly, has been said to be a caricature of American Vogue's Anna Wintour: the famous, particular, demanding editor-in-chief. In thinking about the magazine world and its stylish trappings, I came across this archive of British Vogue covers today. They holler back to the fashion and beauty ideals of different periods in history. I think these covers from yesteryear are significantly more interesting and artistic than the publication's current commercial spreads. Here are a sampling of my findings:

Vogue began in September 1916 and was introduced by saying: "The time has come, designers to say, 'to talk of many things, of shoes and furs and lingerie, and if one flares or clings, and where the waist-line ought to be, and whether hats have wings.' They have confided in Vogue all the most intimate things about autumn fashions. Really and truly, such amazing things are going to happen to you that you never would believe them, unless you saw them in Vogue."

July 1929 - the year my Grandmother was born. A then bi-monthly publication, this version cited the must wear colour, based on Parisian consensus, to be a dark purplish brown that resembles the colour of dried raisins.

September 1945 - Vogue made a political statement by juxtaposing these two women - one sleekly overstated, the other more obvious - showing that the austerity of war will last into peacetime. The end of the Second World War was no time for ostentatious displays, said the magazine.

August 1957 - the month my mother was born. Interestingly, the cigarette present on this cover was later airbrushed out.

January 1964 - A white patent leather helmet designed by James Wedge, at the time Britain's leading milliner, that perfectly encapsulates modernity.