Vogue (magazine)


Vogue, also known as American Vogue, is a monthly fashion magazine that covers style news, including haute couture, fashion, beauty, culture, living, and runway. It is part of the global collection of Condé Nast's VOGUE media. Since 2025, Chloe Malle has overseen the magazine's editorial content. Anna Wintour served as editor-in-chief of the publication from 1988 to 2025 and now leads global operations for the publication as Global Chief Content Officer and Global Editorial Director overseeing Vogue and other Condé Nast titles.
Headquartered at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, Vogue began in 1892 as a weekly newspaper before becoming a monthly magazine years later. Since its founding, Vogue has featured numerous actors, musicians, models, athletes, and other prominent celebrities.
British Vogue, launched in 1916, was the first international edition, while the Italian version Vogue Italia has been called the top fashion magazine in the world. As of March 2025, there are 28 international editions. Eleven of these editions are published by Condé Nast. The remaining 16 editions are published as licensees of Vogue.

Background

Vogue is an American fashion and culture magazine. The magazine is published ten times per year with merged issues for January/February and June/July. From 2026 the magazine will publish only eight issues per year.
Originally Vogue was published weekly then bimonthly from 1910. The magazine became a monthly in 1973 publishing 12 issues per year, in 2020 the June and July issues were merged and in 2023 and the January and February issues were merged.
Founded in 1892 by Arthur Baldwin Turnure, the current publisher Condé Nast acquired the magazine in 1909.

Circulation

Editors

History

1892–1909: Early years

, an American businessman, founded Vogue as a weekly newspaper based in New York City, sponsored by Kristoffer Wright, with its first issue on December 17, 1892. The first issue was published with a cover price of 10 cents.
Turnure's intention was to create a publication that celebrated the "ceremonial side of life"; one that "attracts the sage as well as debutante, men of affairs, as well as the belle". From its inception the magazine intended to target the New York upper class by "recounting their habits, their leisure activities, their social gatherings, the places they frequented, and the clothing they wore... and everyone who wanted to look like them and enter their exclusive circle". The magazine at this time was primarily concerned with fashion, with coverage of sports and social affairs included for its male readership.
Turnure died of pneumonia in April 1906.

1909–1920: Condé Nast

purchased Vogue in 1909, three years after Turnure's death. He gradually developed the nature of the publication. Nast changed it to a women's magazine, and he started Vogue editions overseas in the 1910s. Its price was also raised. The magazine's number of publications and profit increased dramatically under Nast's management. It continued to target an upscale audience and expanded into the coverage of weddings. When the First World War made deliveries in Europe impossible, printing for the European market began in England which then developed into separate national editions. The decision to print in England proved successful, causing Nast to release the first issue of French Vogue in 1920.

1920–1970: Expansion

The magazine's number of subscriptions surged during the Great Depression, and again during World War II. During this time, noted critic and former Vanity Fair editor Frank Crowninshield served as its editor, after moving from Vanity Fair by publisher Condé Nast.
In July 1932, American Vogue placed its first color photograph on the cover of the magazine. The photograph was taken by photographer Edward Jean Steichen and portrayed a woman swimmer holding a beach ball in the air. Laird Borrelli notes that Vogue led the decline of fashion illustration in the late 1930s, when it began to replace its illustrated covers, by artists such as Dagmar Freuchen, with photographic images. Nast was responsible for introducing color printing and the "two-page spread". He has been credited with turning Vogue into a "successful business" and the "women's magazine we recognize today", having substantially increased sales volumes until his death in 1942.
In the 1950s, the decade known as the magazine's "powerful years", Jessica Daves became editor-in-chief. As Rebecca C. Tuite has noted, "Daves led a quiet charge for excellence during one of the most challenging, transformative, and rich decades in the magazine's history." Daves believed that "taste is something that can be taught and learned", and she edited Vogue as "a vehicle to educate public taste". While fashion coverage remained a priority, Daves also elevated the written content of American Vogue, particularly championing more robust arts and literature features.
The Daves era of Vogue came to an end in 1962, when Diana Vreeland joined the magazine. The pair had opposed approaches to editing Vogue, and critics said that this led the magazine to a period of "extravagance, and luxury and excess". Under Vreeland, the magazine began to appeal to the youth of the sexual revolution by focusing on contemporary fashion and editorial features that openly discussed sexuality. Vogue extended coverage to include East Village boutiques, such as Limbo on St. Mark's Place, and it included features of personalities like Andy Warhol's "Superstars". Vogue also continued making household names out of models, a practice that continued with Suzy Parker, Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton, Lauren Hutton, Veruschka, Marisa Berenson, Penelope Tree, and others.
In 1973, Vogue became a monthly publication. Under editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella, the magazine underwent extensive editorial and stylistic changes in response to changes of its target audience. Mirabella states that she was chosen to change Vogue, because "women weren't interested in reading about or buying clothes that served no purpose in their changing lives." She was selected to make the magazine appeal to "the free, working, "liberated" woman of the seventies. The magazine changed in terms of interviews, arts coverage, and articles. When this stylistic change fell out of favor in the 1980s, Mirabella was fired.
Well-known fashion photographers for the magazine include:
In July 1988, with Vogue losing readership and advertising to its rival Elle, Anna Wintour was named editor-in-chief. Noted for her trademark bob cut and sunglasses, Wintour attempted to revitalize the brand by making it feel younger and more approachable; she directed the focus towards new and accessible concepts of "fashion" for a wider audience. Wintour's influence allowed the magazine to maintain its high circulation, while staff discovered new trends that a broader audience could conceivably afford.
Throughout her reign at Vogue, Wintour accomplished her goals to revitalize the magazine and oversaw production of some of its largest editions. The September 2012 edition measured 916 pages, which was the highest ever for a monthly magazine. Wintour continues to be American Vogues editor-in-chief.
The contrast of Wintour's vision with that of her predecessors was noted as striking by observers, both critics and defenders. Amanda Fortini, fashion and style contributor for Slate, argues that her policy has been beneficial for Vogue, delivering it from what some critics had termed its boring "beige years".
Although she has had a strong impact on the magazine, Wintour has been pinned as being cold and difficult to work with. The most recent change, as of early 2024, in Vogue magazine is the return of Raul Martinez as global creative editor. As the creative director, he reports to Wintour and oversees the direction for the magazine globally and its visual approach. With both personalities, the magazine could take an interesting turn.
In June 2025 it was announced that Wintour would be stepping down from her position as editor-in-chief. She retained her roles as Chief Content Officer and Global Editorial Director at Condé Nast, while the editor-in-chief position at Vogue was replaced by the role of Head of Editorial Content. In September 2025, it was announced that Chloe Malle would succeed Wintour in this role. Malle was first listed on the masthead of the October 2025 issue, featuring Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid on the cover. However, the last issue that Wintour oversaw was December 2025 and Malle's first issue will be released in 2026.

Features

Noteworthy ''Vogue'' covers

  • December 1892: The magazine's first cover features a debutante at her début.
  • July 1932: The first cover with a color photograph, featuring Edward Steichen's image of a swimmer holding a beach ball.
  • August 1933: The cover features model Toto Koopman who is both bisexual and biracial. She portrays a woman whom readers during the Great Depression would dream of being like.
  • September 1944: USA Tent Hospital in France. Lee Miller as a war correspondent for Vogue US.
  • May 1961: Sophia Loren covers the magazine and is one of the first entertainers to do so.
  • August 1974: Beverly Johnson becomes the first black woman to cover American Vogue.
  • November 1988: Anna Wintour's first cover features Israeli model Michaela Bercu.
  • May 1989: Under Wintour's control, Madonna became the first singer to be featured on the cover of Vogue, something that was considered "controversial," after a long-standing focus on models on their covers.
  • April 1992: Vogues 100th anniversary cover featuring 10 supermodels namely Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, Karen Mulder, Yasmeen Ghauri, Niki Taylor, Elaine Irwin, & Claudia Schiffer, and is the highest-selling issue ever.
  • November 1992: Richard Gere becomes the first male to appear on the cover, alongside his then-wife Cindy Crawford.
  • December 1998: Hillary Clinton becomes the first American First Lady to cover the magazine.
  • September 2012: Lady Gaga graced the cover of the largest edition of Vogue in history, weighing in at 4.5 pounds and 916 pages.
  • April 2014: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West appeared on one of Vogue's most controversial cover shoots. Kardashian is the first reality television star on the cover, and West is the first rapper. They are also the first interracial couple to appear on the magazine cover.
  • August 2017: Zayn Malik appears on the cover, making him the first Muslim man to be featured on the magazine's cover
  • September 2018: Beyoncé is given "unprecedented" total editorial control of the magazine's cover and feature. She hires 23-year-old black photographer Tyler Mitchell to shoot the cover, making him the first black photographer to shoot a cover for Vogue in its 126-year history.
  • December 2020: Harry Styles becomes the first male to appear by himself on the cover of Vogue.
  • February 2021: Kamala Harris becomes the first vice president to cover Vogue. She is the highest-ranking female elected official in U.S. history, and the first African American and first Asian-American vice president.
  • November 2021: Adele becomes the first person to cover the American and British editions of Vogue simultaneously.
  • February 2022: Hoyeon Jung becomes the first Asian to appear by herself on the cover of Vogue.
  • August 2022: Emma Corrin becomes the first non-binary person to cover Vogue.
  • January 2025: Angel Reese becomes the first basketball player to be on the cover of Vogue.
In 2020, the hashtag #VogueChallenge became a popular social media meme in response to the perceived lack of diversity on Vogue's front covers. Users of various ages and ethnicities uploaded photos of re-creating famous Vogue covers as part of a campaign to promote variety in fashion.