British Vogue

A glittering official history of British Vogue, telling the magazine's story from the first issue in 1916 right up to the present day, written with exclusive access to the Vogue archives.

British Vogue has always been far more than just a fashion magazine. For more than a century it has defined the tastes and style of successive generations, playing a leading role in the continuing story of Britain's national identity, and covering the arts, politics, health, travel and much more in addition to the fashion pages. It is an institution and a character in its own right. Now, for the very first time, the fascinating and glamorous history of British Vogue is told in full.

Founded in 1916, British Vogue has forged its own path from the very start. From the trauma and austerity of two world wars through to the freedom of the swinging Sixties, the rise of the supermodel to the groundbreaking editorial direction of Edward Enninful: the magazine's chameleonic ability to move with the times has ensured its perennial status at the vanguard of British cool.

Beautifully illustrated with exclusive images from the Vogue photographic collections, the book draws on hitherto unseen archives and behind-the-scenes interviews with Vogue insiders including stylist Grace Coddington, editor Alexandra Shulman and fashion editor Lucinda Chambers. This is the story of a legend and the individuals who created (and curated) it, told against the backdrop of an extraordinary century of change, upheaval and beauty.

This is a fascinating book. Impressively researched, full of new insights, and a joy to read, it puts into proper perspective Vogue's unrivalled role, not merely as a fashion magazine, but as a record of British cultural, social and artistic life in the changing world of the 20th and early 2lst centuries. I loved it. Josephine Ross, author of The Crown in Vogue
This excellent book chronicles the entire history of British Vogue accurately and enthrallingly. It is important, because it records the ever-changing creative climate and cast of characters of a publishing phenomenon, and preserves it all lest it ever be swept away SIr Nicholas Coleridge
A gem. Julie's book is a delicious reveal on how gently revolutionary a glossy magazine has been, charting everything from the open acceptance that wildly creative editor Dorothy Todd was living with VOGUE's fashion editor, Madge Garland, to the platonic bond between war correspondent Lee Miller and the editor she could not have survived WW2 without, Audrey Withers. It takes us right up to the modern age and the brilliance of Edward Enninful's editorship when the world was locked down for COVID-19. Every page has some rich and juicy fact I didn't know before.... Marion Hume, former editor of Vogue Australia, co-writer of the screenplay for LEE starring Kate Winslet as Lee Miller and Andrea Riseborough as Audrey Withers
Julie Summers has written the first book to give British Vogue its rightful place at the centre of an impeccably researched biography...always changing and always fascinating Alexandra Shulman, former editor of British Vogue

Julie Summers is the author of 14 works of non-fiction including Fashion on the Ration and Dressed for War, the biography of the wartime editor of Vogue. Born and brought up in the North West, she studied at Bristol University and the Courtauld Institute of Art. From 1984 she worked at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Henry Moore Foundation as a curator and became head of exhibitions at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford before becoming a full-time writer.

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