Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”
Aimed at members of the upper-middle and upper classes, Bazaar assembles photographers, artists, designers and writers to deliver a “sophisticated” perspective into the world of fashion, beauty and popular culture on a monthly basis.
History
Since its debut in 1867 as America’s first
fashion magazine, the pages of
Harper’s Bazaar, first called
Harper’s Bazar, have been home to talent, such as the founding editor, author and translator
Mary Louise Booth, as well as:
Fashion editors, including
Carmel Snow,
Carrie Donovan,
Diana Vreeland,
Liz Tilberis,
Alexey Brodovich,
Brana Wolf
Photography from Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Man Ray, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Robert Frank, Inez van Lamsweerde, Craig McDean and Patrick Demarchelier,
Illustrations by Erté (Romain de Tirtoff) and Andy Warhol.
Writers Alice Meynell, Daisy Fellowes, Gloria Guinness, and Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd.
When
Harper’s Bazaar began publication, it was a weekly magazine catering to women in the middle and upper classes. They showcased fashion from Germany and Paris in a newspaper-design format. It was not until 1901 that
Harper’s moved to a monthly issued magazine which it maintains today. Now
Harper’s Bazaar is owned and operated by the
Hearst Corporation in the U.S. and The National Magazine Company in the U.K. Hearst purchased the magazine in 1912.
Harper & Brothers founded the magazine. This company also gave birth to Harper’s Magazine and HarperCollins Publishing.
Glenda Bailey is the editor-in-chief of U.S. edition of Harper’s Bazaar.
Victorian elegance (1898-1912)
As the turn-of-the-century began in America,
Harper’s Bazaar began featuring both illustrations and photographs for its covers and inside features of high society and increasingly of fashion.
It’s interesting to note that, during this late Victorian period, as the women’s suffrage movement was gaining momentum (American women did not all win the right to vote until 1920 with the passing of the 19th Amendment), the introduction of more tailored dresses and jackets coincided with women’s new sense of feminism. Bazaar also began profiling prominent socialites, such as the Astors and the Griscoms.
The Carmel Snow years (1933-1957)
In 1933, editor-in-chief Carmel Snow (a former editor at
Vogue) brought photojournalist
Martin Munkacsi to a windswept beach to shoot a swimwear spread. As the model ran toward the camera, Munkacsi took the picture that made fashion-magazine history. Until that moment, nearly all fashion was carefully staged on mannequin-like models in a studio. Snow’s buoyant spirit (she rarely slept or ate, although she had a lifelong love affair with the three-martini lunch) and wicked sense of adventure brought life to the pages of
Bazaar. Snow’s genius came from cultivating the “best” people. Her first big find was art director Alexey Brodovitch, who innovated
Bazaar’s iconic Didot logo. Brodovitch is perhaps best known for his work with Richard Avedon, who, as a young photographer, was so determined to work at
Bazaar that he endured the humiliation of 14 canceled interviews before finally being hired. Snow also unleashed the force of nature known as
Diana Vreeland, whom she brought on as fashion editor in 1936. The collaboration of these four visionaries resulted in some of the germane fashion shoots of the 20th century and ended only with Snow’s retirement, at the age of 70, in 1957.
Alexey Brodovitch (1934-1958)
In 1934, newly installed
Bazaar editor Carmel Snow attended an Art Directors Club of New York exhibition curated by 36-year-old graphic designer
Alexey Brodovitch and immediately offered Brodovitch a job as
Bazaar’s art director. Throughout his career at the magazine, Brodovitch, a Russian émigré (by way of Paris), revolutionized magazine design. With his directive “Astonish me,” he inspired some of the greatest visual artists of the 20th century (including protégés
Irving Penn,
Hiro, and, of course, Richard Avedon). Brodovitch’s signature use of white space, his innovation of
Bazaar’s iconic Didot logo, and the cinematic quality that his obsessive cropping brought to layouts (not even the work of Man Ray and
Henri Cartier-Bresson was safe from his busy scissors) compelled
Truman Capote to write, "What
Dom Pérignon was to champagne ... so [Brodovitch] has been to ... photographic design and editorial layout." Sadly, Brodovitch's personal life was less triumphant. Plagued by alcoholism, he left
Bazaar in 1958 and eventually moved to the south of France, where he died in 1971.
The Vreeland years (1936-1962)
When Carmel Snow saw Mrs. T. Reed Vreeland dancing on the roof of New York’s St. Regis Hotel in a white lace Chanel dress and a bolero with roses in her hair one evening in 1936, she knew she'd found
Bazaar’s newest staffer. Diana, who is said to have invented the word "pizzazz", first came to the attention of readers with her “Why Don't You ... ?” column. (A typical suggestion: "Why don't you ... wear, like the Duchess of Kent, three enormous diamond stars arranged in your hair in front?") Before long, she became fashion editor, collaborating with photographers Louise Dahl-Wolfe and Richard Avedon and, later, art director Henry Wolf. Her eccentricity, perception and wit, as well as her sharp wit and sweeping pronouncements (“I adore that pink! It’s the navy blue of India,” “Elegance is refusal!”), were memorialized in the movie
Funny Face, making her, for many, the prototypical fashion-magazine editor.
The Avedon years (1945-1965)
Richard Avedon began creating fashion portfolios for
Harper’s Bazaar at the age of 22. His distinctive photographs showed both chic insouciance and boundless vitality. Avedon’s women lept off curbs, roller-skated on the
Place de la Concorde, and were seen in nightclubs, enjoying the freedom and fashions of the postwar era.
He was immortalized in the 1957 film Funny Face by the character Dick Avery (played by Fred Astaire), who asked, “What’s wrong with bringing out a girl who has character, spirit, and intelligence?”
Nonnie Moore (1980-1984)
Nonnie Moore was hired as fashion editor in 1980, having served in the same post at
Mademoiselle The New York Times noticed the changes she made at
Harper’s Bazaar, highlighting how the magazine had been “looking a little dowdy,” but that Moore had “noticeably sharpened the magazine’s fashion point of view” by showing “brighter, younger and more stylish,” complimenting her use of “young and exciting fashion photographers,” such as
Oliviero Toscani.
Harper’s Bazaar worldwide
In addition to the
United States,
Bazaar is published in:
A Polish edition was expected to be introduced in 2009.
Harper’s Bazaar UK
In November 1970, the Hearst Corporation’s
Harper’s Bazaar UK (founded in 1929) and
Queen magazine (which dated from 1862) amalgamated to form
Harpers & Queen. The magazine focused on British “high society” and the lives of socialites and the British aristocracy. Over the last 5 years it has repositioned itself as
Harper’s Bazaar, bringing it in line with its international sister titles. The magazine no longer concerns itself with the narrow interests of the society world and is very meritocratic in terms of whom it will feature. Recent interviews have included subjects as diverse as the actor/director George Clooney, artist Richard Prince and British singer Leona Lewis.
The magazine has won several awards, including Consumer Magazine of the Year. The editor Lucy Yeomans won the BSME Editor’s Editor award in 2007. The Fashion Director of Harper’s Bazaar UK is Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou, founder of 10 and 10 Men magazines, who replaced Alison Edmond for the February 2010 issue.
Harper’s Bazaar Australia
In November 1970, the Hearst Corporation created
Harper’s Bazaar Au (founded in the early 1930s). The magazine focused on Australian “”high society” which mostly came from Britain during the time due to British expansion and Imperialism and the lives of socialites and the Aristocracy .
It has surmounted Vogue and Elle, in numbers in Australia, becoming ever more popular with the general population because Harper's Bazaar is considered the one and only Fashion Magazine (first started in 1867) .
Harper's Bazaar out sells Vogue in Australia. Recent Roy Morgan figures shows that the title is selling 55,891 copies (June 2008) reflecting it to be the number 1 prestige fashion title in Australia .
The magazine launched its website in 2007, and recently relaunched with a new look and feel in April, 2009.
Since 2009, the winner of Australia's Next Top Model features on the cover and an exclusive eight page editorial shoot, launching the careers of Tahnee Atkinson, Amanda Ware and Kelsey Martinovich.
Editors
Mary L. Booth (1867-1889)
Margaret Sangster (1889-1899)
Elizabeth Jordan (1900-1913)
William Martin Johnson (1913-1914)
Hartford Powell (1914-1916)
John Chapman Hilder (1916-1920)
Henry Blackman Sell (1920-1926)
Charles Hanson Towne (1926-1929)
Arthur H. Samuels (1929-1934)
Carmel Snow (1934-1957)
Nancy White (1957-1971)
James Brady (1971-1972)
Anthony Mazzola (1972-1992)
Liz Tilberis (1992-1999)
Katherine Betts (1999-2001)
Glenda Bailey (2001-present)
See also
List of women's magazines
Vogue Magazine
Lucy Yeomans
Alison Edmond
Margaret Elizabeth Sangster
Maria Podgorbunskaya
Nat Mags (UK publisher)
References
External links
Harper's Bazaar official website
Harper's Bazaar UK official website
Harper's Bazaar Australia official website
Harper's Bazaar Russia official website
Online archive of early covers
Category:Fashion magazines
Category:Hearst Corporation publications
Category:Monthly magazines
Category:Publications established in 1867
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