New Leaves: Fashionable Reading and Literary Celebrity in British Vogue (1918-1939)

Abstract

[eng] This thesis explores British Vogue’s self-appointed role as a guide to modern fashions and manners, that is, as a cultural intermediary, during the interwar period (1918-1939). Through a close reading of its essays, literary reviews, social chronicles and portraits of writers, and in the context of the Battle of the Brows, it argues that it always counted literary practices, such as reading, writing or displaying books, as expressions of taste. From the theoretical framework of Fashion and Gender Studies, and within the fields of Middlebrow and Modernist Periodical Studies, this thesis argues that, despite its changing priorities and its move near and then away from a highbrow position, Vogue continually valued sophistication and playfulness and can be approached as a middlebrow text. The first chapter introduces British Vogue, tracing its development as a society and fashion periodical across the Atlantic and its introduction to Great Britain during the First World War. It discusses its function as a guide to modern practices of consumption and taste and explores the interplay between those practices, individual identity and social affiliation. Vogue predicated that acquiring and displaying knowledge and cultural goods was a viable strategy for women to present themselves as modern subjects: those goods, of course, included books. Throughout the interwar period Vogue proposed “smartness” as the key to modernity, the approved expression of taste, and articulated it both on the page and behind the scenes. With Vogue as a seal of legitimacy, its editors and contributors could promote certain writers and approaches to literature as “fashionable”. Through practices that were both professional and personal, like hosting or introducing friends to dressmakers, they could build mutually beneficial relationships, but while they had a degree of freedom to choose which modes to support they were also expected to live according to the values of their managers. The second chapter explains how British Vogue became a modernist project during the editorship of Dorothy Todd (1923-1926), as well the transition periods that preceded and succeeded her. Todd developed a network of contributors that included the Bloomsbury group, the Sitwell siblings and other avant-garde artists, writers and critics. However, Vogue was above all a fashion magazine with an interest in society reports, which went against the modernist discursive ideals of art as free from commercial interest and the author as lone genius. Under Todd, literature took up more space than ever: reading and discussing books was a core aspect of that all-important quality, smartness. Vogue promoted literary figures as celebrities even beyond its extensive critical essays and reviews, supporting different visions of modern authorship by including portraits of writers or visiting their homes. Consequently, their bodies and sartorial tastes were interwoven with their artistic creation and reception. Finally, the third chapter locates the magazine in the “Battle of the Brows”, the debate over the value of different cultural practices that raged in the press during the less studied editorships of Alison Settle (1927-1936) and Elizabeth Penrose (1936-1939) and continued beyond the scope of this thesis, which ends with the start of the Second World War. The format of British Vogue changed, shaped by persistent tension with its management and widespread socioeconomic hardship, and its content shifted through its alliance with younger, glamourous writers, artists, and socialites, the Bright Young People. The space allotted to literature was reduced, and so was the attention granted to modernist texts and writers, though they did not completely disappear. Although there had always been a middlebrow aspect to its articulation of high culture for the uninitiated, Vogue’s editorial line now leant even more firmly towards middlebrow tastes, pushing a sensible sort of sophistication front and centre, making its tone even more arch, and enclosing sartorial eccentricity into the context of the costume party. Its vision of literary celebrity split into two models: middlebrow writers, chic and proper, and glamorous society figures that happened to be writers.

[cat] Aquesta tesi explora el rol de l’edició britànica de Vogue com a intermediari cultural durant l’època d'entreguerres (1918-1939). A través de la lectura en profunditat dels seus assajos, ressenyes literàries, cròniques socials i retrats d'escriptors, i en el context de l’anomenada “Battle of the Brows”, argumenta que la revista sempre va considerar les pràctiques literàries com a expressions de gust. A partir del marc teòric dels estudis de gènere i de la moda, i dins dels estudis de les revistes “middlebrow” i modernistes, aquesta tesi argumenta que, malgrat que canviessin les seves prioritats i que s’apropés i s’allunyés d’una posició “highbrow”, Vogue sempre va valorar la sofisticació i el joc i es considerar un text “middlebrow”. El primer capítol tracta sobre la funció de Vogue com a guia de les pràctiques modernes de consum i gust i explora la interacció entre aquestes pràctiques, la identitat i l’afiliació social. Vogue va articular “smartness” tant dins com fora de la pàgina. Les seves editores van promoure certs escriptors i enfocaments de la literatura com a “de moda”, però també s'esperava d’elles que visquessin d'acord amb els valors dels seus directius. El segon capítol explica com la Vogue britànica es va convertir en un projecte modernista durant la direcció de Dorothy Todd (1923-1926). Todd va desenvolupar una xarxa de col·laboradors d'avantguarda, però no obstant això, Vogue era sobretot una revista de moda, fet que anava en contra dels ideals modernistes de l'art lliure d'interès comercial i l'autor com a geni solitari. Vogue va promoure figures literàries com a celebritats i va proposar diferents visions de l’autoria moderna que teixien els seus cossos i gustos estilístics amb la seva creació artística i la seva recepció. El tercer capítol situa la revista en la "Battle of the Brows" durant l’època menys estudiada d'Alison Settle (1927-1936) i Elizabeth Penrose (1936-1939). El seu contingut va canviar per la seva aliança amb els Bright Young People, i l'espai assignat a la literatura es va reduir. La línia editorial de Vogue es va confirmar com a “middlebrow”, ja que defensava una espècie de sofisticació amb seny. La seva versió de la celebritat literària es va dividir en dos models: els escriptors “middlebrow” i les figures de l’alta societat que escrivien.