ThoughtGallery.org > 1950s in Vogue: The Jessica Daves Years, 1952 -1962 | Rebecca C. Tuite in Conversation with Laird Borrelli-Persson

1950s in Vogue: The Jessica Daves Years, 1952 -1962 | Rebecca C. Tuite in Conversation with Laird Borrelli-Persson

Please join 192 Books and Thames & Hudson for an evening with Rebecca C. Tuite, author of 1950s in Vogue: The Jessica Daves Years, 1952 -1962, in conversation with Laird Borrelli-Persson, Archive Editor for Vogue.com.

One of only seven editors-in-chief in American Vogue’s history, Jessica Daves has remained one of fashion’s most enigmatic figures. Diana Vreeland’s direct predecessor in the role, it is Daves who first catapulted the magazine into modernity.

A testament to a changing America on every level, Daves’s Vogue was the first to embrace a “high/low” blend of fashion in its pages and introduced world-renowned artists, literary greats, and cultural icons into every issue. Vogue of this era offered readers a complete vision of how design, interiors, architecture, entertaining, art, literature, and culture all connected and contributed to refining and defining taste and personal style. Daves profiled icons of American style, from John and Jackie Kennedy to Charles and Ray Eames, alongside Dior, Chanel, Givenchy, and Balenciaga creations.

Written by fashion historian Rebecca C. Tuite and organized in thematic chapters, 1950s in Vogue features photographs, illustrations, and spreads from the Vogue archives, as well as unpublished photographs and letters from Jessica Daves’s personal archives, revealing a fascinating and previously little-explored moment in the life of Vogue.

“The Daves years have been described as the magazine’s ‘powerful years,’ the era during which Vogue had extraordinary influence, all while navigating, and, more importantly, surviving, considerable corporate transition,” Tuite writes. “While [Daves] was editor, Condé Nast Publications changed ownership four times…However, she ran a profitable magazine, and the ideas she adopted simultaneously made Vogue more useful to readers, and made the fashion industry—and Vogue’s position within it—more financially favorable.”

Tuite also notes that “Daves’s own thirty-one years working across fashion advertising, marketing and journalism, including nineteen years working her way up at Vogue itself, afforded her a holistic view of the fashion industry and insights she was able to parlay into her business-oriented editorship of Vogue. ‘Sharpen your perception of what people need and want,’ Daves once stated. ‘This will give you ideas.’”

Rebecca C. Tuite is a fashion historian and writer, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Bard Graduate Center. She is the author of Seven Sisters Style: The All-American Preppy Look, which was featured in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Paris Vogue, and Vanity Fair.

Laird Borrelli-Persson, Vogue.com’s Archive Editor, penned a master’s thesis on fashion writing in Vogue and has shared office space with a portrait of the divine D.V. for over a decade.











When: Thu., Dec. 12, 2019 at 7:00 pm
Where: 192 Books
192 Tenth Ave.
212-255-4022
Price: Free
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Please join 192 Books and Thames & Hudson for an evening with Rebecca C. Tuite, author of 1950s in Vogue: The Jessica Daves Years, 1952 -1962, in conversation with Laird Borrelli-Persson, Archive Editor for Vogue.com.

One of only seven editors-in-chief in American Vogue’s history, Jessica Daves has remained one of fashion’s most enigmatic figures. Diana Vreeland’s direct predecessor in the role, it is Daves who first catapulted the magazine into modernity.

A testament to a changing America on every level, Daves’s Vogue was the first to embrace a “high/low” blend of fashion in its pages and introduced world-renowned artists, literary greats, and cultural icons into every issue. Vogue of this era offered readers a complete vision of how design, interiors, architecture, entertaining, art, literature, and culture all connected and contributed to refining and defining taste and personal style. Daves profiled icons of American style, from John and Jackie Kennedy to Charles and Ray Eames, alongside Dior, Chanel, Givenchy, and Balenciaga creations.

Written by fashion historian Rebecca C. Tuite and organized in thematic chapters, 1950s in Vogue features photographs, illustrations, and spreads from the Vogue archives, as well as unpublished photographs and letters from Jessica Daves’s personal archives, revealing a fascinating and previously little-explored moment in the life of Vogue.

“The Daves years have been described as the magazine’s ‘powerful years,’ the era during which Vogue had extraordinary influence, all while navigating, and, more importantly, surviving, considerable corporate transition,” Tuite writes. “While [Daves] was editor, Condé Nast Publications changed ownership four times…However, she ran a profitable magazine, and the ideas she adopted simultaneously made Vogue more useful to readers, and made the fashion industry—and Vogue’s position within it—more financially favorable.”

Tuite also notes that “Daves’s own thirty-one years working across fashion advertising, marketing and journalism, including nineteen years working her way up at Vogue itself, afforded her a holistic view of the fashion industry and insights she was able to parlay into her business-oriented editorship of Vogue. ‘Sharpen your perception of what people need and want,’ Daves once stated. ‘This will give you ideas.’”

Rebecca C. Tuite is a fashion historian and writer, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Bard Graduate Center. She is the author of Seven Sisters Style: The All-American Preppy Look, which was featured in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Paris Vogue, and Vanity Fair.

Laird Borrelli-Persson, Vogue.com’s Archive Editor, penned a master’s thesis on fashion writing in Vogue and has shared office space with a portrait of the divine D.V. for over a decade.

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