Vintage Vanity Fair: The Early Years, 1913-1936

In 1913, the dapper and visionary publisher Condé Nast, having already made a success of Vogue, bought the rights to the Vanity Fair name and introduced a new hybrid journal, Dress and Vanity Fair, which had an undistinguished four-issue run. Revamped in 1914, Vanity Fair was relaunched and in short order, under the stewardship of its irrepressible editor, Frank Crowninshield, became a cultural bellwether of the Jazz Age. To learn more, click here.

Celebrating The Avant-Garde

Long before any mainstream magazine dared, Vanity Fair promoted the works of modern, avant-garde artists and photographers (Picasso, Brancusi, Man Ray), and the visionary and confident Crowninshield often went over Nast’s heated objections in order to do so. V.F. also showcased new illustrators (Miguel Covarrubias, Paolo Garretto), published essays by new literary lights (from Dorothy Parker and Gertrude Stein to D.H. Lawrence and Aldous Huxley), and helped popularize and perfect the genre of celebrity portraiture through the pioneering work of photographers such as Edward Steichen, Man Ray, Cecil Beaton, and Baron de Meyer.

The Changing Times

“Vanity Fair,” wrote social historian Cleveland Amory, “was as accurate a barometer of its time as exists.” Then, alas, came the ravages of the Depression and the rise of Fascism. And in 1936, Vanity Fair suspended publication, considered a periodical too glib and urbane for the increasingly stormy times. But the magazine and its editor will always be seen as the true founders of café society. It is very much this composite, cosmopolitan, glittering universe that V.F. defined, tweaked, mirrored, and celebrated in its irreverent, sophisticated pages.

Modern Vanity Fair: 1980s–Present

Vanity Fair was resurrected a half-century later, in 1983, as a quirky cultural pastiche. Two editors, Richard Locke and Leo Lerman, tried their hands at the helm with only moderate success. Then, Tina Brown took over in 1984 and gave the magazine a Reagan-era flair, appealing to the free-spending tastes of readers in that indulgent decade.

Graydon Carter's Magic Touch

In 1992, Graydon Carter, a veteran of both Time and Life, co-founder of Spy, and editor of The New York Observer, stepped in and ramped up the magazine, bringing it to new levels of journalistic prowess. He enlisted a stable of A-list contributors from Christopher Hitchens to David Halberstam to Michael Wolff, expanded the magazine’s mandate to cover news and world affairs, commissioned stunning photographic portfolios and retrospective pieces, and inaugurated editorial franchises that have become V.F. cornerstones: the Hollywood Issue and Oscar Party, the New Establishment, and the International Best-Dressed List. Photographers like Annie Leibovitz, Mario Testino, and Patrick Demarchelier showcased the rich, famous, and beautiful like never before. The magazine has become a monthly must-read among tastemakers and trendsetters in the corridors of influence around the globe.

To learn more about the heritage and history of Vanity Fair, click here.