Headquartered at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, Vogue began in 1892 as a weekly and has since transitioned into a monthly magazine. Since its founding, Vogue has featured numerous actors, musicians, models, athletes, and other prominent celebrities within its pages.
British Vogue, launched in 1916, as the first international edition, whilst the Italian version Vogue Italia has been called the top fashion magazine in the world. As of March 2025, there are 28 international editions. Eleven of these editions are published by Condé Nast (British Vogue, Vogue Arabia, Vogue Hong Kong, Vogue Deutsch, Vogue España, Vogue France, Vogue India, Vogue Italia, Vogue Japan, Vogue México y Latinoamérica, and Vogue Taiwan). The remaining 16 editions are published under licence.
Background
Vogue is an American fashion magazine. The magazine is published eight times per year for March (Spring), April, May, June/July/August (Summer), September, October, November, and December/January/February (Winter).
Originally Vogue was published weekly then bimonthly from 1910 (24 issues per year, 1910–1944; 22 issues per year, 1945; 23 issues per year, 1946–1947; 20 issues per year, 1948–1972). The magazine became a monthly in 1973 publishing 12 issues per year, in 2020 the June and July issues were merged and in 2023 and the January and February issues were merged. From 2026, Vogue publishes 8 issues per year.
Founded in 1892 by Arthur Baldwin Turnure. Turnure served as the publisher, Harry Whitney McVickar as art director, and Josephine Redding as the editor. Following Turnure's death on April 13, 1906, Marie Harrison became the majority shareholder of The Vogue Company and in 1909 The Vogue Company was acquired by Condé Nast.
Editors
Circulation
History
1892–1909: Early years
Arthur Baldwin Turnure (1856–1906), an American businessman, founded Vogue as a weekly newspaper based in New York City, sponsored by Kristoffer Wright, with its first issue on December 17, 1892. The first issue was published with a cover price of 10 cents (equivalent to $3.58 in 2025).
Turnure's intention was to create a publication that celebrated the "ceremonial side of life"; one that "attracts the sage as well as debutante, men of affairs, as well as the belle". From its inception the magazine intended to target the New York upper class by "recounting their habits, their leisure activities, their social gatherings, the places they frequented, and the clothing they wore ... and everyone who wanted to look like them and enter their exclusive circle".
The magazine at this time was primarily concerned with fashion, with coverage of sports and social affairs included for its male readership.
Turnure died of pneumonia in April 1906.
1909–1920: Condé Nast
Condé Montrose Nast purchased Vogue in 1909, three years after Turnure's death. He gradually developed the nature of the publication. Nast changed it to a women's magazine, and he started Vogue editions overseas in the 1910s. Its price was also raised. The magazine's number of publications and profit increased dramatically under Nast's management.
It continued to target an upscale audience and expanded into the coverage of weddings. When the First World War made deliveries in Europe impossible, printing for the European market began in England which then developed into separate national editions. The decision to print in England proved successful, causing Nast to release the first issue of French Vogue in 1920.
1920–1970: Expansion
The magazine's number of subscriptions surged during the Great Depression, and again during World War II. During this time, noted critic and former Vanity Fair editor Frank Crowninshield served as its editor, after moving from Vanity Fair by publisher Condé Nast.
In July 1932, American Vogue placed its first color photograph on the cover of the magazine. The photograph was taken by photographer Edward Jean Steichen and portrayed a woman swimmer holding a beach ball in the air. Laird Borrelli notes that Vogue led the decline of fashion illustration in the late 1930s, when it began to replace its illustrated covers, by artists such as Dagmar Freuchen, with photographic images.
Nast was responsible for introducing color printing and the "two-page spread". He has been credited with turning Vogue into a "successful business" and the "women's magazine we recognize today", having substantially increased sales volumes until his death in 1942.
In the 1950s, the decade known as the magazine's "powerful years", Jessica Daves became editor-in-chief. As Rebecca C. Tuite has noted, "Daves led a quiet charge for excellence during one of the most challenging, transformative, and rich decades in the magazine's history." Daves believed that "taste is something that can be taught and learned", and she edited Vogue as "a vehicle to educate public taste".
While fashion coverage remained a priority, Daves also elevated the written content of American Vogue, particularly championing more robust arts and literature features.
The Daves era of Vogue came to an end in 1962, when Diana Vreeland joined the magazine (first as associate editor, and then, following Daves's departure in December 1962, as editor-in-chief). The pair had opposed approaches to editing Vogue, and critics said that this led the magazine to a period of "extravagance, and luxury and excess".
Under Vreeland, the magazine began to appeal to the youth of the sexual revolution by focusing on contemporary fashion and editorial features that openly discussed sexuality. Vogue extended coverage to include East Village boutiques, such as Limbo on St. Mark's Place, and it included features of personalities like Andy Warhol's "Superstars". Vogue also continued making household names out of models, a practice that continued with Suzy Parker, Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton, Lauren Hutton, Veruschka, Marisa Berenson, Penelope Tree, and others.
In 1973, Vogue became a monthly publication. Under editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella, the magazine underwent extensive editorial and stylistic changes in response to changes of its target audience. Mirabella states that she was chosen to change Vogue, because "women weren't interested in reading about or buying clothes that served no purpose in their changing lives." She was selected to make the magazine appeal to "the free, working, "liberated" woman of the seventies.
The magazine changed in terms of interviews, arts coverage, and articles. When this stylistic change fell out of favor in the 1980s, Mirabella was fired.
Well-known fashion photographers for the magazine include:
- Erwin Blumenfeld (1897–1969)
- Cecil Beaton (1904–1980)
- Horst P. Horst (1906–1999)
- Regina Relang (1906–1989)
- Norman Parkinson (1913–1990)
- Irving Penn (1917–2009)
- Henry Clarke (1917–1996)
- Helmut Newton (1920–2004)
- Francesco Scavullo (1921–2004)
- Richard Avedon (1923–2004)
- Patrick Demarchelier (1943–2022)
- Peter Lindbergh (1944–2019)
- Stan Malinowski (1936–2024)
- Herb Ritts (1952–2002)
1988–2025: Anna Wintour leadership
In July 1988, with Vogue losing readership and advertising to its rival Elle, Anna Wintour was named editor-in-chief. Noted for her trademark bob cut and sunglasses, Wintour attempted to revitalize the brand by making it feel younger and more approachable; she directed the focus towards new and accessible concepts of "fashion" for a wider audience.
Wintour's influence allowed the magazine to maintain its high circulation, while staff discovered new trends that a broader audience could conceivably afford.
Throughout her reign at Vogue, Wintour accomplished her goals to revitalize the magazine and oversaw production of some of its largest editions. The September 2012 edition measured 916 pages, which was the highest ever for a monthly magazine.
The contrast of Wintour's vision with that of her predecessors was noted as striking by observers, both critics and defenders. Amanda Fortini, fashion and style contributor for Slate, argues that her policy has been beneficial for Vogue, delivering it from what some critics had termed its boring "beige years".
Among Condé Nast executives, there was worry that the grand dame of fashion publications was losing ground to Elle, which in just three years had reached a paid circulation of 851,000, compared to Vogue's 1.2 million. Thus, Condé Nast publisher Si Newhouse brought in the 38-year-old Wintour, who, through editor-in-chief positions at British Vogue and House & Garden, had become known not only for her cutting-edge visual sense, but also for her ability to radically revamp a magazine—to shake things up.
Although she has had a strong impact on the magazine, Wintour has been pinned as being cold and difficult to work with. In early 2024, Vogue magazine appointed Raul Martinez as global creative editor. The appointment marks Martinez's return to Vouge from Victoria's Secret where he had previously held the row the since 2021.
As the creative director, he reported to Wintour and oversees the direction for the magazine globally and its visual approach.
In June 2025 it was announced that Wintour would be stepping down from her position as editor-in-chief. She retained her roles as Chief Content Officer and Global Editorial Director at Condé Nast, while the editor-in-chief position at Vogue was replaced by the role of Head of Editorial Content. In September 2025, it was announced that Chloe Malle would succeed Wintour in this role.
Malle was first listed on the masthead of the October 2025 issue, featuring Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid on the cover. However, the last issue that Wintour oversaw was December 2025 (featuring Timothée Chalamet on the cover) and Malle's first issue 'Spring 2026' was released in February 2026.
2025–present: Chloe Malle
In September 2025 Chloe Malle was announced as Anna Wintour's successor. It was announced that Chloe Malle would take on the title of Head of Editorial Content and Anna Wintour would take on the title of Global Editorial Director as well as Global Chief content Officer and Artist Director at Condé Nast (Vogue's parent company).
Features
Noteworthy Vogue covers
- December 17, 1892: The magazine's first cover features a debutante at her début.
- May 13, 1893: The first cover with a photograph, Countess Divonne (née, Florence Audenried) by an unknown photographer
- July 1, 1932: The first cover with a color photograph, featuring Edward Steichen's image of a swimmer holding a beach ball.
- August 15, 1933: The cover features model Toto Koopman who is both bisexual and biracial. She portrays a woman whom readers during the Great Depression would dream of being like.
- November 15, 1943: 50th Anniversary cover featuring Marilyn Ambrose reading the first issue of Vogue, photo by John Rawlings
- September 15, 1944: Feature 'USA Tent Hospital in France', Lee Miller as a war correspondent for Vogue.
- May 1961: Sophia Loren covers the magazine and is one of the first entertainers to do so.
- August 1974: Beverly Johnson becomes the first black woman to cover American Vogue.
- November 1988: Anna Wintour's first cover features Israeli model Michaela Bercu.
- May 1989: Under Wintour's control, Madonna became the first singer to be featured on the cover of Vogue, something that was considered "controversial," after a long-standing focus on models on their covers.
- April 1992: Vogue's 100th anniversary cover featuring 10 supermodels namely Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, Karen Mulder, Yasmeen Ghauri, Niki Taylor, Elaine Irwin, & Claudia Schiffer, and is the highest-selling issue ever.
- November 1992: Richard Gere becomes the first male to appear on the cover, alongside his then-wife Cindy Crawford.
- December 1998: Hillary Clinton becomes the first American First Lady to cover the magazine.
- September 2012: Lady Gaga graced the cover of the largest edition of Vogue in history, weighing in at 4.5 pounds and 916 pages.
- April 2014: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West appeared on one of Vogue's most controversial cover shoots. Kardashian is the first reality television star on the cover, and West is the first rapper. They are also the first interracial couple to appear on the magazine cover.
- August 2017: Zayn Malik (alongside Gigi Hadid) appears on the cover, making him the first Muslim man to be featured on the magazine's cover
- September 2018: Beyoncé is given "unprecedented" total editorial control of the magazine's cover and feature. She hires 23-year-old black photographer Tyler Mitchell to shoot the cover, making him the first black photographer to shoot a cover for Vogue in its 126-year history.
- December 2020: Harry Styles becomes the first male to appear by himself on the cover of Vogue.
- February 2021: Kamala Harris becomes the first vice president to cover Vogue. She is the highest-ranking female elected official in U.S. history, and the first African American and first Asian-American vice president.
- November 2021: Adele becomes the first person to cover the American and British editions of Vogue simultaneously.
- February 2022: Hoyeon Jung becomes the first Asian to appear by herself on the cover of Vogue.
- August 2022: Emma Corrin becomes the first non-binary person to cover Vogue.
- January 2025: Angel Reese becomes the first basketball player to be on the cover of Vogue.
- May 2026: Anna Wintour (alongside Meryl Streep) becomes the first editor-in-chief to appear on the cover of Vogue.
In 2020, the hashtag #VogueChallenge became a popular social media meme in response to the perceived lack of diversity on Vogue's front covers. Users of various ages and ethnicities uploaded photos of re-creating famous Vogue covers as part of a campaign to promote variety in fashion.
Men on the covers
Seventeen male cover models have been featured on the American edition:
- Richard Gere, with Cindy Crawford in November 1992
- George Clooney, with Gisele Bündchen in June 2000
- Auden McCaw, with his mother Amber Valletta in July 2002
- LeBron James, with Gisele Bündchen in April 2008
- Ryan Lochte, with Hope Solo and Serena Williams in June 2012
- Kanye West, with Kim Kardashian in April 2014
- Ben Stiller, with Penélope Cruz in February 2016
- Ashton Eaton, with Gigi Hadid in August 2016
- Zayn Malik, with Gigi Hadid in August 2017
- Justin Bieber, with Hailey Baldwin in March 2019
- Harry Styles, in December 2020
- A$AP Rocky, Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, Pharrell Williams, in May 2025
- Timothée Chalamet, in December 2025
- Homer Gere, with Kaia Gerber in September 2026
Healthy body initiative
May 2013 marked the first anniversary of a healthy body initiative that was signed by the magazine's international editors—the initiative represents a commitment from the editors to promote positive body images within the content of Vogue's numerous editions. Vogue Australia editor Edwina McCann explained:
In the magazine we're moving away from those very young, very thin girls. A year down the track, we ask ourselves what can Vogue do about it? And an issue like this [June 2013 issue] is what we can do about it. If I was aware of a girl being ill on a photo shoot I wouldn't allow that shoot to go ahead, or if a girl had an eating disorder I would not shoot her.
Jonathan Newhouse, Condé Nast International chairman, states that "Vogue editors around the world want the magazines to reflect their commitment to the health of the models who appear on the pages and the wellbeing of their readers." Alexandra Shulman, one of the magazine's editor, comments on the initiative by stating "as one of the fashion industry's most powerful voices, Vogue has a unique opportunity to engage with relevant issues where we feel we can make a difference."
Style and influence
The word vogue means "fashion" in French. Vogue was described by book critic Caroline Weber in a December 2006 edition of The New York Times as "the world's most influential fashion magazine": The publication claims to reach 11 million readers in the US and 12.5 million internationally. Furthermore, Anna Wintour was described as one of the most powerful figures in fashion.
Technological
Google partnered with Vogue to feature Google Glass in the September 2013 issue, which featured a 12-page spread. Chris Dale, who manages communications for the Glass team at Google, stated:
The Vogue September issue has become a cultural touchstone ahead of New York's Fashion Week. Seeing Glass represented so beautifully in this issue is a huge thrill for the entire Glass team.
In the September 2015 issue, technology such as Apple Music, Apple Watch, and Amazon Fashion were all featured within the issue's 832 pages.
Economic
Wintour's "Fashion Night" initiative was launched in 2009 with the intention of kickstarting the economy following the 2008 financial crisis, by drawing people back into the retail environment and donating proceeds to various charitable causes. The event was co-hosted by Vogue in 27 cities around the US and 15 countries worldwide, and included online retailers at the beginning of 2011.
Debate occurred over the actual profitability of the event in the US, resulting in a potentially permanent hiatus in 2013; however, the event continues in 19 other locations internationally. Vogue also has the ability to lift the spirits of readers during tough times and revels that "even in bad times, someone is up for a good time." The article states that Vogue "make[s] money because they elevate the eye and sometimes the spirit, take the reader someplace special." These fantasy tomes feel a boost during economic distress—like liquor and ice cream and movie ticket sales."
Political
In 2006, Vogue acknowledged salient political and cultural issues by featuring the burqa, as well as articles on prominent Muslim women, their approach to fashion, and the effect of different cultures on fashion and women's lives. Vogue also sponsored the "Beauty Without Borders" initiative with a US$25,000 donation that was used to establish a cosmetology school for Afghan women. Wintour stated: "Through the school, we could not only help women in Afghanistan to look and feel better but also give them employment." A documentary by Liz Mermin, entitled The Beauty Academy of Kabul, which highlighted the proliferation of Western standards of beauty, criticized the school, suggesting that "the beauty school could not be judged a success if it did not create a demand for American cosmetics."
Leading up to the 2012 US presidential election, Wintour used her industry clout to host several significant fundraising events in support of the Obama campaign. The first, in 2010, was a dinner with an estimated US$30,000 entry fee. The "Runway To Win" initiative recruited prominent designers to create pieces to support the campaign.
In October 2016, the magazine stated that "Vogue endorses Hillary Clinton for president of the United States". This was the first time that the magazine supported as a single voice a presidential candidate in its 120 years of history.
Social
The Met Gala is an annual event that is hosted by Vogue to celebrate the opening of the Metropolitan Museum's fashion exhibit. The Met Gala is the most coveted event of the year in the field of fashion and is attended by A-list celebrities, politicians, designers and fashion editors. Vogue has hosted the themed event since 1971 under editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland.
Since 1995, Anna Wintour, who is Vogue's chief content officer and global editorial director, served as chairwoman of the Met Gala, and is the woman behind the coveted event's top-secret guest list. In 2013, Vogue released a special edition of Vogue entitled Vogue Special Edition: The Definitive Inside Look at the 2013 Met Gala.
Vogue has produced about 70 videos about this event for YouTube exclusively, that includes pre-coverage, live reporting and post-event analysis. Met-related video content generated 902 million views, a 110% increase from 2021.
Vogue and Wintour have long been criticized by animal rights organizations like PETA for promoting real animal fur and defending the fur industry. In October 2025, following a campaign by the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, Condé Nast announced that it would no longer feature new animal fur in its editorial content or advertising, including in Vogue, Vanity Fair, and GQ.