Breaking Perceptions: Fashion Around The World: Vogue

Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published by Condé Nast Publications and began in America. The first issue came out in 1892. Each month, Vogue publishes a magazine addressing topics of fashion, life and design. Vogue was described by book critic Caroline Weber in The New York Times in December 2006 as "the world's most influential fashion magazine". Vogue is most famous as a presenter of images of high fashion and high society, but it also publishes writings on art, culture, politics, and ideas. It has also helped to enshrine the fashion model as celebrity.The current editor-in-chief of American Vogue is Anna Wintour, noted for her trademark bob and her practice of wearing sunglasses indoors. Since taking over in 1988, Wintour has worked to protect the magazine's high status and reputation among fashion publications. In order to do so, she has made the magazine focus on new and more accessible ideas of "fashion" for a wider audience. This allowed Wintour to keep a high circulation while discovering new trends that a broader audience could conceivably afford.

Vogue is widely published outside of the USA. Today, it is published in 19 countries and one region:

Australia
Brazil
China
France
Germany
Greece
India
Italy
Japan
Korea
Latin America
Mexico
Portugal
Russia
Spain
Taiwan
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States

Below is some information about the other Vogue publications around the world so you can compare it with the Vogue in your own country!

British Vogue

The British edition of Vogue is a fashion magazine that has been published since 1916.Under the magazine's first editor, Elspeth Champcommunal, the magazine was essentially the same as the American edition, but for its anglicised spellings.Under its second editor, Dorothy Todd, the magazine shifted its focus from fashion to literature and lost much of its audience. It was under Alison Settle, the magazine's third editor, that the magazine took off. British Vogue's current editor-in-chief is Alexandra Shulman. British Vogue is more commercial in approach than other editions of Vogue. British Vogue is the most profitable British magazine as well as the most profitable Vogue besides the US edition.

Vogue China

Vogue China is the Chinese edition of Vogue magazine. The magazine carries a mixture of foreign and local content.Vogue China became the sixteenth edition of Vogue when its first issue was released for September 2005. The magazine's first cover featured Australian model Gemma Ward alongside Chinese models Du Juan, Wang Wenqin, Tong Chenjie, Liu Dan, and Ni Mingxi. The magazine's first printing of 300,000 copies sold out, requiring a second printing.Angelica Cheung is the magazine's editorial director.

Vogue Paris

The French edition of Vogue magazine, Vogue Paris, is a fashion magazine that has been published since 1920. In August 1956, the magazine issued a special ready-to-wear (prêt-à-porter) issue, signaling a shift in fashion's focus from couture production.Under Francine Crescent's leadership from 1968, the magazine became the global leader in fashion photography.By the late 1980s, however, the magazine was said to be "stuck in a rut". In 1987, even with a new editor, the magazine struggled, remaining dull and heavily reliant on foreign stories.Joan Juliet Buck, an American, was named the new editor on June 1, 1994. Her selection was described by The New York Times as an indication that Conde Nast intended to "modernize the magazine and expand its scope" from its circulation of 80,000. Though rumors circulated in 1996 that the magazine was on the verge of a shutdown, Buck persevered; during her editorship, the magazine’s circulation ultimately increased 40 percent. Buck resigned in 2001 and was replaced by Carine Roitfeld in 2001. Roitfeld aimed to restore the magazine's place as a leader in fashion journalism (the magazine "hadn't been so good" since the 1980s, she said) and to restore its French identity. Her appointment, which coincided with the ascendance of young designers at several of the most important Paris fashion houses, "brought a youthful energy" to the magazine. When she began, she rid the magazine of foreign staffers, making it "all French for the first time in many years". The magazine also underwent a redesign by the Paris-based design firm M/M. It aimed to make the title appear more hand-crafted and organic, particularly through the use of collage and hand-drawn fonts. Continuity was created through the use of loose theming for each issue, smooth pacing, and visual uniformity in the shopping pages. The magazine’s aesthetic evolved to resemble Roitfeld's (that is, "svelte, tough, luxurious, and wholeheartedly in love with dangling-cigarette, bare-chested fashion"). Roitfeld has periodically drawn criticism for the magazine's use of sexuality and humor, which she employs to disrupt fashion's conservatism and pretension. Roitfeld's Vogue is unabashedly elitist, "unconcerned with making fashion wearable or accessible to its readers". Models, not actresses promoting movies, appear on its cover. Its party pages focus on the magazine's own staff, particularly Roitfeld and her daughter Julia. Its regular guest-editorships are given to it-girls like Kate Moss, Sofia Coppola, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. According to The Guardian, "what distinguishes French Vogue is its natural assumption that the reader must have heard of these beautiful people already. And if we haven't? The implication is that that's our misfortune, and the editors aren't about to busy themselves helping us out."

Vogue Italia

Vogue Italia is the Italian edition of Vogue magazine. It is the least commercial of all editions of Vogue magazine and has been called the top fashion magazine in the world. Its imagery is frequently shocking and provocative; according to the art director of British Vogue, its photographs "go beyond straight fashion to be about art and ideas". Vogue Italia was established in 1964. Vogue Italia and the Italian fashion industry have historically had a symbiotic relationship, with Vogue Italia contributing to Milan's domination of the fashion world. The July 2008 issue was devoted to black models. The issue featured only black models, photographed by Steven Meisel, and the articles will all pertain to black women in the arts and entertainment. The magazine claimed to showcase black models in response to anger caused by the disinclination of fashion magazines to display black models on their covers. Fashion industry insiders claim black models are featured less often because they are unable to sell. This statement, along with the formation of a protest group in New York that challenges racism in the industry, convinced Italian Vogue's editor, Franca Sozzani to create this issue. The issue included established supermodels like Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell, as well as contemporary models, including Jourdan Dunn, Chanel Iman and Sessilee Lopez. This specific issue also brought in Toccara Jones, the first black plus-sized model to be in the pages of the high fashion magazine. Instead of the issue not selling, it became the highest selling issues of Italian Vogue ever, and had run out of print twice, which marked the first time in Condé Nast history that the magazine reprinted an issue to satisfy demand.

Unfortunately we couldn't find much more about the other issues of Vogue and their effect on fashion and so on because that sort of thing is found in fashion books that you have to buy BUT we have got images of all of the different issues and some differences can be seen by them alone; after all, a picture is worth a 1000 words!

Australian Vogue