Book Review: 1950's in Vogue, The Jessica Daves Years
Rebecca C. Tuite, 1950’s in Vogue, The Jessica Daves Years, Thames and Hudson, $95.00, 256 pp, December 2019
The first thing one notices about Rebecca Tuite’s new book, 1950’s in Vogue, The Jessica Daves Years, is that it presents itself chicly in a vibrant slipcover worthy of an important art book or exhibition catalog. Next noted is the book’s size. Like Vogue, the world’s most famous fashion periodical, Ms. Tuite’s tome comes in an elegant and larger-than-life format, reminiscent of a 1950’s Vogue magazine, excitingly substantial and hefty in the hand; however, 1950’s in Vogue, The Jessica Daves Years is much more than a mere fashionista’s gorgeous coffee table book. In fact, its size provokes study of the subject matter not only because it has room enough to be fully-referenced, but because its illustrations and photos are surprisingly high-quality with a kinetic energy that one assumes was part-and-parcel of an original hot-off-the-press 1950’s issue of Vogue.
As with her 2014 book, Seven Sisters Style, Ms. Tuite’s 1950’s in Vogue is deeply researched and highly texted. The images of Vogue’s pages are accompanied by large swaths of insights that will prove fascinating to fashion history scholars, Vogue’s current readers, and those interested in mid-century America’s highly definable and nostalgic aesthetic. And then there is Jessica Daves, the very center of the book and the very epicenter of Vogue in the 50’s.
Just one of only seven famed editors-in-chief, Ms. Daves is certainly not as well-known as the flamboyant Diana Vreeland or today’s powerful titan, Anna Wintour. Often described as “mousy,” Daves was considered motherly-looking and yet, positioned Vogue to become an even more predominant and useful magazine to post-war American women than any decade before.
To that end, an important idea that made 1950’s Vogue so accessible and relevant to women of the era, was the belief that “taste is something that can be taught and learned,” per Ms. Daves. No longer was only luck-of-the-draw beauty the defining yardstick of fashionable women. In fact, Ms. Daves believed that with impeccable grooming and neatness (which Vogue would teach its readers in their special “Beauty Issues”) and the understanding of the symbiotic relationship between elegance, intelligence, beauty and balance, an average woman could be taught to be as fashionable and attractive as she dared to dream. And Vogue in the 50’s turned into not just a form of fantasy entertainment, but a real working tool for women who wanted to be well-dressed and on-trend.
Despite the 1950’s being the golden age of couture, Vogue frequently highlighted fashion selections based on criteria set out by Daves’ beliefs. These hallmarks included cross-sections of clothes from a large number of American manufacturers and designers in a varied range of price points which showed women that being well-dressed could go hand-in-hand with limited clothes budgets. Vogue’s pages also included ads and editorial copy on drugstore-brand lipsticks and makeup which proffered high-level glamour to American women en masse.
By continuing popular features such as Mrs. Exeter, the imaginary doyenne of the over-50 set, introducing art and architecture as note-worthy interests, fresh and new global resort looks, and the compelling alchemy of couture and cars, Ms. Tuite shows readers how Jessica Daves elevated the 1950’s women to new grades of allurement accompanied by a consciousness that had the potential to broaden readers’ worlds and enlighten women like never before.
“Often described as “mousy,” Daves was considered motherly-looking and yet, positioned Vogue to become an even more predominant and useful magazine to post-war American women than any decade before. ”
Very little has been written about Editor Jessica Daves and Ms. Tuite points out that as a fashion historian, it was quite intriguing to find a subject that, while overlooked, had made a significant and important contribution in a time that was ripe for change. Gone was the fashion austerity of the war years and with the voluminous designs by Christian Dior and Arnold Scaasi’s “extraordinary sense of fabric”, Jessica Daves came to her editorship during a time of increasing prosperity which colluded to help her create Vogue’s most powerful decade yet.
An important distinction to make about Jessica Daves was that even though she may have been considered a product of conservative 1950’s ideals and etiquette, she was by no means blind to the coming cultural shifts that would change the course of the 20th century. While an editor-in-chief certainly adds her own stamp to a magazine, for it to ultimately be profitable an editor must also be able to effectively reconcile the old and the new. And thus, her reign successfully dropped Vogue just inside the 1960’s turbulent threshold, ready for all the influences and changes that the new decade would bring to American life. Without Daves’ guidance, the magazine may not have been ready to take on its new setting without having grown under her ever-watchful eye.
It’s impossible to highlight every concept and canon regarding Vogue in the 50’s; however, 1950’s Vogue, The Jessica Daves Years covers it all in captivating detail along with compelling text. And this writer’s conclusion is that Ms. Jessica Daves certainly merits a book of her own.
