From 2004 to 2011, Vogue magazine published an “age issue” that featured accomplished older women, from novelist Judith Krantz to designer Muccia Prada. The focus was on women with great style.
However, in what I am calling Vogue’s first “age issue” in 1948, the focus was different. In an editorial called “Vogue’s Eye View of the New Majority,” the magazine drew attention to the potential political and social power of women over 45. New census data had revealed that for the first time since record keeping began, women outnumbered men in the United States. Moreover, women over 45 outnumbered men of the same age group by a whopping 800,000. “The New Majority is a group of women with money, authority, and experience in living” (103). There follows a list of things these women should turn their attention to, including child poverty, teachers’ pay, and government priorities for health.
Throughout the magazine, influential women in philanthropy and the arts get small cameos. Although it is not explicitly mentioned, the cover model was famous hat designer Tatiana du Plessix, then aged 42.
Of course, fashion is not forgotten with nine pages focusing on “new fashions, adult and becoming.” The first example is a green evening dress worn by a gray-haired woman.
Doesn’t she look a lot like Vogue’s older icon, Mrs. Exeter, who will make her first appearance in the magazine just a few months later?
