When Vogue launched in New York City at the close of the 19th century, it introduced itself to readers as “A Debutante”. Fronting the inaugural December 1892 issue? A staid monochrome sketch of an ingénue courtesy of A B Wenzel, best known for illustrating Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth. The magazine’s key focus at the time: the intersection of “the mode” and society, complete with a supplement on the 1892 season outlining the wedding breakfasts, Patriarch balls and cotillion dances happening in and around the Upper East Side that winter. “The fashionable season is well underway,” Vogue wrote delightedly, “supplying to the ‘buds’ the decisive change from the dancing class, where early hours and simple gowns had been the rule.”
In the 132 years and almost 3,000 issues since, the focus of Vogue’s pages has expanded beyond white-gloved debs and their marital prospects to encompass everyone from Hollywood stars to heads of state, while its early fashion sketches of gentlemen’s top coats and “the latest frocks out of Paris” have given way to photographs by titans ranging from Horst to Helmut. The latest step in its storied evolution: the launch of 15,000 newly digitised colour images from the archives on Google Arts & Culture, the culmination of a five-year collaboration spearheaded by Ivan Shaw, Condé Nast’s corporate photography director, and Amit Sood, the director of Google’s Cultural Institute. Said images can be browsed not just by year, colour and designer, but by subject, too, whether your interest is in Versailles or Veruschka.
Beyond functioning as a detailed reference encyclopaedia for photographers and designers – many of whom came out to celebrate The Vogue Archive launch at Google London this week – the project has brought frequently overlooked contributors and movements in Vogue’s history to the fore, with Shaw’s team curating 30 illuminating “stories”, or virtual exhibitions, incorporating images from more than 600 issues. “I always say the number-one priority at the archive is conservation,” Shaw told the crowd gathered in King’s Cross for a preview of The Vogue Archive on Tuesday 11 June, “but number two is sharing the images.” Seeing 15,000 of them available publicly for the first time? “It’s just an incredibly exhilarating experience.”
Browse some of the highlights from The Vogue Archive, below.
