Mercure Galant, a french publication, in 1672 was the first one to give space to fashion between its pages. The magazine featured some fashion illustrations.

Paris was the center of fashion. Yet, the first magazine dedicated to fashion was born in the USA in 1867: Harper’s Bazar (that gained the second a in 1929) by Mary Louise Booth. Later, on December 17th, 1892 , came to life Vogue USA.

In the beginning both were published as weekly newspapers with details of the upper society’s life and featured fashion illustrations.

Things changed when Condé Montrose Nast bought Vogue in 1909, who, having worked in Sales, had a more commercial approach. Harper’s was bought in 1913 by Willian Randolph Hearst and the two magazines became strong competitors.

With time, fashion illustration gave place to photography and more creative space to editors, such as Carmel Snow and Diana Vreeland (whose image is crystallized in the movie Funny Face) and fashion magazines started to come close to what we see today.

Check out below the birth of other famous fashion magazines:

Vanity Fair – 1913

Esquire – 1931

Glamour – 1939

Elle – 1945

Cosmopolitan – 1963

i-D – 1980

Dazed and Confused – 1991