Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s: Women Writers of the Runway 3030736237, 9783030736231

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Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s Women Writers of the Runway Kimberly Wilmot Voss

Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s

Kimberly Wilmot Voss

Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s Women Writers of the Runway

Kimberly Wilmot Voss Nicholson School of Communication and Media University of Central Florida Orlando, FL, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-73623-1    ISBN 978-3-030-73624-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73624-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: CSA-Printstock This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

This book is dedicated to all of the newspaper fashion editors who shaped the dress of their communities only to be forgotten by fashion and journalism historians when the women’s pages ended. It is also dedicated to journalism students who embrace soft news when hard news is often emphasized. As always, it is dedicated to my husband and editor Lance Speere, as well as our children, Curtis and Paul. It takes a family for a book to be completed—especially during a pandemic.

Preface

Long neglected by journalism scholarship, the content of the newspaper fashion sections and the women who oversaw the sections were significant to their readers and the booming fashion industry of the post–World War II era and should be worthy of historical study. This book will explore the complexity of the fashion sections and the important reporting the women did in their jobs. Fashion editors worked in the women’s pages of newspapers. Overall, it was the place where most women journalists worked for decades—from the 1880s through the early 1970s. When the women’s pages turned into lifestyle sections, many fashion editor positions were eliminated at metropolitan newspapers. But prior to the loss of the women’s pages, the post–World War II years through the early 1970s were considered the Golden Era. These sections spoke to local women in a way that other media did not. This examination of fashion journalism focuses on mainstream newspapers. Women’s Wear Daily (sometimes known as the WWD) is a fashion-­ industry trade publication sometimes called “the bible of fashion.” It provides news about trends in men’s and women’s fashions, beauty columns and retail information. Its readership is made up largely of retailers, designers, manufacturers, marketers, media executives, and advertising agencies. Because the audience is different, WWD is not included. (It is worth mentioning that several newspaper fashion editors did work at WWD early in their careers, such as Marian Christy, Nina Hyde, and Eugenia Sheppard.) Newspaper fashion editors had many duties. They pulled wire copy, interviewed local women about their fashion choices and visited local vii

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stores to see what was available. They also traveled to national and international fashion shows, interviewed designers, and offered their opinions on trends. Many of them also served as beauty editors—writing about new products, weight loss options, and the popular hairstyles. The editors interacted with each other and were able to network at a time when they were usually excluded from journalism organizations. Most fashion editors stayed in their position at their newspapers for many years and became experts on what their readers were interested in. It was what would be described today as “hyper-local” reporting. In their communities, they addressed everything from dress codes to gender-based concerns over wearing pants. They covered the debate over skirt length and the wearing (or not wearing) of bras. These topics were social, political, and commercial. They defined time periods, gender roles, and regions of the country. They did all of this while applying the ethical guidelines of their field and working to keep advertisers at arm’s length. As journalists, all of this work was done while on deadline. It is worth mentioning that these editors were almost all women—the only exception found was Richard Cobb, whose name was mentioned covering fashion in 1958 and 1959.1 These women were typically not allowed in the newsroom. “We were in some dark little corner of the Times,” according to New York Times fashion editor Phyllis Levin. The male journalists from downstairs rarely visited. “It was as if we kept the measles up on the ninth floor,” she said.2 This was true at newspapers across the country where the women’s section was considered different than the traditional news departments. Part of this was considered a way of “protecting” women who could not handle the swearing and rough language of the newsroom. The time period for this book begins during World War II, as American fashion was developing. Newspaper fashion editors had new topics to cover from rations to new non-European designers. In the postwar consumer age, the increase in advertising caused the sections to be thicker. These large sections meant more fashion coverage. The sections included changes in styles, fabrics, and fewer hats as the years went by. The 1960s, of course, led to increasing fashion changes based on the growing youth generation. During this period, several significant American fashion shows were held, including one in Moscow and one at the White House. The third significant show was known as the Battle of Versailles. Held in 1973, it pitted French designers against American designers in front of an impressive audience. It was clear that the Americans had won.

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Here is where the book ends—as American fashion had achieved dominance and the women’s pages had ended. This book writes the fashion editors and their work into history.

Fashion Editors Studied The goal of this book was to include as many fashion editors who would represent American newspapers. Well-known New  York fashion editors were the first to be included—such as Eugenia Sheppard and Virginia Pope. Next were the significant Washington, D.C., fashion editors—such as Eleni Epstein, Nina Hyde of the Washington Post, and Dorothy LeSueur of the Washington Post. (The significance of these women was reinforced by their roles in the 1968 White House Fashion Show.) In terms of finding and recognizing fashion editors across the country, the files of the fashion winners of the Penney-Missouri Awards were examined. These awards were the top prizes for women journalists in the 1960s. More names were culled from stories written by fashion editors, who often would mention their fellow editors from other newspapers in stories about fashion show coverage. Another resource was Annie Lee Singletary’s book about covering fashion, which included the names of numerous fashion editors. Finally, Boston fashion editor Marian Christy wrote a book about her years as a fashion reporter that was invaluable. (She went on to be known for her celebrity interviews.) The goal was to provide as much information about these women as possible but it was not always easy. Some seemingly significant fashion editors did not leave much of a trail. For example, fashion editor Madeleine Corey, of the Providence Journal-Bulletin, regularly covered fashion shows and wrote fashion columns. Yet, it was difficult to find much material about the Rhode Island fashion editor. Corey’s name was mentioned often in news stories about covering fashion shows but there was not much more in the historical record. There are few clips available, for example. Luckily, her state’s journalism hall of fame provided details about her career. She was described as famous for her fancy hats and fur coats as for her ability to skewer poor clothing trends. Corey’s former editor, Ted Holmberg, who worked with her for 20 years said: “She always wore hats. I don’t remember ever seeing her without one. She had a great sense of humor about herself. She took the proper things seriously, and didn’t let the rest of it bother her.”3

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In addition, there is little available about Penney-Missouri Award-­ winner Vivian Kawatzy of the Milwaukee Sentinel who covered important fashion news. Only a few articles were available—but no obituary that would list important details about her life. There were a few letters that she wrote in the Penney-Missouri Award papers that provided some understanding of her career. In many ways she represents the important women in journalism fashion who have not become part of the historical record.

Materials Most helpful in discovering the work of newspaper fashion editors were the Penney-Missouri Award papers available at the National Women and Media Collection (NWMC) in Missouri. There was one award granted annually. The editors who won the annual fashion award wrote letters back and forth to the director of the awards, Paul Myhre. These letters revealed how the women covered fashion in their communities and at their newspapers. They also included clips that could not be found elsewhere. These papers also included speeches given by several of the fashion editors, which revealed their views on fashion and journalism. It gave a first-person view of the labor that the beat required. Marjorie Paxson, who helped establish the NWMC archive, also donated papers that led to many fashion clips from the Houston Chronicle in the 1950s. It also included in-house newspaper ads that revealed the value that fashion gave to the newspaper. Washington Star fashion editor Eleni Epstein also gave her papers to the NWMC. They revealed not only her fashion reporting but correspondence with her editors and her readers. This material was important in establishing Epstein’s significance in the Washington, D.C., community. Further documents about Epstein were found in the Fashion Group International files. Several other archives provided additional information. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had information about fashion editor Aileen Ryan, which was helpful in understanding the role of gender in the field. The University of California Los Angeles had a letter written by fashion designer Bonnie Cashin to Chicago fashion editor Peg Zwecker that revealed important information about their relationship. It showed the conversational relationship between the two women. These kinds of correspondence are often difficult to find for newspaper fashion editors.

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The clip scrapbooks of Miami Herald beauty editor Eleanor Hart (pen name of Eleanor Ratelle) at the Miami History Museum were very helpful. These books included both her stories and letters from readers. It showed what Miami residents were interested in and how a beauty editor (often part of the responsibility of a fashion editor) responded. This examination was in the days before the pandemic closed much of Florida and the rest of the country. Several oral histories of fashion editors were discovered. These histories included Nina Hyde, located at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Marylin Bender, located at the Columbia University. Both histories also focused on their law degrees—although neither women practiced law. Two other oral histories examined were of Nadeane Walker Anderson, at the Associated Press archive, and Virginia Pope, at the New York Public Library. Both were helpful in understanding the role of newspaper fashion editor, at home and abroad. One especially helpful resource was the book written by longtime North Carolina fashion editor Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress and Press. The hard-to-find publication was tracked down at an archive. The book documented Singletary’s coverage of the New  York City fashion shows and her friendship with numerous other fashion editors. Her book provided insight into how the fashion editors worked and the challenges they faced as reporters. Further material about Singletary was found in the North Carolina Collection of the Forsyth County Public Library. The only fashion editor directly interviewed for this research was Pittsburgh fashion editor Barbara Cloud. She answered numerous questions by email that fleshed out her career. She had great recall of her career and explanations about fashion journalism in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, many of her fashion articles are available online. A book that reprinted her columns, including her fashion articles, was also helpful. Brief email interviews were held with family members of fashion editors Drue Lytle and Judy Lunn. This help is appreciated and allowed for a better understanding of journalism history. Lastly, two presidential libraries provided fashion journalism information. Extensive information about the 1968 White House Fashion Show were found in papers at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum. These papers included newspaper fashion clips, letters, and memos in relation to newspaper fashion editors Epstein and Hyde. The

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Gerald R.  Ford Presidential Library contained information about First Lady Betty Ford and furs—an important industry at the time.

Chapter Organization Each chapter other than the first concludes with media coverage of a fashion show. This is because reporting on these shows were central to the work of newspaper fashion editors. As one scholar noted, “The fashion show has played a key role in the development of the modern fashion industry.”4 Beginning from about 1900, fashion shows were staged in couture houses and department stores in Britain, France, and the United States. Often, they were charity fundraising events.5 After World War II, when Christian Dior opened in Paris with his “New Look,” the modeling style was described as “extravagant and theatrical” as a contrast to the rationed wartime clothing.6 (At the time, the term mannequin was often used rather than model.) By the mid-1950s, the kind of fashion show known today was established: “The crammed audience and the seating plan, with influential journalists in the front row, was by now an established protocol.”7 The book concludes with a list of American fashion editors and brief biographies in an effort to create a historical record for these forgotten women. It is hoped this information provides a foundation for further scholars to build on.8 Orlando, FL

Kimberly Wilmot Voss

Notes 1. “Cobb’s Job Stumps Panel,” Virginian-Pilot, August 4, 1958. 2. Amanda Svachula, “When the Times Kept Female Reporters Upstairs,” New York Times, September 20, 2018. 3. “Madeliene Corey Lennon Dies; Former Fashion Writer for J-B,” Providence Journal-Bulletin, January 29, 1983. 4. Caroline Evans, “The Enchanted Spectacle, Fashion Theory, April 2015, 271. 5. Caroline Evans, “The Enchanted Spectacle, Fashion Theory, April 2015, 271. 6. Caroline Evans, “The Enchanted Spectacle, Fashion Theory, April 2015, 291. 7. Caroline Evans, “The Enchanted Spectacle, Fashion Theory, April 2015, 291. 8. Llyod E. Ambrosius, Writing Biography: Historians & Their Craft (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press: 2004).

Acknowledgments

Writing a book on the history of fashion journalists requires hours upon hours, which turn into days upon days, of searching for newspaper stories, obituaries, speeches, oral histories, and other source material from archives scattered across the country. Accessing and retrieving the material cannot be completed without the knowledge and help of the hardworking women and men dedicated to preserving these invaluable resources. They were always quick to respond and eager to assist. When in-person visits were not possible, their willingness to copy and send digital copies proved to be most helpful. I also want to acknowledge Francesca Granata, associate professor at the Parsons School of Design, the New School. My talk to her class in 2019 about fashion in the women’s pages led to the proposal for this book. I want to thank the Interlibrary Loan Librarians at the University of Central Florida who tracked down fashion newspaper articles. They found sometimes obscure articles and books. These materials helped to better understand the fashion journalism field. The National Women and Media Collection had numerous helpful files, and many visits beginning in 2000 helped to explain the true content of the women’s pages. I appreciate all of the Missouri archivists who helped me during my visits. In more recent years, I am very thankful for the help of Elizabeth Engel—who responded to my many copy requests. I appreciate the help from the Forsyth County Library in North Carolina who provided information about fashion editor Annie Lee Singletary. The HistoryMiami Museum allowed me to go through the xiii

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scrapbooks of Miami Herald beauty editor Eleanor Hart. Her clips (and accompanying notes) demonstrated the beauty and diet news of the 1960s. Several oral histories of fashion editors were discovered at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Associated Press, and the New York Public Library. I appreciate the assistance of the librarians and archivists who helped locate the transcripts. These online resources were especially appreciated when most archives and libraries were closed. Two presidential libraries provided fashion journalism information: the Lyndon B.  Johnson Presidential Library and Museum and the Gerald R.  Ford Presidential Library. I appreciate the help retrieving letters, memos, and press clips from the libraries. Many of these documents were scanned and emailed during the research for this book. The assistance was especially helpful during the pandemic. And finally, thank you to the peer reviewers who provided valuable suggestions and to the editors at Palgrave Macmillan for making this book possible.

Contents

1 Who’s Wearing the Pants? How the New York Times Reported the Changing Dress of Women  1 2 Fashion Journalism in Newspapers during World War II, and Beyond 15 3 Post-World War II, Changing Dress in America, and Moscow Fashion Show 41 4 National Fashion Editors, Public Relations Pioneers, and Fashion Designers 61 5 Local Fashion Editors, Business Impact, and Regional Fashion Shows 85 6 Ethics, Advertising, and the White House Fashion Show105 7 Fashion Journalism in the 1960s and 1970s, and the End of the Women’s Pages119

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Appendix: Brief Biographies of Newspaper Fashion Editors143 Selected References161 Index167

CHAPTER 1

Who’s Wearing the Pants? How the New York Times Reported the Changing Dress of Women When women’s clothing veers near men’s fashion, it has often been controversial. Conversationally, “who wears the pants” translates into “who has the power.” Pants symbolize more than a fashion choice. Instead, the clothing option has become part of a symbolic message about women’s roles in public. Over time, it has been an example of male authority or a patriarchal culture exerting control—clothing as oppression. The role of fashion journalists was one that guided the conversation. For decades, most newspapers had a women’s section that included fashion journalism. These women had a significant voice in a significant industry. One way of looking at both fashion and fashion journalism is to look at how one item of clothing—like pants—was covered. There is growing scholarship devoted to the history of dress and the role of clothing in defining social, cultural, and gender identities.1 As has been noted, “That most men and women dress differently automatically makes the statement that they are fundamentally different, not just biologically but culturally. Gender is the single most important cultural category communicated by dress and appearance—even in unisex dress.”2 Today, in a time of increasingly casual clothing, it might be surprising to some how recent it was that a woman wearing pants was an issue. Yet, women’s changing roles continued to evolve and it has been reflected in clothing choices and how the fashion media covers the topic. Questions of dress reform were often asked during the battle for suffrage and later during the women’s liberation movement. As women © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. W. Voss, Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73624-8_1

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began to question their roles in society, they also began to question their clothes—especially long, full skirts and heavy crinolines. At the 1848 Seneca Falls, New  York, meeting for women, feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Amelia Bloomer launched a crusade against traditional clothing by wearing a new outfit that consisted of dresses shortened to mid-calf and worn over a baggy trouser.3 A similar style had been worn by Turkish and Syrian women known as “pantalets.” The initial reaction was positive, and several women’s rights activists adopted the style. Before too long, the tide turned against the women. It was noted in a history of fashion, “The critics of the bloomer costume were especially outraged by the trousers that were part of it.”4 The backlash was so bad that some women wearing the style were stoned. The change in clothing was that threatening to the status quo. Decades later, during the World War II years, British rationing led to a restriction on materials. Before long, in the United States, the L85 laws imposed limits on the use of silk and wool. Instead of fashionable looks, clothing began to reflect the need for utilitarian clothing that the many new working women needed. It included pants-like designs. The cover of a 1941 American Vogue magazine featured a woman in a pantsuit—a style unheard of before that time and a style that would not reappear regularly until the 1970s. For the first time, newspapers and magazines presented images of factory-made, ready-to-wear clothing along with couture in fashion layouts. It was a significant change for fashion journalism.5 These political changes led to a new role for U.S. designers and store owners. The destruction and rationing in Europe following the war allowed American fashion to develop. In addition, the American postwar consumer culture grew and that included an emphasis on fashion. According to the Fashion Institute of Technology, “when World War II stemmed the flow of imported fashion news and imported originals, American fashion creativity, from sportswear to grand couture, came into full flower and recognition. American designers championed as their own American girls and the contemporary woman.”6 While eventually Dior’s “New Look” would attract international attention in 1947, the door had opened for American influence. A new, progressive yet still feminine style was in fashion that allowed for change without threatening gender-based fashion traditions. It was the introduction of pants as a fashionable alternative. For example, the initial pantsuits for women as portrayed in magazine advertisements were described as “softly constructed and designed with silhouettes that were decidedly feminine.”7

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Pants as Practical Questions of fashion aside, there were some practical activities for which women did regularly wear pants, such as equestrian events or bicycling activities. Female factory workers had also worn pants since World War I.  These were acceptable, practical applications. Policies against women wearing pants, outside of factories, remained in place for most offices and public social occasions until about 1970.8 Another history of fashion noted that until the 1970s, pants were still widely regarded as informal and inappropriate for any sort of work other than manual labor.9 Yet, as women took on new roles outside the home, their clothes changed, too. Women wearing pantsuits was a small but visual change across the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s. To many, it was a symbol of liberation that was covered not only in the fashion pages but the news pages, too.10 For example, in November 1973, the issue made it to the Arizona Supreme Court as women challenged rules that kept them in skirts and dresses. The court ruled that women be allowed to wear pants as a right under equal opportunity employment legislation. The women plaintiffs used a political issue in their fight—citing the colder office temperatures resulting from energy conservation programs.11 This case was treated as a national news story and added to the discourse about gender in the workplace. Popular culture also added to the conversation. Katherine Hepburn wore pants in the movies and later Mary Tyler Moore wore Capri slacks on television. Actress Marlene Dietrich wore pants in her personal life and on the big screen, leading the style to be “all the rage for women.”12 Pilot Amelia Earhart—as much a historical figure as an iconic one—was also often photographed wearing pants. Her influence on women was significant, making her a role model in numerous ways, including fashion. The wearing of pants was a controversial topic—especially for middle-­ class women, symbolizing the concern over the changing nature of gender roles in society. For some people, pants were another step toward equality for women. For other people, pants meant losing femininity—almost to the point of androgyny. After all, “the meaning of clothing is culturally defined.”13 To learn more about the national conversation regarding pants, look at coverage in the New York Times during a 25-year period, from 1950 to 1975. Various concepts emerged in the coverage of women wearing pants—religious, political, and social themes. One also sees a story about

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fashion and the power of designers and consumers. Women may have been told that pants were unacceptable, but they bought them anyway. The initial message about pants was that it belonged in the private sphere. A 1951 article noted that “trousers” were fashionable but it was a style to be worn only at home.14 Three years later, religion had entered the debate about women’s pants. The Vatican took the position that wearing pants was problematic; although, it did not “necessarily introduce the devil into the body of the women who wears them.”15 It was, however, emphasized that the style should only be worn for a specific purpose, such as participating in sports. The theologians noted, “It is a very different thing for women to wear trousers for other reasons—dishonest ones or even only for coquetry, for love of novelty or strangeness and so on. One has to pity certain women—far apart from the moral aspect—for how ridiculous they make themselves.”16 Wearing pants had spiritual consequences for women. In 1957, the newspaper noted groundbreaking physician Mary Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor for being one of the first women to wear pants and “other masculine clothing in public.”17 A year later, it was reported that corduroy pants were acceptable clothing when women were vacationing in the country.18 Also that year, it was noted that in some situations, such as during the Depression and war years, denim was acceptable for women to wear. Levis had introduced a version of jeans specifically for women in the 1930s and had become an unofficial uniform in rural communities.19 This clothing appeared acceptable when connected to manual labor. By 1959, the newspaper featured a layout that seemed to be transitioning into an acceptance of pants. Under the headline, “Culottes: Pants Plus,” the writer noted that the style featured “wide, wide pants that look like swirling skirts.”20 The language indicated an attempt to bridge the acceptableness of skirts with the threatening concept of pants.

Debating Pants Beginning in 1960s, pants were becoming a more acceptable fashion— although initially it was a style that was still to be worn in private. That spring, the influential House of Dior collection featured what was described as “at-home” pants.21 The fashion spread included glamorous photos. That summer, American designers also included pants. The writer noted, “ When Mr. Norell shows pants as a fashion for the city’s streets, it had meant we better get used to them.”22 A story a few days later described different kinds of pants from the previously mentioned culottes to

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ankle-length pants. The writer noted, “Now that trousers have become a major part of many women’s wardrobes, place and personal dimensions govern the wearing of this easy-going fashion.”23 While some media coverage was becoming more accepting of the style, at least when at home, several religious figures continued to be concerned about pants. According to a 1960 wire story, a cardinal noted that if a woman wore pants it “easily damages maternal dignity in front of children.”24 (Some critics cited the following Biblical passage to justify women remaining in skirts: “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.”25) By the end of the year, the newspaper featured an article about fancy pants that could be worn to holiday parties in homes. The writer noted that change was on the horizon: “The day may come when trousers will be worn to a smart restaurant without causing a wrinkle.”26 The courthouse was another place that pants were considered inappropriate. One young woman was chastised by a New York judge when she appeared in court to pay her boss’s traffic fine. According to the newspaper article, the male judge said, “You’re an attractive woman. You’d be prettier in a dress; yet, you come here looking like a man.”27 He further explained that his reaction was because he held women in such high regard that he would like them to remain on pedestals. She was ordered to return the following day to pay the fine while wearing a dress. Years later, New York Times columnist Gail Collins wrote of the incident, “the showdown was really about women’s place in the world, not the dignity of traffic court.”28 In 1961, the New York Times noted that pants were becoming popular in the growing suburban communities.29 It seemed to be acceptable as long as the pants were not worn to work nor to a restaurant in the city. Pants should remain in the private sphere. The following year, a reporter wrote that pants were acceptable—as long as it was for leisure. The journalist wrote, “What designers think women should wear at home for relaxing or entertaining is easy to determine. Pants, pants and more pants.”30 By 1964, an article took the opposite approach—the issue had still not been decided. The lead was, “Periodic attempts to put pants on women have usually failed.”31 Some designers used unique terms as a way of negotiating acceptance of the style. The discourse was about negotiating change. In another 1964 article, influential designer Pauline Trigere noted her “divided skirts” are

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still meant to be worn at home or to the “country club.”32 By summer of that year, there was a growing acceptance of pants in the city. The New York Times featured a photo of a woman wearing pants as she walked her dogs in the park. The writer noted, “The pantsuits are striding through many fashion collections—onto planes and onto cars, down suburban streets any day in the week across Central Park on Saturday.33 But the issue still was not settled. Another article featured a warning for those women who might wear pants in the workplace or other professional settings—the public sphere. It was fashion with a disclaimer. The lead to the story was, “Coco Chanel’s wide-legged, ankle-length pants sauntered into history today with her warning that they are strictly for at-home or after skiing.”34 By August of 1964, the pants question was described as a workplace “debate.” A New York Times story began, “Will women give up skirts for pants in town, as Andre Courreges, the Paris couturier, has been asking for over a year? Answers from New York women run from an enthusiastic ‘yes’ to a resounding ‘no.’”35 The reporter had asked working women and their male bosses about wearing pants in the workplace. The interviews revealed the gender divide. There were two main reasons against wearing pants, according to the men in management. The first was a feeling that rejecting skirts would lead to an “asexual movement.” Put more simply, pants were an assault on traditional roles in the workplace. The second was described by a male boss: “I find the looks of a neatly crossed leg in stockings more attractive.” Pants were an assault on femininity and a rejection of the emphasis on a woman’s appearance.

Beginning to Find Pants Acceptable In an apparent attempt to find a middle ground in the debate, some stores called the apparel “a divided skirt,” just as Trigere had described earlier. One 1965 New York Times reporter noted the trend: “Women ought to wear pants every hour that they are awake, Bergdorf Goodman has decided. But the Fifth Avenue store doesn’t call them pants.”36 Also in 1965, the tone seemed to tip toward an acceptance of wearing trousers. Another story began, “Pants, pants, pants. After all those jokes about who wears the pants in the family, there’s suddenly nothing to laugh at.”37 Yet another story that year addressed the pants issue making the leap from suburbs to the city. The reporter did note that this practice was not necessarily universally accepted. Those who wore pants would need to “turn a deaf ear to the disapproving cries that have arisen in the past.”38 By

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mid-1965, it appeared that fashion was the bigger issue. Many designers featured pants in their collections. It is interesting to note that politics continued to be part of the discussion. A 1966 New York Times story about pants concluded with a quote from a woman who had attended one of the fashion shows featuring pants. She included a reference to a feminist from decades ago: “Amelia Bloomer wouldn’t mind, why should I?”39 While fashion designers were embracing pants for women, those who oversaw decisions in the workplace and restaurants were yet to be convinced. An August 1966 story began: “Pants, tailored or formal, and the women in them, are being greeted with less than enthusiasm by the men who run many of the city’s leading hotels and restaurants.” For example, the manager of La Cote Basque declared that pants were no more appropriate than swimsuits for women in the restaurant. One woman noted that it was easier to get into a restaurant wearing lingerie than pants. She said that she was turned away wearing a pin-striped pantsuit, but allowed in when she wore a black lacy slip. A manager of the Plaza Hotel was quoted saying, “Pants are pants, and if women wear them, they’ll be asked to leave.”40 In the story, other restaurant owners agreed that they would deny a woman access to their establishments if wearing pants.41 Despite the apparent limitations at work and dinner, pants continued to dominate the fashion shows that fall. A September 1966 story was accompanied by photos of women in pants. The reporter concluded of the style, “It will leave its mark on the fashion world for seasons to come. For any place a woman can go in a dress, designers have developed an appropriate pair of pants.”42 The following month featured another “pro-pants” article. The author noted, “Pantsuits may be today’s fashion fad, but tomorrow they will be a permanent part of a women’s wardrobe.”43 In November, an article addressed the idea that pants could be a solution to the growing miniskirt controversy. To some, as the length of skirts shrank, pants did not seem as terrible as previously thought. The reporter wrote that the pants currently featured in the stores were becoming more acceptable. “They’re making them so attractive that women who have kept pants for their private lives are going to want to step out in them,” she wrote of the designers.44 By 1967, the popularity of pants led one reporter to ask if success would “kill the pants suit?” She concluded, “In sum, the pants suit looks either superb or dreadful. There seems to be no middle ground. Will the pants suit survive into fall? Designers and merchants are divided in their opinions.”45

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By fall of 1970, women wearing pants in the workplace were becoming more commonplace, according to New York Times coverage. The rhetoric had gone from a question of fashion to one of equality. One story began, “Without any confrontation, demonstration or even artful campaigning, women are securing for themselves another human right: the right to wear pants to work. The privilege is being granted by men in industry, government, and financial institutions who have long since given up the struggle to keep women from wearing pants at home.” Restaurants, too, after much resistance, were beginning to realize that it was bad for business to forbid pants. One restaurant manager described his decision in a 1970 story: “One night I turned away eight parties, some of my best customers, and some of these women in pants looked beautiful. I went home that night and I said, ‘what am I doing?’ and the next day I changed the policy.”46 That approach spread across the city’s restaurants.

Pants and the Workplace A 1970 business story noted that pants had indeed made a difference in the fashion world from a financial perspective. The author noted that women were now purchasing one pair of pants for every two pairs that men bought. Figures showed that production of women’s pants totaled 85.6 million pairs. This was an increase of 8.7 percent over the previous year.47 In spring of 1971, retailers predicted that pants were more than a trend. They were now a permanent part of women’s wardrobes.48 News coverage and expert voices were not stopping women from buying and wearing pants. The controversy over pants, though, would not go away, resurfacing in the summer of 1972. At the time, the cosmetics company Revlon featured an advertising campaign with a woman wearing pants. The problem was that the female employees who worked for Revlon could not wear pants to work. These women described the policy as “awful, dumb, ridiculous and archaic.” An executive responded, “Questions began to arise when pantsuits became fashionable so I held a meeting in 1970 with the personnel staff, and while there was some opposition, we felt pants are just simply not good business attire.” The reporter noted that other cosmetics companies—Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, and Avon—did allow their female employees to wear pants.49 Also in 1972, the military announced that it was considering pants as part of a woman’s uniform. This policy was considered acceptable as long

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as the practice was done to attract more women to the service.50 The following year, the White House allowed women employees to wear pants— but not for reasons of equality. The president announced that the dress code was changed because the energy crisis meant that workplace temperatures would be lowered. (President Richard Nixon did chide reporter Helen Thomas for wearing pants during this time period. Her gender became more defining than her occupation.)51 Stories about whether women should wear pants largely disappeared from the New York Times after the early 1970s. As the impact of the women’s liberation movement began to be taken seriously by the media, the debate over gender roles moved on to bigger questions that eventually entered the legislatures and the courtrooms. The questions over women’s roles were being treated as significant news. Fashion was also changing and becoming more democratic. Clothing was cheaper and the variety was easier to access. There was less of a focus on formality that led to more acceptance of casual wear and thus pants were common. Therefore, the question of what women wore on their legs became less controversial, mirroring the new roles women were taking on in society. What is telling about these stories is the lack of women’s voices. The journalists used the news tradition of a top-down approach. They interviewed “official sources” such as business owners or religious leaders. In doing so, they largely ignored the women who were directly impacted by the issue. This lack of source diversity further leads to a slanted view about women’s roles. It marginalized women in their roles as sources in the news-making process. Their voices were not part of the conversation about social change. This was typical of women’s access to powerful roles. As New York Times journalist Gail Collins wrote of this time, “It was a convoluted expression of the classic view of sexual differences: women did not wear pants in the family—or anywhere else, for that matter.”52

Conclusion This book aims to look at the evolution of fashion as news, women’s roles in society and the workplace, and the intersection between the two. As change takes place, it is often in the tangible details where tradition is found. The wearing of pants, for example, was symbolic of women taking on roles that men had dominated from workplace positions to dining out in the city. It was a matter of freedom and independence, although traditional media did little to explain that. This was not unusual. Coverage

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decisions, usually dictated by newsrooms dominated by males, often framed protest and calls for change on the element of conflict, rather than on the reason for the protest. Look at coverage of the Women’s Strike for Equality in 1970 as an example. One of the national events that came to represent the feminist movement, the strike was in many ways symbolic as many women could not simply walk away from their jobs. Instead, there were sit-ins, lunch-­ hour rallies, and a march down Fifth Avenue in New York. It was the largest women’s protest in U.S. history.53 The media coverage focused on how big the crowds were rather than the issues behind the strike. ABC began its coverage by quoting Spiro Agnew: “Three things have been difficult to tame. The ocean, fools and women. We may soon be able to tame the ocean, but fools and women will take a little longer.”54 On CBS, anchor Eric Sevareid said, “The plain truth is, most American men are startled by the idea that American women generally are oppressed, and they read with relief the Gallup poll that two-thirds of women don’t think they’re oppressed either.”55 Pants were part of that coverage, too. Documentary footage featured numerous women marching in pants.56 It was also personal for many women journalists. In Florida, Fort Lauderdale News women’s page editor Edee Greene and her staff wore pants to work as their form of protest on that day.57 In another example, the News Sentinel (in Tennessee) personally fought for the right for women to wear pantsuits to work in the summer of 1970. General assignment reporter Charla Sear asked managing editor Harold Harlow if women employees could wear pants to work. He said “no.” She decided that the best way to challenge the policy was to have all of the women wear pants on the same day. They chose August 26, 1970—the fiftieth anniversary of women’s right to vote. To Harlow, this was an act of insubordination. Each time a woman in pants arrived, he said: “I can’t believe it.” He shook his head each time it happened and lit another cigarette. Ultimately, he said he would ignore their clothing. From then on, women employees were allowed to wear pants.58 It took the women journalists who populated the women’s section of newspapers, and their colleagues at women’s magazines, to cover issues of fashion with a nuance and depth that their male counterparts could not. To these reporters, pants were a sign of a changing role for women. The reporting of fashion editors demonstrated the power of writing about clothing—as this chapter about women wearing pants demonstrates. In this case, their personal and professional lives intersected. Sadly, by the

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time that women wearing pants became mainstream, most fashion journalists were losing their jobs because the women’s pages were being eliminated from newspapers, a victim of a movement to democratize newsrooms. The next chapter will address newspaper fashion journalism during World War II and then into peacetime.

Notes 1. Alexandra Palmer, “Review of Chic Thrills,” Journal of Design History, 1994, 68. 2. Katherine C. Grier, “Review of Fashion, Culture, and Identity,” Winterthur Portfolio, Spring 1993, 104. 3. Lois W. Banner, American Beauty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 86. 4. Lois W. Banner, American Beauty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 95. 5. Helen Reynolds, 20th Century Fashion: The ‘40s & ‘50s Utility to New Look (Gareth Stevens Publishing: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2000), 10. 6. Sara Tomerlin Lee, ed., American Fashion (New York: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Company, 1975), ix. 7. Daniel Delis Hill, As Seen in Vogue: A Century of American Fashion in Advertising (Texas Tech University Press, 2004), 108) 8. Daniel Delis Hill, As Seen in Vogue: A Century of American Fashion in Advertising (Texas Tech University Press, 2004), 108) 9. Claudia Brush Kidwell and Valeria Steele, Men and Women: Dressing the Part (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), 71. 10. Mary Ellis Carlton, “Pants bridge gap between home-office!” Independent Press-Telegram (Long Beach, California), January 13, 1969. 11. Associated Press, “High Court Allows Pants,” The Sun (Yuma, Arizona), November 29, 1973. 12. Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss, ed, On Fashion (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1994), 85. 13. Valerie Steele, “Appearance and Identity,” Claudia Brush Kidwell and Valerie Steele, eds., Men and Women: Dressing the Part (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), 6. 14. Dorothy O’Neill, “Fashions: At Home Costumes Take the Limelight,” New York Times, November 6, 1951. 15. Reuters, “Vatican Newspaper For Women’s Slacks,” New York Times, June 12, 1954. 16. Reuters, “Vatican Newspaper For Women’s Slacks,” New York Times, June 12, 1954.

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17. “Woman Physician Honored,” New York Times, October 17, 1957. 18. “Corduroy Pants for Country Living,” New York Times, August 16, 1958. 19. Gloria Emerson, “Jeans Resist Any Change in 108 Years,” New York Times, July 10, 1958. 20. Patricia Peterson, “Culottes: Pants Plus,” New York Times, October 18, 1959 21. “Pants Assume Glamorous Roles at the House of Dior,” New York Times, March 5, 1960. 22. Carrie Donovan, “Norell Decrees Pants Are the Fashion,” New York Times, June 22, 1960. 23. “Long or Short, Slim or Full, Trouser Must Fit the Shape,” New York Times, June 24, 1960. 24. Associated Press, “Women Who Wear Trousers Criticized in Genoa,” New York Times, July 11, 1960. 25. Deuteronomy 22:5 26. “Chiffon or Cord, It Takes Aplomb To Wear Pants,” New York Times, December 17, 1960. 27. Jack Roth, “Judge Scolds Woman in Slacks And Charms Her With Gallantry,” New York Times, August 10, 1960. 28. Gail Collins, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present (New York: Little Brown, 2009), 3. 29. “Subtle Changes Noted in Suburban ‘Uniform,’” New York Times, August 10, 1961. 30. Jeanne Molli, “Pants Gain Popularity For Leisure,” New York Times, February 19, 1962. 31. “Pants Glamorized by Designers,” New York Times, February 15, 1964. 32. “Pants Glamorized by Designers,” New York Times, February 15, 1964. 33. Patricia Peterson, “Pants Suits Stride In,” New York Times, July 12, 1964. 34. Patricia Peterson, “Chanel’s Pants for At-Home or After-Skiing Dazzle Paris,” New York Times, July 30, 1964. 35. Angela Taylor, “Pants Suits For the City Stir Debate,” New York Times, August 20, 1964. 36. Marylin Bender, “In the Land of the Lotus, Dresses Are Really Pants,” New York Times, April 9, 1965. 37. Marylin Bender, “They Agree on Who Wears the Pants: Everybody,” New York Times, February 15, 1966. 38. Bernadine Morris, “The Pants Suit Takes the Big Step Into Town—From Suburbia,” New York Times, March 18, 1966. 39. Bernadine Morris, “Trend on Seventh Avenue: Pants, Pants, Pants,” New York Times, May 21, 1966. 40. Enid Nemy, “A Dilemma for Restaurateurs: Where Do Slacks End and Pants Start?” New York Times, August 3, 1966.

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41. Enid Nemy, “A Dilemma for Restaurateurs: Where Do Slacks End and Pants Start?” New York Times, August 3, 1966. 42. Bernadine Morris, “For Fun or for Formal Wear, the Preference Is for Pants,” New York Times, September 28, 1966. 43. Lisa Hammel, “The Pants Suit People State Their Case Ubiquitously,” New York Times, October 8, 1966. 44. Bernadine Morris, “Pants: One Answer to the Hemline Controversy,” New York Times, November 10, 1966. 45. Marylin Bender, “The Continuing Story of the Pants Suit: Will It Survive?” New York Times, April 10, 1967. 46. Bernadine Morris, “Women in Pants: Even Staid Offices Concede It’s Fait Accompli,” New York Times, October 2, 1970. 47. Herbert Koshetz, “Everyone’s Wearing Pants,” New York Times, October 11, 1970. 48. Isadore Barmash, “Things to Wear With Pants,” New York Times, January 10, 1971. 49. Nadine Brozan, “At Revlon, a Controversy Over Who Wears the Pants.” New York Times, June 7, 1972. 50. Associated Press, “Women’s Army Corps to Grow With More Jobs and New Styles, New York Times, August 8, 1972. 51. United Press International, “White House Lifts Ban On Women in Pants,” New York Times, November 26, 1973. 52. Gail Collins, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present (New York: Little Brown, 2009), 4. 53. Carol Mueller, “Conflict Networks and the Origins of Women’s Liberation,” New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity, eds. Enrique Larana, Hank Johnson and Joseph Gusfied (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994), 253. 54. Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America (New York: Viking Penguin, 2000), 296. 55. Rosen, 297. 56. Al Sutton, “Equality: Women’s March for Equality,” 2010. http://www. imdb.com/title/tt1674272/ 57. Edee Greene letter to Paul Myhre, September 15, 1970. Penney-­Missouri Award papers, National Women and Media Collection. 58. Georgina Vines, “The Day Women Broke the Rules and Wore Pants in the News Sentinel Newsroom,” News Sentinel (Tennessee), August 26, 2019.

CHAPTER 2

Fashion Journalism in Newspapers during World War II, and Beyond

Newspaper fashion editors of the 1950s and 1960s were an adventurous group. While they lacked prestige at their publications, their readership was wide. For some, it was a national byline—Eugenia Sheppard and Virginia Pope were household names. For others, they were well known in their towns, from Dallas to Pittsburgh to Milwaukee. They discovered designers and defined trends. Their reporting covered politics, technology, and consumerism. In later years, their reporting included gender roles, race, and social norms. These women wrote about the end of hats and white gloves. They documented the debate over skirt length and the proper undergarments. The fashion editors traveled the country and the world to tell stories. Yet, at their newspapers, they were part of the women’s pages and rarely allowed in the newsroom. Fashion journalism often lacked newspaper industry recognition—and many women had to fight for any power in their positions at their own newspapers. They rarely had the power to hire or fire employees, or had control over their own budgets. For example, Washington, D.C., fashion editor Eleni Epstein complained that she was not able to pay the models as well as other local newspaper fashion editors. She wrote a memo to her editor: “We are therefore unable to hire, on a regular basis, the most professional and best qualified local talent.”1 In a later letter to management, she complained of the lack of consultation for a fashion spread in the newspaper’s magazine. “It did not do what I feel a section should do: guide a woman in the new highlights of a season,” she wrote.2 Later, at a © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. W. Voss, Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73624-8_2

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competing Washington, D.C., newspaper, fashion editor Nina Hyde “knew fashion—the business, the trends, the designer, the dirt—but she didn’t always buy it. She’d say: ‘It isn’t fashion until someone wears it.’”3 The fashion beat was helmed almost entirely by women for decades and reached its heyday in the post-World War II years through the early 1970s. Fashion, while fun, is also an important industry to cover—especially in the post-World War II years. The beat allowed for regular national and international travel. They saw the world and reported about what they saw. Yet, the fashion editors also had to translate the latest style to a local readership. Recognizing fashion reporting as significant means adding women to the history of journalism, raising the value of soft news, and providing further analysis of dress.4 Journalism historians have published little scholarship about the journalists of the women’s pages in the 1940s through the early 1970s.5 This marginalizes the women as these sections were the only place that most women journalists could work at newspapers for decades. In addition, the content of these sections has also not been examined. This has allowed the sections to often be considered as fluff—despite more recent evidence to the contrary. The purpose of this book is to document who the American newspaper fashion editors were and what their jobs entailed—including what kinds of stories they were covering. The research expands understanding of fashion news during significant years for the women’s pages. It is an important part of fashion history, journalism history, and labor history. The women’s pages were largely focused on local information and readers. These beats were important to readers who often called into the newspaper for information about recipes and shopping information. (Food and fashion editors were typically in parallel positions at their newspapers.) In addition to their reporting, they spoke to community groups, answered letters and took phone calls. This was a connection that went beyond what a national magazine audience experienced. From the Miami Herald: “What interests women in Detroit in January won’t interest people down here.”6 In addition, as newspaper Akron Beacon Journal food editor Polly Paffilas wrote: The newspaper food editor is the homemakers’ best friend, mother confessor and mentor. Mrs. Jones calls us when she can’t understand a recipe in a national magazine or when Graham Kerr talks about clarified butter. Mrs. Jones doesn’t call the magazine or the TV station. She calls me.7

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Newspapers Versus Magazines The women’s pages of newspapers are rarely part of the historical studies of newspaper journalism, and women’s magazines have long dominated any study of fashion journalism. Yet, women’s magazines covered fashion differently as they sought to reach a national audience rather than the local audience of a newspaper.8 As women’s page editor Marjorie Paxson said: “Primarily, a fashion editor must tailor her writing and reporting to suit the needs of her readers. What holds the readers of Vogue spellbound is likely to bore many readers of the Miami Herald.”9 In another example, when Milwaukee Journal fashion editor Aileen Ryan spoke about miniskirts in the 1960s, it was not the short length she found problematic. She simply did not think they were practical in her city’s cold winters. The women’s sections of newspapers spoke to the women of individual communities and reached a broad cross section of women. Women’s page editor Marjorie Paxson spoke about the topless bathing suit, which made news when designer Rudi Gerneich presented it. She noted that despite its news coverage, no photos of the suit were available on the wire services that the Miami Herald subscribed to. The fashion editor Beverley Wilson found a photo of the suit in a trade publication and gave it to a staff artist. He created a drawing with the model’s hands and arms strategically situated. This was news that our readers would be interested in. Who wasn’t? We, admittedly, were playing it conservatively. But after all, the Herald IS a family newspaper. Without any doubt, that was the best-read story in the paper that day. And so far as we have learned, the Herald was the first paper outside of New York City to carry a story on the suit.10

Women’s page journalists shaped their community’s views about clothing. This is not to imply that there was a cause-and-effect of editors causing readers to dress a particular way, rather that they helped to shape opinions about fashion. And, it went beyond covering fashion shows and department store offerings. In Boston, fashion editor Marian Christy recalled: When I protested, not without emotion, that I did not see myself as a merchandiser of whatever happened to be on store racks, I was advised to cover street fashions, what Boston people actually wore to set trends. I refused,

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arguing that true Bostonians, with a few notable exceptions, are not fashion trendsetters. They don’t seem to buy clothes for fashion as much as for value and wearability.11

Despite the importance of clothing as an industry and in a person’s individual life, scholarship on newspaper fashion reporting is lacking. Even the more recent research on women in journalism has ignored the traditional women’s section reporting and focuses more on women whose work reached the front pages of newspapers. Yet, areas like fashion journalism were where women made their mark for decades. When it came to fashion journalism beginning in those post-World War II years, these editors held a dominant position. They chronicled the fashions worn in the political world and also served as social critics. The editors also promoted the work of American designers at a changing time in the fashion business. It was largely the fashion editors who would eventually make the designers famous. In 1946, Nadeane Anderson joined the Associated Press as the European fashion editor. She interviewed some of the biggest names in fashion at the time, including Chanel,  Dior, and Yves Lanvin—who named a dress after her.12 Nina Hyde’s assistants recalled: “We transcribed totally incomprehensible interviews she’d had—half in French or Italian—with the fashion greats. We’d hear wine glasses clinking in the background. We heard Yves Saint Laurent’s bulldog, Mougique, breathing heavily under the table.”13 All metropolitan newspapers had a fashion editor in the 1950s and 1960s. Larger newspapers would have several fashion writers. The background of women who became fashion editors were varied. (There was only one man working in newspaper fashion sections whose name occurred regularly—Richard Cobb—during that time.) Several women held journalism degrees—some with home economics journalism degrees—a common major at the time. A home economics journalism textbook offered the following advice for aspiring reporters: Define the job to be done. Say, for example, you are to write an article about hats. Are you going to write about how to make a new hat, or how to make over or renew an old hat? Are you going to tell what styles of hats are being worn this season, or what types of hats are best for various costumes? Are you going to tell the story in paragraphs and photo captions, or must you get across the ideas solely by means of words?14

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Other fashion editors went to fashion school or art school. This variety of backgrounds meant that some women sewed while others did not, such as fashion editor Judy Lunn in Houston. While she had a knack for writing, it was fashion that caught her interest so she attended the Rhode Island School of Design to study fashion design. She liked to draw and design but hated to sew. Carrie Donovan of the New York Times studied dressmaking at the Parsons School of Design, but “she could never master a needle and thread.”15 Because Donovan never learned how to sew, she had to bribe her classmates to sew her test pieces for school.16 In other cases, sewing was more of a hobby for fashion journalists. Baltimore fashion editor Vida Roberts, based on training from her mother who worked in Baltimore’s garment industry for more than three decades, was known as “a talented seamstress and needleworker, she brought to her work a knowledge of fashion and the industry and an uncanny intuition for what might make it onto the backs of Baltimoreans from the fashion runways of New York.”17 Roberts had a theory that despite the glitzy creations of New  York and European couturiers, most fashion originated from the young and the streets. She shopped at thrift shops and yard sales, where she found classic clothes from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s that she later modified in her sewing room, which was piled high with fabric and patterns. Jo Werne, of the Miami Herald, was a reporter on numerous beats— including fashion. She had a journalism degree and had been sewing for years, which led to story ideas. Raised on an Ohio farm, she joined the 4-H when she was 9  years old and given the choice of a project. Her options were to learn to sew or raise a hog. She chose the former. Her handmade bean bag won a blue ribbon and her interest was sparked. She described her hobby as “therapy, after pounding a typewriter all day long.”18 In a few cases, the fashion editor had an art school background and could illustrate her own articles, such as Gretchen Weber in Denver and Madeliene Corey in Providence, Rhode Island. More likely, there were other illustrators for fashion images—this was at a time when cameras were not always allowed at fashion shows or in showrooms. Most famously known was Joe Eula who illustrated Eugenia Sheppard’s work at the New York Herald Tribune. Milwaukee’s fashion editor Aileen Ryan began her career under the editorship of women’s page editor Elizabeth Moffet. Moffet came from the Kansas City Star, where she had pioneered a method of covering fashion

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that went beyond simply promoting the clothing featured in advertising. Moffet was recruited because the Milwaukee Journal publisher wanted to feature fashion news with a high level of objectivity.19 Moffett visited the local department stores and boutiques. She brought along an artist to sketch images of the clothing. She would then give a critical analysis of the styles, rather than simple public relations for an advertiser. There were few clear paths to women’s page careers in the post–World War II years. As former Las Vegas Sun columnist Susan Snyder has written, “Even for women with experience and talent, journalism of the 1950s remained a career that more often happened by chance than design.”20 While there were several fashion editors who earned journalism degrees, many others were seeking paid work. In a 1966 column, North Carolina fashion editor Annie Singletary said she never planned for her journalism career. “My progress toward this goal has been just about as direct as that of a drunk trying to walk a straight line,” she wrote. Qualifications for fashion journalists varied, typically based on the publication. New York Times fashion editor Virginia Pope noted that a fashion journalist should love fashion and have sense of style. The importance of this quality was universal—as was their journalism skills. Pope said: “She should be able to write. Fashion copy is a tricky business. It takes a very special knack to keep it from getting monotonous. Yet it should never be too effervescent. Most important, it must be accurate.”21 Fashion journalists reported on news and respected the line between editorial and advertising. Overall, the fashion journalists practiced the typical role of a reporter— interviewing and following news values. It also often helped if the editor had a style of her own. One of her former editors said of Rhode Island fashion editor Madeliene Corey: “Madeliene really believed in fashion and thought there was a place for high fashion and proper dress. That played a large part in her life and affected her own style in the office. Those of us around her didn’t dare dress as badly as we wanted to.”22 The fashion editors typically traveled to events such as fashion shows— including those held at local department stores and boutiques, as well as those in New York City and in California. They also covered international fashion shows. While at these events, the journalists interviewed local fashion icons and fashion designers. They wrote feature stories about trends. Some of these trends could be controversial—from women wearing pants to the lengths of skirts. Societal issues from the economy to race were also occasionally covered through the lens of fashion. Unfortunately, in the

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1950s and 1960s, there was little coverage of the Black community in most metropolitan newspapers. Many major cities had Black newspapers that covered Black fashion, stores, and designers. Freddye Scarborough Henderson was one of the most well-known Black newspaper fashion editors. From 1950 to 1955, she was a fashion editor for the Associated Negro Press and authored a syndicated column “Fashion Trends,” which was published weekly in the nation’s leading Black newspapers. In 1952, she began work as a radio commentator and was featured on a program entitled “Freddye’s Fashion Forum” on WERD—the radio station in Atlanta, Georgia. President of the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers, Henderson organized the first fashion show sponsored by a Black group in New York’s Waldorf Hotel and focused national attention on black fashions. A few years later, Henderson directed the first Fashion Tour Group to visit the significant fashion houses in Paris, Rome, and London. While in Paris, the group was a personal guest of the House of Dior for a lunch and fashion show.23 In 1950, Mattie Smith Colin joined the staff at the Chicago Defender, which was founded in 1905 and considered for many years to be the nation’s most influential Black weekly newspaper, with more than two-­ thirds of its readership outside of Chicago. Col. Eugene F.  Scott, the Chicago Defender publisher in the 1990s, recalled having long conversations with the late John H.  Sengstacke, the publisher of the Chicago Defender during the time of the Emmett Till story, and Colin’s name would come up regularly. “He described Mattie as a stellar reporter and talked about her in the same light as (well-known journalist) Ethel Payne,” Scott said. In his 2016 book The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America, Ethan Michaeli, a former investigative reporter at the Defender, wrote this about Colin: “The features desk was manned by two editors from different generations: Soft-spoken, kind and polite, Mattie Smith Colin cast an elegant figure in the newsroom in her furs and jewels, her articles on fashion, food, literature and culture were crisply written and meticulously self-edited.”24

Fashion Editors’ Work The fashion editor’s job was often a busy one with a mix of writing feature and hard news stories, as well as dealing with readers, reviewing images, and choosing wire stories. There was a significant amount of multi-­tasking.

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Depending on the size of the newspaper, there were assistant editors or a staff of reporters also covering fashion. Yvonne Petrie, fashion editor of Detroit News from the 1950s through the 1970s, explained her job in a speech: The life of a fashion editor is fairly routine when she operates from her hometown office. She makes the rounds of stores, digging up new fashions for women of all ages and sizes. She opens mountains of mail, sorts photographs and reads miles of wire copy. She does layouts, writes copy and headlines, interviews visiting designers and works against deadlines without jitters.25

While much of the work of fashion editors helped to establish the elite in the fashion industry, their work also reflected the styles of everyday working women. Eleni Epstein said in an interview, “fashions are reflected in the period we live in. After all, fashions don’t just come into existence by accident. If you look back through history, you will see that changes that occurred during the Medieval Period on up through the Renaissance and Elizabethan Periods were not accidental changes.”26 During her tenure as the Washington Star’s fashion editor, Epstein guided her readers through numerous social changes and the impact on fashion. She addressed the differing fashions of a leisure and working class. She reported on the changing role of women from an industry of largely European couture to American sportswear. Fashion journalism has been easy to dismiss as just one that reinforced a traditional role for women. Yet, the editors of these sections wielded the power to set trends, and as the years went on, encouraged women to take on new roles. The beauty and fashion industries were often places where women could be successful in the years before they were accepted in other industries. An example can be made of Epstein’s friend and a common member of the Washington social circle—Estee Lauder. Lauder revolutionized the beauty industry and became a celebrity on the Washington social scene as is documented in her book Estee: A Success Story.27 And, Epstein went to those events that Lauder described. The fashion editor was even one of the few consultants for the first and only White House fashion show. Epstein’s coverage reflected the economic and social impact of an industry that is often not recognized.28 Consider the example of former U.S.  Senator Bob Kerry, who had described fashion as a frivolous activity. After he became president of

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New York’s New School, which includes the influential Parsons School of Design, he had a change of heart and declared fashion “a very serious business.”29 Clothing is often the most obvious indication of social status. Fashion critic Teri Agins has echoed this concept about the power of fashion: For all its glamour and frivolity, fashion happens to be a relevant and powerful force in our lives. At every level of society, people care greatly about the way they look, which affects both their self-esteem and the way other people interact with them. And it has been true since the beginning of time that people from all walks of life make the effort to dress in style.

Furthermore, fashion helps define a time period—whether it was the end of an era of glove wearing that represented a time of fashion conformity or the acceptance of women wearing pants as a symbolic victory about gender equality. The last few decades have represented a time of store-bought disposable shoes and clothing with limitless options. Prior to the end of home economics as a significant industry, people (usually women) would sew their own clothes, and women’s sections of newspapers included or produced sewing patterns. If readers could not purchase the clothing fashion editors described from the runways, those readers could create their own version. Prior to the concept of clothing as individual expression, which coincided with cheap materials and production, many women did not use fashion to stand out—the goal was to fit in, and the voices of fashion editors were important.

Women’s Pages One of the few places that women journalists could find employment in the 1950s and 1960s was the women’s pages of newspapers. The content of the section was described as the four Fs: family, fashion, food, and furnishings. Fashion editors, in particular, traveled both nationally and internationally, as well as getting to know their local community and readers. Fashion journalism was a place for women to have some authority as they translated trends. This was significant as they rarely had that position of authority otherwise. The American Press Institute’s 1951 journalism industry publication Fashion in Newspapers documented the work of a fashion editor—from

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layout to copy to images. The book’s author noted, “No aspect of the news is further from the comprehension of the average male editor than fashion.” Women journalists knew this and took advantage of their positions. These women practiced the same kind of journalism that their male counterparts did in news and sports departments. They followed the same news values and ethical guidelines. For example, fashion editor Nina Hyde was known for “covering fashion as intently as if she were covering a war, searching for the sociological significance of such trends as the development of the punk style in London. It also helped alert retailers to the London street scene.”30 Many of the fashion editors were known for their interviewing skills. A colleague said of Hyde on photo shoots, “She would interview people there as though she were Margaret Mead on an expedition.”31 Another noted of Hyde’s reporting: “She could pull out a note pad even in the most awkward moments, and ask the tough questions. She called in columns, when she was dog-tired and depressed, from the shows in Milan and London and Paris. She called in from Beijing when there were not supposed to be telephones for use there.” She was always at work. Whether she was at a restaurants or a shopping mall, she would stop and ask someone in a unique outfit about what she was wearing.32 Pittsburgh fashion editor Barbara Cloud’s reporting was about the heart of journalism: people. For all the talk of trends, hemlines, and fabrics, it was, as she quoted designer Halston, “Fashion is made by fashionable people—not designers.”33 Cloud developed her own fashion influence through the years. As she noted, it was not every reporter who could call and get through to Ralph Lauren as she could.34 (This was because she first met Lauren selling neckties at Kaufmann’s Department Store in Pittsburgh.35) For many fashion editors there was an intersection between national or international and local news.

Role of World War II and Fashion The impact of World War II changed the fashion industry and the kind of stories that editors wrote. For many women journalists, it was a chance to work in sections other than the women’s pages. For example, journalist Colleen “Koky” Dishon was hired by the Associated Press in Baltimore, Maryland, when the wire services, too, were hiring women to take the place of men at war. She became the chief AP reporter covering the launchings of warships often named for the communities that had raised the

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funds to help build them. She also wrote stories about sick babies brought from across the country to Johns Hopkins Hospital’s well-known infants’ ward. And she covered the April 12, 1945, death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Then, like most of the women who were working at the wire services, Dishon lost her position as the war ended and the GIs returned. She ended up back in the women’s pages before moving on to newspaper management. In another example, Marjorie Paxson was able to cover news for a wire service during World War II. After the war, she was limited to the women’s pages—first in Texas and then Florida. Yet, World War II meant a significant time for fashion in the women’s pages. As researchers have noted: “The confluence of factors associated with World War II—scarcity of raw materials, separation from Paris as a center of innovation, the changed focus of the fashion press—has led scholars to concentrate on this period as the defining moment.”36 There was also an increased connection between fashion and patriotism.37 These changes meant an increase in topics for fashion editors to write about. After all, the war impacted everything from cosmetics to colors to rationed materials. In an interview during her retirement, fashion editor Madeliene Corey said she believed the most important fashion event of her career was removal of the fabric restrictions after World War II. “The rules had hindered fashion development by setting limits on the amount of fabric used in coats and dresses. After the restrictions were removed, the American designers began to emerge,” she said.38 During World War II, a patriotic approach to makeup was encouraged for women—especially those who were entering the workforce. The key was lipstick as a sign of femininity, according to a history of the time: “Makeup could be a sign of female agency that included sexual power and citizenship and as such was disruptive of wartime’s masculine codes of power.”39 In December 1941, New York Times fashion writer Kiley Taylor suggested women respond to the attack on Pearl Harbor through their choice of lipstick. “Experts tell you to choose one that is strong and red,” she explained.40 The War Production Board did not include cosmetics on the list of restricted wartime industries.

After the War and Defining News The Milwaukee Journal fashion reporter Aileen Ryan noted the women’s exodus from the newsroom during peacetime: “When the war was over neither democracy for all nor a place in the newspaper sun for women was

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won. Men took their jobs back.”41 When the war ended, most women journalists returned to the women’s pages. They also took their news experience with them. Stories changed, although there was still a focus on traditional content. And, as the consumer culture thrived, department stores were quick to help homemakers fill their homes with appliances and clothes. A North Carolina fashion editor wrote: For some, the week of feeling the fashion pulse came as a brief deliverance from the daily bind of bridge, brunch and brides to which some women had been rapidly re-assigned after a flurry of handling “real” news during the war. Many of them had been drafted by newsrooms even as the first draftees’ names were being drawn from the fishbowl and found newsrooms staffed at a ratio of as many as five women to one man. Few had any desire to be restricted to the “society” section again when Johnny came marching home.42

The definition of news, of course, is defined by reporters. The fashion editors had numerous tasks. The Miami Herald fashion editor Beverley Wilson was just one of many editors who had a diverse job description. For example, one year, the Herald announced the ten winners of an annual best-dressed career women competition. Wilson had been working for weeks to arrange the contest—writing promotional copy, arranging for judges, and confirming details for the event at the DuPont Plaza Hotel. After the winners were named, she worked with a photographer to take color photos and then she interviewed the winners. Later, she had to write up all of the copy for a full-page layout.43 They also had to deal with sometimes angry readers: We all had a laugh the other Friday when her weekly Fashions About Town column appeared, showing what some members of the audience had worn to the Pete Seeger concert in the Dane County Auditorium. One irate woman called to object to our publicizing the fascists around town, and it took a lot of talking to calm her down.44

Fashion reporters, like most journalists, are guided by news values that are taught in journalism schools and reinforced by the industry: timeliness, proximity, prominence, and unusualness, for example. Accepting or rejecting a trend, balancing high class with working class, and clarifying what was fashionable was a significant part of the editor’s role. As an

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example, a newspaper executive recalled the impact of Marji Kunz, a fashion editor for the Detroit Free Press: She inspired me when I was growing up. She didn’t cover her beat like every other fashion writer: getting swept away by clothing that only size 0 models could wear or turning fashion designers into cult figures. Marji’s value to readers was covering fashion from a consumer’s point of view—real women, real men, who wanted to look their best without spending a small fortune. For her, fashion spoke volumes about our society, how we perceive ourselves and what we value.45

Previous Fashion Journalism Scholarship Fashion journalism has a long history. The book Writing for the Fashion Business addressed newspaper fashion journalism. The author covered an article about fashion that was featured on the front page of the New York Times on September 18, 1851. The journalist reported on women who had worn Amelia Bloomer’s “controversial bifurcated garments” (pants) at various New York locations during the previous day. An artist’s rendering of the “bloomer suit” caused a heated reaction.46 Other newspapers followed the format of the New York Times, which placed most fashion news in the society pages.47 Kate Nelson Best’s book The History of Fashion Journalism provides an important overview of American and British fashion journalism. Best correctly notes that fashion journalism scholarship usually falls under the umbrella of fashion studies (or textual studies) than mass communication in academic programs. Yet, Best clearly understands the role of journalism in her analysis. She also addresses the challenges for journalists in relation to a polished public relations machine. (She refers to them as “p.r. poodles”—a kinder term than many have used.) Best included a quote about fashionable Parisian women from 1869 that could run in magazines today. The best parts of the book tie the past to the present day. She wrote that by the middle of the nineteenth century, fashion magazines were common for upper-middle-class women. There is, however, little specific explanation of American newspaper fashion journalism—few of the leading fashion editors are included.48 Sandra Miller and Peter McNeil wrote the book Fashion Journalism: History, Theory and Practice, which addressed journalism but not specifically newspaper sections at length.49 And  there are several books that address women’s pages,50 but  there are few mentions of fashion in

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journalism history—if mentioned at all.51 Overall, the lack of scholarship about newspaper fashion journalism may be because, as scholar Francesca Granata wrote, “Fashion criticism is still undergoing the process of legitimization that other realms of popular culture criticism went through in the 1960s and 1970s, when barriers between high and low culture increasingly came under attack.”52 There are some media stories about the history of fashion journalism from the women who covered the industry. Dorothy Roe was the women’s editor of the wire service, the Associated Press, who often covered fashion. She developed a network with women’s fashion editors throughout the country. She recalled admiring Graydon Heartsill, of the Dallas Times-Herald, who was “a power in Texas and a welcome and familiar figure in fashion salons from Los Angeles to Paris.” (Heartsill was also a Penney-Missouri Award winner for her fashion reporting.) Roe noted that Honor McGrath, of the Buffalo Courier-Express, “made an international career of fashion coverage, and friendships which stretch across two oceans.” Betty Peach of the San Diego Union, who met her husband in the South Pacific while serving during World War II, “handled marriage and job with light-hearted ease.”53 Overall, she recalled: Members of the press, alias “paper dolls” or “copy cats,” proved interesting in themselves when they had time to get to know each other. They ranged from several who have been named “Mother of the Year” in their own state to Darlene, who had shot her own fur coat on a safari in Africa. And there is one former fashion reporter still serving time for having shot and killed her husband.54

Roe wrote that members of the press wore dark glasses at the showings, not for anonymity but protection against the glare of runway lights and television lamps which shined on the women day and night. In jest she also noted that sometimes there were casualties among the women during the fashion shows. One year, Latimer Watson of Georgia wore a neck brace decorated in pink rosebuds throughout the week; Alice Hughes of King Features and Eleanor Lambert  both wore eye patches  because of injuries; and an editor from Boston “topped other accident stories with hers of being run over by her own husband in their own car.”55

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Newspaper Patterns and Sewing Columns For decades, magazines and newspapers commonly included patterns as many women sewed their own clothes. Some of these patterns were created by companies and others were unique to the publication. “Pattern of the Times” appeared every Monday in the New York Times, and was a project proposed by editor Virginia Pope. “It was my favorite thing,” she said.56 She got designers to give her designs and an artist made the drawings. These were sold through a pattern house with readers sending requests for the directions. “The patterns sold tremendously,” she said.57 As time went on and department store clothes became more affordable, there was a concern about home sewers. In 1968, the New York Times reported: “Home sewing now poses a serious threat to the multi-billion-­ dollar fashion industry. The sewing machine industry is actively engaged in promoting home sewing.”58 The competition was serious. According to the story, since 1960, home sewing grew by more than 50 percent. “It was estimated that during 1968, more than 300 million garments were sewn at home, compared with 900 million dresses, coats, suits and shirts produced in factories.” Newspaper articles often profiled those home sewers. For example, a story in the New York Times featured Ruth Louise Newman, a nursery school teacher who sewed to dress fashionably at a low cost. For home sewers such as Newman, it began with the material. The author wrote: “Pressed to disclose the source of their inspiration, many designers admit that it comes from the fabrics with which they work. She sews for enjoyment and because she is convinced she can have a more valuable garment at a fraction of the price of its ready-to-wear equivalent.”59

Fashion and Beauty Columns Many fashion editors were also the beauty editors at their newspapers. In the 1950s, the journalism industry organization recommended that women cover beauty: “As in fashions, writing on beauty is a woman’s job.”60 It was also warned that the beauty columns were covered carefully: “beauty columns, irresponsibly handled, are dynamite.”61 To give her readers sound counsel and guidance, and to protect them against extravagant puffery and potentially dangerous products, the beauty editor should have a knowledge of the physiology of the skin and hair and of their

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general reaction to beauty products. She should greet each new product or process with the skepticism of a good reporter.62

Eleanor Nangle started the column “Thru the Looking Glass” at the Chicago Tribune that ended up running for three decades. The column sometimes attracted more than 1000 inquiries in a single week.”63 Peg Zwecker was the longtime fashion editor in Chicago where she wrote the “Fashionably Speaking” column. It was considered “one of the first to combine coverage of fashion, gossip and society.” Later, the column became “Click.” According to her obituary, “Zwecker was routinely seen wearing timeless couture wherever she went—a collection of clothing she acquired through her work.”64 In 1956, Eugenia Sheppard began her popular fashion column “Inside Fashion” at the New York Herald Tribune. Initially, it ran twice a week and eventually it became a daily column. Sheppard’s unique approach to covering fashion journalism is described as revolutionary in the book The Paper: The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune: The author wrote: “With the introduction in 1956 of her thrice-weekly column, ‘Inside Fashion,’ Sheppard revolutionized the journalism of style by adjusting its focus from inanimate fabric to the people who designed and wore it. … By deciding whom and what to write about she could create a whole new pattern of social commentary.”65 Geraldine Stutz, president of elite department store Henri Bendel, knew Sheppard since the 1950s. She said of Sheppard’s column: “‘Inside Fashion’ was an enormous revelation. Up until then, fashion reportage was description of clothes. Eugenia was fascinated by fashion and began to talk about the people who made the clothes and the people who wore the clothes. She personalized fashion. It was the beginning of modern fashion reportage.”66 The origin of Sheppard’s “Inside Fashion” column came from an overflow of women’s page news coverage regarding actress Grace Kelly’s marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956. Sheppard told Newsweek in 1962: “I just wrote the first column to see what would happen. The management didn’t show any sign that there was a new column for six months. Then the managing editor said: ‘I like it. Would you keep on?’”67 It was later syndicated to more than 80 newspapers across the country and led to her increased stature in the fashion industry. According to the rival New York Times, Sheppard’s columns “became known for her breezy writing style, a personalized approach to fashion and her ability to spot trends even before the trend-setters realized they were

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setting them.”68 Her opinions were also often quoted in Time magazine stories.69 Washington Post fashion journalist Nina Hyde wrote, “Her columns were informative, often witty, sometimes stern, but never harsh.”70 Famed illustrator Joe Eula’s drawings accompanied the columns. They were a powerful pair. According to his obituary: “They attended the twice-­ yearly collections in Paris, with Mr. Eula duplicating in ink and charcoal the elegance he saw in the salons.”71 Furthermore, as a book about Eula recently noted, “They were an unbeatable team: both short and feisty.”72 Sheppard was aggressive in her work and was described as “fiercely competitive” by fellow reporter Gail Sheehy.73 She also said Sheppard “was the queen of the country’s women’s page editors, the national fashion cop and keeper of the flame of a dying social register.”74 Many women’s pages had beauty columns—often written by the fashion editor. The columns included stories about new products, cosmetic trends, and skin problems. Often the columnists answered readers’ questions—including some that addressed significant issues—including one letter writer who asked how to cover bruises after her husband hit her.75 The significant Black newspaper Chicago Defender ran the syndicated “Glamour Clinic” column written by Gerry Masciana, who ran a modeling and charm school. Much of the advice was about pleasing a man. In one column, Masciana recommended that a woman look attractive at breakfast so her husband will think of her “with an indelible memory of fresh, rose-like, dew-kissed loveliness.” Otherwise, it was warned that a “sloppy appearance” could lead to “liquor bars, the arms of another woman or to a court for divorce.”76 Eleanor  Hart’s regular 23-year-old “Glamour Clinic” in the Miami Herald was a mix of reader questions and responses. It was an interactive relationship. Some stories were devoted to diets and exercise. One article examined TOPS—Take Off Pounds Sensibly.77 Hart, who struggled with a weight problem herself, often spoke and corresponded with her readers about dieting. At one point, she figured that she took off 1191 pounds from overweight readers. Colleagues recalled her engrossed in a phone call while asking “Well, just how fat are you?”78 Battling aging and getting rid of wrinkles were a common theme, based on letters from readers. In one 1954 column, Hart responded with an article and a photo of a woman’s body slant board. The woman laid on the board with her legs in the air and her head on the ground. It was intended to increase circulation in the face and neck tissues.79

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Recognizing Top Fashion Journalism The top recognition for fashion journalism beginning in 1960 were the Penney-Missouri Awards. As a North Carolina fashion editor wrote: “While designers were vying for Coty Awards, the fashion editors themselves came to be more concerned with the annual Penney-Missouri contests that offered the most tangible rewards in the realm of women’s page and fashion reporting.”80 The Penney-Missouri Awards were established and funded by the JCPenney Company in 1960 to honor its founder, James Cash Penney. It was run by the University of Missouri School of Journalism to recognize the nation’s top reporters and editors working in newspaper women’s pages. The awards program worked to improve the women’s pages and hosted annual workshops in connection with the awards’ banquet. Paul L.  Myhre was the program’s first director and worked with many fashion editors over the years. George Pica, a PenneyMissouri winner, was later hired to run the program at the University of Missouri. He said Penney chose Missouri’s School of Journalism to conduct the program because he was born in the state and believed the school had the prestige necessary to reshape women’s sections. Pica added: I suspect that in many ways the program he helped create succeeded beyond his expectations and helped that area of journalism evolve in a direction he never envisioned. I don’t think J.C. Penney wanted the women’s sections so much to change as to become better at what they did—telling women what they ought to be spending the family’s income on. Instead, the program spawned a generation of aggressive, innovative lifestyle journalists whose work was as likely to win a Pulitzer as it was to win a Penney-Missouri award.81

Unlike many journalism competitions, which were run by all-male judges, the Penney-Missouri competition was judged by women along with a few men who were familiar with women’s sections. According to the Missouri journalism school dean, Earl English, “Competition of this high level calls for fair and judicious judges. The early instructions to judges by members of the journalism faculty, ‘Put them to work without strings attached, then support their decisions,’ has served well.” George  Kennedy, a journalism faculty member and competition judge, said there was only general guidance; judges were simply told to “pick the best stuff.” Letters between the women’s page journalists and the Penney-­ Missouri Award administrators revealed close professional—and often personal—relationships.

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There was a specific topic award for fashion reporting—something that did not happen for other topics like food and furnishings. North Carolina fashion editor Annie Lee Singletary won in 1965 and earned $1000 to travel Europe and the Mediterranean, and she sent stories back to her newspaper. In one article, she wrote: “It is the little things that happen on a big trip that one often remembers longest. There was the Old Lady of Rhodes who was at the dock to welcome our ship when we came into the harbor. She was there dressed like a gypsy in long full skirts and tennis shoes.”82 On a visit to Greece, she profiled a designer, Elias Petrou: “Each hand-woven gown, suit and cape was an original design, fully lined and decorated in hand embroidery, beading and fringe. And they were hanging along the street and on rails inside the tiny shop.”83 In a 1964 article in the Detroit News, fashion editor Yvonne  Petrie reported from London about designer Clive and his take on current fashions: She wrote, “The ‘Mods’ (Moderns), representing the British younger set, think ballgowns and tweed suits are squarer than a bald guitar player.” She also explained that a designer who used Brazil nuts for buttons and swansdown for a bridal gown was far from “stuffy.” The story began with an editor’s note: “This is another in a series of European fashion stories written while Detroit News fashion editor Yvonne Petrie was abroad on her recent Penney-Missouri Award trip.”84 In another story from her trip abroad, she described the “Mods” as Britain’s young men who are at odds with the Rockers, a rebellious collection of motorcyclists wearing black leather jackets. Mod Alley is a crooked street jammed with men’s fashion stores. A later story would examine this “odd little Eden.” Designers included in the story were Marion Foale and Sally Tuffin who were following in the popularity of pioneering designer Mary Quant. Petrie noted, “Both girls wear dark eye makeup but no lipstick, in the approved Mod style.”85

Fashion Shows The coverage of fashion shows was a significant part of a fashion editor’s job. Many traveled throughout the year—both nationally and internationally to cover the event. It is likely that one of the first American fashion shows was in 1903 when the Ehrich Brothers hosted an in-store fashion show for their New  York customers.86 By 1914, Vogue editor Edna Woolman Chase, hosted the fashion show “Fashion Fete,” which was a fundraiser for war relief.

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By the 1920s, many department stores held fashion shows. Sensing the chance to raise awareness about American talent, fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert created the first official “Press Week” in 1943. It was held at the Plaza Hotel and featured collections from designers including Norman Norell, Claire McCardell, and Valentina for fashion journalists from across the country.87 North Carolina fashion editor Annie Lee Singletary recalled covering the shows: Fashion was just beginning to recover from the shock it first experienced in 1943 when a band of women editors from the hinterlands, most of them largely unversed in the subtleties of fashion, were suddenly set loose to ‘cover’ it from Seventh Avenue to Fifth.88

The fashion editors often traveled together to shows. Singletary wrote that editor Graydon Heartsill, of Dallas, was a member of the original group and served as a long-time member of the editors’ committee formed to discuss regarding Press Week. She was also close friends with fashion editors from across the country: I was impressed with the type of reporters coming from all over the country to write about fashion. I thought they would be a pretty fluffy group but quickly changed my mind about all that! As I look back, I realize how lucky we were to have those years—such good friends, so much fun, so many things to laugh about, and, strangely enough, so much work.89

A pioneer in covering fashion shows was Milwaukee Journal fashion editor Aileen Ryan. During her first trip to New York in 1931, only magazine reporters and store buyers were permitted in fashion shows. Ryan would not accept that rule. She knocked on more than ten showrooms a day and accessed a handful of them. She recalled that no one had heard of the Milwaukee newspaper, but she eventually prevailed and sent back her stories to those New York designers. “The New Yorkers began to understand the value of what I was doing,” Ryan said.90 She continued to fight for more access each year, and she was able to get access for her photographer, too. This meant other newspapers had to buy their fashion photographs from the Milwaukee Journal. In 1937, images from Ryan’s trips to the fashion shows in Europe became the first color photos in the Milwaukee Journal—which included a photo of Ryan.91 On that first trip to Paris, she again struggled to get

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into fashion houses and the shows. She decided she would settle for nothing less than the top designer’s show, Madame Elsa Schiaparelli’s flower ball, which required a costume made of flowers. Ryan found a street vender with corn flowers and sewed them onto a dress while in her hotel room. It got her into the party, which led to invitations from other designers.92 She had become a significant name in newspaper fashion history. Ryan began to make annual trips to the European show—until World War II got in the way. Later, when Paris was liberated, a photographer from Life magazine was taking pictures when he received a notification from Ryan. She requested photos of the fashions from Paris. The photographer found a Women’s Army Corp. officer with journalism experience to write the fashion story. The information was put on the next plane to America. These were the first fashion photos to be printed in the Milwaukee newspaper following the war.93 While the use of color photographs was increasing in newspapers overall, they were used most often in the women’s pages. The managing editor was concerned about the liberal use and reached his limit when Ryan included a color photo of cosmetics entrepreneur Helena Rubenstein’s New  York City apartment. The clothing was white as were the walls and furnishings. The editors were extremely disappointed in lack of color in the coverage.94 The World War II years and the initial years after were important for the American fashion industry and the editors who covered it. The women reported and edited information important to their newspaper readers— from what was in style to where the clothing could be found. It set the foundation for what would happen in the 1950s and 1960s. It was a significant time for fashion in the women’s pages. The next chapter will explore the developments of that time.

Notes 1. Eleni Epstein, “Washington Star’s Editorial Rates for Professional Models,” n.d. Papers of Eleni Epstein, National Women and Media Collection. 2. Eleni Epstein letter to Pete, September 11, 1972. Papers of Eleni Epstein, National Women and Media Collection. 3. Jura Koncius and Martha Sherill, “Appreciation: Nina Hyde,” Washington Post, May 6, 1990. 4. Fashion, Retailing and a Bygone Era: Inside Women’s Wear Daily (Washington, D.C., 2005).

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5. This is based on a review of the top journalism history journals: American Journalism, Journalism History, and Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. 6. Marjorie Paxson, “Fashion Group Course,” March 27, 1962, 2. Papers of Marjorie Paxson, National Women and Media Collection. 7. Polly Paffilas, “Comments From the Food Section,” Matrix (Winter 1971): 15. 8. Nicholas Coleridge, The Fashion Conspiracy (New York: Heinemann, 2012), 248–257). 9. Marjorie Paxson, “Fashion Group Course,” March 27, 1962. Papers of Marjorie Paxson, National Women and Media Collection. 10. Marjorie Paxson, “Fashion Group Course,” March 27, 1962. Papers of Marjorie Paxson, National Women and Media Collection. 11. Marian Christy, Invasions of Privacy (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1984), 10–11. 12. Chris Tomlinson, “Former AP fashion editor Anderson dies at 91,” Washington Examiner, January 9, 2013. 13. Jura Koncius and Martha Sherrill, “Appreciation,” Washington Post, May 6, 1990. 14. Lou Richardson and Genevieve Callahan, How to Write for Homemakers (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State College Press, 1949), 6. 15. Cathy Horyn, “Carrie Donovan, One-of-a-Kind Fashion Editor and TV’s ‘Old Navy Lady,’ Dies at 73,” New York Times, November 12, 2001. 16. Vera Rule, “Carrie Donovan: Influential Editor Who Covered Fashion When It was Fun,” The Guardian, December 3, 2001. 17. Fred Rasmussen, “Vida Roberts, 56, Sun fashion editor who began career at News American in 1966,” Baltimore Sun, June 10, 1998. 18. Jo Werne letter to Paul Myhre, Penney-Missouri Award Papers, National Women and Media Collection. 19. Wells, 143. 20. Susan Snyder, “Deskin Was a True Pioneer,” Las Vegas Sun, February 16, 2004. 21. Virginia Pope’s oral history, New York Times, May 21, 1971, held at New York Public Library, 64. 22. “Madeliene Corey Lennon Dies; Former Fashion Writer for J-B,” Providence (Rhode Island) Journal-Bulletin, January 29, 1983, A4. 23. Jessie Carney Smith, Notable Black American Women, Book 2 (New York: Gale, 1995), 285–286. 24. Joan Giangrasse Kates, “Mattie Smith Colin, Chicago Defender reporter who covered Emmett Till story, dies at 98,” Chicago Tribune, December 30, 2016.

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25. Yvonne Petrie, “It’s a Mad, Mad …” Missouri-Penney Award Banquet, March 19, 1964, 1. Penney-Missouri Award Papers, National Women and Media Collection. 26. Richard Lebherz, “The Friction of Changing Fashion,” Frederick NewsPost, (Frederick, Maryland), November 6, 1970. 27. Estee Lauder, Estee: A Success Story (New York: Random House, 1985). 28. Eugenia Sheppard, “Fashion Reporting,” Your Future in the Fashion World, ed. Olive P. Gately (New York: Richards Rosen Press, 1960), 101. 29. John Andrews, “Rags to Riches: A Survey of Fashion,” Economist, March 6, 2004, supplement. 30. Bernadine Morris, “Nina Hyde, 57, a Fashion Editor Who Became a Pacesetter, Is Dead,” New York Times, May 6, 1990. 31. Jura Koncius and Martha Sherill, “Appreciation: Nina Hyde,” Washington Post, May 6, 1990. 32. Jura Koncius and Martha Sherill, “Appreciation: Nina Hyde,” Washington Post, May 6, 1990. 33. Cloud, By-line, 86. 34. Cloud, By-line, 5. 35. Author email interview with Barbara Cloud, February 11, 2011. 36. Sara B. Marcketti and Jean L. Parsons, “American Fashions for American Women: Early Twentieth Century Efforts to Develop an American Fashion Identity,” Dress, 2007, 79–95. 37. Michelle Boardman, “Shoulder to Shoulder: Women’s Patriotic Scarves of World War II,” Dress, 1998, 3–16. 38. “Madeliene Corey Lennon Dies; Former Fashion Writer for J-B,” Providence Journal-Bulletin, January 29, 1983. 39. Page Dougherty Delano, “Making Up For War: Sexuality and Citizenship,” Feminist Studies, Spring 2000, 33–68. 40. Kiley Taylor, “Beauty Aids of Evening,” New York Times, December 21, 1941. 41. Aileen Ryan, “Woman’s World: ‘Not So,’ Writes Aroused Editor,” Once a Year, 1961. Milwaukee Press Club Papers, Box 10, folder 21, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 42. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina: Hunter Publishing Inc, 1981), ii. 43. Marjorie Paxson, “Fashion Group Course,” March 27, 1962. Papers of Marjorie Paxson, National Women and Media Collection. 44. Marjorie Paxson, “Fashion Group Course,” March 27, 1962. Papers of Marjorie Paxson, National Women and Media Collection. 45. Carol Ann Riordan, “Grand Opening,” American Women Writers National Museum, 2011, 1.

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46. Kristen K. Swanson and Judith C. Everett, Writing for the Fashion Business (New York: Fairchild Books, 2008), 71. 47. Kristen K. Swanson and Judith C. Everett, Writing for the Fashion Business (New York: Fairchild Books, 2008), 71. 48. Kate Nelson Best, The History of Fashion Journalism (Bloomsbury, 2017). 49. Sandra Miller and Peter McNeil, Fashion Journalism: History, Theory and Practice (Bloomsbury, 2017). 50. Kay Mills, A Place in the News: From the Women’s Pages to the Front Pages, 1990; Eileen Wirth, From Society Page to Front Page: Nebraska Women in Journalism, 2013. 51. Deborah Chambers, Linda Steiner and Carole Fleming, Women and Journalism, 2004; Alice Fahs, Out on Assignment: Newspaper Women and the Making of Modern Public Space, 2011; Jan Whitt, Women in American Journalism: A New History, 2008. 52. Francesca Granata, Fashion Criticism (Bloomsbury: London, 2021), 2. 53. Dorothy Roe, The Trouble with Women is Men (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1961), 166–167. 54. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina, 1981), 48. 55. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina, 1981), 49. 56. Virginia Pope’s oral history, New York Times Collection, May 21, 1971, held at New York Public Library, 47. 57. Virginia Pope’s oral history, New York Times Collection, May 21, 1971, held at New York Public Library, 48. 58. “Home Sewing a Threat to Fashion Producers,” New York Times, April 7, 1968. 59. Marylin Bender, “Inexpensive Good Fashion Possible by Home Sewing,” New York Times, January 18, 1964. 60. Garrett D. Byrnes, Fashion in Newspapers (New York: Columbia University Press, 1951), 71. 61. Garrett D. Byrnes, Fashion in Newspapers (New York: Columbia University Press, 1951), 71. 62. Garrett D. Byrnes, Fashion in Newspapers (New York: Columbia University Press, 1951), 72. 63. Eleanor Nangle: Was Tribune Fashion Expert,” Chicago Tribune, November 8, 1986. 64. Serena Maria Daniels, “Margaret Zwecker, 1910–2010: Longtime Chicago fashion editor,” Chicago Tribune, June 21, 2010. 65. Kluger, The Paper: The Life and Death of the New  York Herald Tribune (New York: Knopf, 1986): 265.

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66. Anne-Marie Schiro, “Eugenia Sheppard, Fashion Columnist, Dies” New York Times, November 12, 1984. 67. Marylin Bender, The Beautiful People (New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1967), 80. 68. Shiro, 1984. 69. For example, “Fashion: The Undressed Look,” Time, August 13, 1956. “The Press: Hemlines of the Week,” Time, August 12, 1957. “The Press: Belts, Buckles & Bows,” Time, February 10, 1958. “Fashion: Line for Line,” Time, March 7, 1960. “Fashion: The Old Look,” Time, February 3, 1961. “Fashion: The Word from Paris,” Time, February 2, 1962. “Fashion: Potent Force,” Time, March 16, 1962. 70. Nina Hyde, “High Fashion Columnist Eugenia Sheppard Dies,” Washington Post, November 13, 1984. 71. Cathy Horyn, “Joe Eula, Fashion Illustrator, Dies at 79,” New York Times, October 28, 2004. 72. Horyn, 2014. 73. Gail Sheehy, Daring: My Passages (New York: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2015), 3. 74. Gail Sheehy, Daring: My Passages (New York: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2015), 3. 75. Annette Blaugrund, Dispensing Beauty in New  York and Beyond (Charleston, South Carolina: History Press, 2011), 161–173. 76. Peter J. Ling and Sharon Monteith, Gender in the Civil Rights Movement (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2004), 75. 77. Eleanor Hart “Day-to-Day Diet is Easier on Morale,” Miami Herald, February 12, 1954. 78. Jo Werne, “Eleanor Ratelle, 86, Retired Writer of Herald’s Column With a Heart,” Miami Herald, August 21, 2001. 79. Eleanor Hart, “Wrinkles: Every Woman Gets Them, Hates Them,” Miami Herald, January 26, 1954. 80. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina, 1981), 7. 81. Kimberly Wilmot Voss, “Penney-Missouri Awards,” Journalism History, 2006, 43–50. 82. Annie Lee Singletary, “Old Lady of Rhodes,” Winston-Salem (N.C.) Sentinel, May 31, 1966. 83. Annie Lee Singletary, “Greek Design,” Winston-Salem (N.C.) Sentinel, May 28, 1966. 84. Yvonne Petrie, “Clive: Not ‘Mod,’” Detroit News, Dec. 9, 1964. 85. Yvonne Petrie, “Young Designers Crash’” Detroit News, Dec. 2, 1964. 86. Amanda Fortini, “How the Runway Took Off,” Slate, February 8, 2006.

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87. Raquel Laneri, “How New York Fashion Week Became the Spectacle it is Today,” New York Post, September 7, 2017. 88. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina, 1981), 8. 89. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina, 1981), 8. 90. Wells, 224. 91. Jacquelyn Gray, “Journal Got a Quick Start on Fashion,” Milwaukee Journal, March 31, 1995. 92. Wells 225. 93. Wels 341. 94. Wells 313.

CHAPTER 3

Post-World War II, Changing Dress in America, and Moscow Fashion Show

Prior to World War II, it was mostly European designers who ruled the fashion world. Most designers were trained in Paris, and it is difficult to overestimate the city’s influence. Yet, by the summer of 1940, German soldiers occupied the city, and Paris was cut off from the rest of the world. It meant an opening for American designers that led to an erosion of European fashion dominance. In stepped American designers, and newspapers’ fashion reporters were reporting on the trends. As early as 1945, there were enough competing fashion shows in New York City that an official calendar of the shows was needed to help fashion editors keep them straight. This reporting was a significant part of a fashion editors’ job as they localized national and international fashion news. It was during this time period that, “As fashion became news, fashion journalism came of age.”1 In those post-World War II years, the impact of Christian Dior and “The New Look” turned designers into household names. Suddenly, there was a marked increase in journalists, publicists, and photographers.2 Designers were also adjusting to changes in the rationing of materials. New York Times fashion editor Virginia Pope noted that the easing of restrictions instead of an immediate removal of them prevented designers from going to style extremes. Store owners were not being caught with large stocks of obsolete merchandise, she said.3 It was the destruction and rationing in Europe following the war that allowed American fashion to develop. As American consumer culture © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. W. Voss, Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73624-8_3

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evolved, there was a new emphasis on fashion and consumerism. According to the Fashion Institute of Technology: “When World War II stemmed the flow of imported fashion news and imported originals, American fashion creativity, from sportswear to grand couture, came into full flower and recognition. American designers championed as their own American girls and the contemporary woman.” The increase in production led to story ideas for the fashion editors. In a three-part series, which ran in newspapers across the country, Eleni Epstein gave a behind-the-scenes look at the New York fashion manufacturing industry where about 80 percent of American dresses were produced. She spent a week with dress manufacturer Herbert Sondheim. She felt American women would not want copies of French designs rather than American designs regardless of the “snob appeal” that went along with the label of leading French couture designers.4 In the next article, she described the environment: “It’s not a quiet place. There are traffic jams, trucks unloading dresses and bolts of fabric. Men walk quickly along carrying 15 to 20 fur collars on a hanger. One of these collars could very easily be the fur trim for your winter cloth coat.”5 The final story investigated the coverage of fashion. Epstein wrote, “The news-gathering facilities of the fashion industry are the largest of their kind in the world.”6

Fashion and Religion Stories frequently covered by fashion journalists focused on the influence of religion on fashion. There was a clear connection between the two. For example, one story described a young designer who was designing clothes for the Community of Our Lady, a new Catholic community in Wisconsin. The designer was known for creating mini-dresses, but the church was willing to let him create more conservative clothes more appropriate for nuns and priests. According to a priest: “When you want a dentist, you don’t go to a barber. We have a good many sisters who are good economics teachers, but are not necessarily equipped to judge what is functional and artistic.”7 In several cases, nuns were connected to fashion design. Sister Aloyse Hessburg attended New York Press Week in her role as fashion coordinator for the fashion design department at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin—where she was connected to newspaper fashion editor Aileen Ryan. Hessburg observed Beene’s sequined football uniforms and Gernreich’s navel-baring frocks. “I think they made a mistake

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in trying to close each show with the shockers,” she wrote. “It makes one forget the really good things that might have gone before.” She also noted that her ankle-length skirt was neither a midi or maxi: “It’s not supposed to be stylish; it’s just the habit.”8 (It later years, Milwaukee Journal fashion editor Aileen Ryan joined the college’s faculty.) A nun in her white nursing habit and fluted bonnet was in the unusual position of presenting a fashion show. “This is a result of Vatican II,” Sister Anthony Marie said as she observed “student nurses in miniskirts” and “doctors’ wives in bell-­ bottom pants.”9 In 1969, crosses as accessories were popular—often large and worn as multiple necklaces. They were worn by socialites and celebrities, as well as being seen on department store mannequins. According to the fashion reporter: “In the age of Aquarius, the cross is becoming a high fashion symbol. By spring, the cross should be a mass fad.”10 It would go in and out of fashion over the years. Skirt length and religious disapproval were common themes over the years. It was also an issue when women dared to wear pants—as explained in Chap. 1. In 1947, it was reported that “longer skirts for women are no more ‘immoral’ than floor-length trousers for men,” said Pastor Benjamin A. Bauer of the Elim Tabernacle Church. “Short skirts have, for years now, constituted one of the greatest menaces to the morals of human civilization.”11

Wedding Fashion Weddings were a common fashion topic—from what the bride was wearing to who designed the dress to what famous guests wore. In 1956, a newspaper fashion story began describing the gown of a movie star turned princess: “Grace Kelly’s wedding dress is something Helen Rose won’t talk about. Miss Rose designed it and it’s being made at the Metro-­ Goldwyn-­Mayer studios, where both she and Miss Kelly are employed.” The studio gifted the gown to the actress. Rose had also designed Arlene Dahl’s first wedding gown, and had also created two for Elizabeth Taylor as well as two dresses for Jane Powell. According to the article, the designer “balks at doing more than two for the same woman; she feels the bride has some responsibility to hold on to her man.”12 If the bride’s dress was especially unique, department and bridal stores were quick to make copies of the gowns. As the decade of the 1960s advanced, dresses were becoming less formal than they had been in the

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past. A 1962 New York Times story began with information from an interview with a milliner: “The fussily dressed one-day Cinderellas who are now marching down the aisle as brides should be replaced by understated, natural women.” He explained that he went to 50 weddings in an 18-month period. “It was pretty dreadful. … We must do away with the nipped-in waist, the huge full skirt, the massive train, the layers of tulle— the whole cumbersome dress. It should have gone out with the horse and carriage.”13 Julie Nixon married David Eisenhower in 1968 and her expectations about her dress went on for months. After the wedding, it was reported: “The eight bridesmaids wore pale pink silk dresses with round necklines, small puffed sleeves and belts hooked through circlets. The bride’s slightly Victorian silk peau d’ange and Belgian lace dresses was exactly as she had outlined it last summer.”14 One of the most significant wedding stories was not part of the fashion section. It was not covered until later—and even then there were errors. African American designer Ann Lowe designed the wedding dress for future first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. She had wanted to have a gown designed by a French designer, but her future father-in-law, Joe Kennedy, overruled and demanded an American design be used. In the 1950s, Lowe had a salon in Saks Avenue under her own name and she had created dresses for the Kennedy family. For Jacqueline Kennedy, Lowe’s sketches led her to design the wedding party and the wedding dress. Unfortunately, the bride did not like the dress. When people asked her who did the dress, she responded that the “colored dressmaker did it.” The designer was reportedly devastated to not have been named. Fashion history has indicated that most reporters did not follow through to confirm who was the colored dressmaker. Yet, some historians have written that in Washington, D.C., fashion editor “Nina Hyde was the only one who said a Negro designer did the dress. Everybody else just backed away and didn’t say anything.”15 There is no record of the actual story that Hyde would have written. Furthermore, she was not working at the newspaper at the time. A recent thesis reinforces that it is unlikely Hyde wrote the article despite the several claims over the years.16 Instead, the wedding story that the Washington Post did run was actually an Associated Press story that did not mention the designer of the future first lady’s dress.17

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Coverage of Undergarments Women’s undergarments also were commonly covered fashion topics—to the point that some publications had a corset or brassiere editor. In 1950, it was reported that “corset and brassiere market week” was off to a strong start. The undergarment business was treated the same as any other business: “The tubular line in dress styles has boosted corset business and the off-the-shoulder gown has been responsible for continued business in strapless brassieres.”18 In 1952, petticoats made up 12 percent of the undergarments sold in the country’s 7000 department stores. Two years later, petticoat sales made up half of lingerie sales. The newspaper asked: “How did that happen? Many will claim the honor, but actually it came about because a large number of women in the U.S. who took up full skirts after World War II refused to follow the dictates of dear old fashion and return to the slim look.”19 In 1954, the debate over wearing petticoats had become an issue. One New York Times fashion editor reported: “If one wants to start a controversial conversation, introduce the subject of petticoats into any mixed gathering. There is, however, no disagreement among those who weave the goods, turn them into petticoats, and sell the garments.”20 Corsets received equal treatment by fashion journalists. One fashion story noted that “mature women” were needed to work in corset departments. Several speakers at a meeting emphasized that younger women did not inspire confidence as correct fitters. To increase employment, corset fitters generally receive higher salaries than ordinary salespeople.21 The need for correct fit was based on changes in silhouettes and hemlines, which meant changes in corsetry were dramatic. “Corset manufacturers today refer to their products as fashion accessories, and key them carefully to the shape and colors of outerwear,” according to one story.22 More designers also were being attached to undergarments. For example, Formfit showed girdles and bras designed by Pauline Trigere and Emilio Pucci, and Christian Dior also began designing corsets.23

Fur Popularity In the 1940s, furs and furriers were frequent subjects for stories. In a 1948 New York Times story—which ran along with several photos—Virginia Pope promoted American furriers. “The pelts seem to get more supple from year to year under their skilled hands,” she wrote. “The new wraps

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range from jacket-length to the three-quarters tunic and the full-length 52-inch coat.”24 A few years later, another Times reporter wrote about the popularity of white furs—including those from mink, ermine, and fox: “At the opening of the opera and other recent leading functions, it was the small white fur that was outstanding, making the full-length coat, despite its obvious luxury, look heavy, as did other mutations and colors.”25 In the 1950s, the New York Times fashion editor Dorothy O’Neill wrote about fur evening wraps. “The smaller furs, such as a slim, straight cardigan of wild mink, were handled with great elegance,” she wrote. “Norman Norell contributed one of the newest and most handsome.”26 In 1954, she noted that fur trim was in fashion and that large fur coats were out of vogue. According to the fashion editor, “One of the most modish fashions is the little waist-hugging, fur collared jacket, offered as a substitute for a fur jacket.”27 In the following year, O’Neill reported that changes in fur fashions continued: “Bravo for the designers! They have startled everyone this season. By daring to make de luxe furs into casual fashions. White beaver turns up unexpectedly in a classic polo coat. Moles makes a cardigan sweater. Mink lines a cloth wrap-around.”28 By 1958, the Times described furs as no match for chilled air. “Jack Frost can take a back seat to that man-made chill, air-conditioning, as an inducement to buying furs. One leading fur designer reports that air cooling has opened up one of the most lucrative selling grounds of all time—Texas. Fur designer Ester Dorothy said her favorite cover-up is mink and that it was not frivolous to buy mink to stay warm,” wrote reporter Agnes Ash. “She said, ‘These stoles and jackets can also be worn over heavy winter coats.’”29 By the 1960s, the ethics of wearing fur were being addressed by reporters. In a fashion profile for her Seattle newspaper, Bobbi McCallum wrote about fur expert Florence Balut. The story began, “The Master Furriers Guild of America’s ‘Man of the Year’ is a Dietrich-voiced, vivacious grandmother of five with a flair for fashion.” The story goes on to note her interest in animal preservation including working with the U.S. Department of the Interior.30 Unlike today, when the question of fur is typically either for-or-against, the topic was more nuanced. While Balut was a furrier, she also spoke out about balancing the needs of the animals. She described the environmental impact on a small Alaskan island. “We take just enough to keep the herd balanced,” McCallum quoted Balut. “If we didn’t, the food on the island couldn’t support the herd and they’d all starve.”31 By 1969, the focus of fur was moving beyond coats and outerwear. It was becoming more common for dress designers to use the material. For

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example, Geoffrey Beene’s first collection for Dan Grossman used furs, as did James Galano’s second collection for Neustadter, and Jean Louis’s third showing for Biegeleisen & Schour. New York Times fashion editor Angela Taylor wrote: Although furriers talked for years about handling fur like fabric, it was usually just talk. It was fine with light, pliable furs like broadtail, but mink was treated with such reverence it almost became a bore. Enter the dress designer, and happily, things are changing.32

The following year, furriers were creating a Red Riding Hood cloak or a nun’s hat. Taylor noted: “It sounds as though his theatrical instincts are overcoming his common sense. The furrier—and most women—can’t resist hooded coats for evening.”33 She also wrote of a furrier who “created a garment of sable paws and rimmed all around with sable. Another version was made from Indian lamb fur, also sable bordered.”34 A few years later, the fur sweater became popular, as Taylor wrote, “Paris and Seventh Avenue have rediscovered that handy little garment and have been giving it the biggest play since Chanel invented the sweater as fashion back in the nineteen-twenties.”35 Furs were common for the fashion editors. Several colleagues of Rhode Island fashion editor Madeliene Corey said she had an impressive fashion sense. The president of Harris Furs, Harold Harris said: “She was a real person although she had the Journal clout and visits to New York behind her. She was willing to listen to another point of view. She was a great credit to the newspaper.”36 Often, fashion editors were style icons for their readers.

Fashion as Economy What women were buying—or not buying—was another repeated topic for fashion writers. This also extended to the cosmetics and hairstyles that women wore. This was often viewed as an economic story. For example, one New York Times fashion writer noted: “When a woman lengthens her skirts and grows her fingernails, it’s a sign of crisis and economic depression. Subconsciously, she feels defensive. When hair goes up, governments fail. Aggressiveness in politics is expressed with lots of hair.”37 Fashion, of course, has always had a shade of expression of elitism based on price. Fashion editor Eugenia Sheppard put fashion in these two categories: “All fashion is subdivided into High and Low Fashion. Though flair, an evanescent quality, is what mostly makes High Fashion, it’s silly to say that price

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tags aren’t involved.”38 Fashion decisions and the economy were often intertwined. Dressing for less was a common theme. A 1951 New York Times article focused on dresses that were created by American designers and cost less than $30. It featured several pictures.39 Also that year, the Times featured a story about wool fashions that were inexpensive. The article was aimed at “women who work.” The author, Dorothy O’Neill, noted that coats were “the biggest investment buy in a career girl’s wardrobe” and the wool options were affordable.40 Two years later, there was a detailed story about summer fashions that could be purchased at budget prices from department stores. The reporter, O’Neill, was reporting from a fashion show at a hotel. She described what she considered the prettiest of the clothes.41 In 1966, the New York Times featured a story from an under $10 fashion show. Among the clothes shown were flowered hip-hugger pants ($7.49) and a red cape ($10).42 The price of individual articles of clothing were often mentioned as a reflection of the fashion business. The House Dress Institute, a trade association, has estimated that house dresses produced in the United States ran in the millions. These house dresses were also entering the public sphere: “Today the humble house dress is not what it used to be. A spokesman for the institute says it has undergone a transformation in the last four or five years. Nowadays it is more tailored, and is often a dress that can go out on the street, though it most likely sells at a lowly $2.98 or $3.98.” Further, “Gimbels’ buyer of house dresses calls her products ‘staples.’ But even staples have their busy season.”43

Fashion Show Reporting Fashion show coverage was a regular part of a fashion editor’s job—which typically included local, national, and international reporting. North Carolina fashion editor Annie Lee Singletary covered her first New York fashion week in 1950. “Neither fashion nor I was ever quite the same again,” she recalled.44 It was a grueling assignment. Fashion reporters for afternoon newspapers picked up cardboard cups of coffee for late-night hotel room sessions on a typewriter. Morning newspaper writers filed stories while other editors were eating lunch.”45 Singletary estimated that the newspaper fashion editors averaged about four hours of sleep each night on a schedule that began at 7 a.m. and often continued until midnight. These women could be seen with newspaper

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copy in hand and pajamas under their raincoats, in search of the Western Union office closest to the hotel to file their stories.46 Associated Press fashion reporter Nadeane Walker Anderson recalled covering fashion shows. “You had to come back and file your stories after we were served champagne off silver trays by waiters with white gloves, all day long, and I developed a great tolerance for champagne, I guess, because I never got too drunk to write my stories,” she said.47 In the early years, the schedule called for showings in the first days of the week in a hotel ballroom and later days in designers’ showrooms on Seventh Avenue. Lots of time was spent traveling between Seventh and Fifth (it was not one-way then). Editors remembered there was the constant fear of being run over on the garment district streets by racks of clothing being moving aggressively down the sidewalks. Agnes McCoy and Fay Hammond of Los Angeles, and Irene Boyce and Gay Simpson of Dallas were regulars from the early days of fashion show coverage. Hammond’s comments about what she was seeing made interesting listening. As Singletary wrote in her memoir, “Once when everyone sat awed by the magnificence of a bejeweled satin ballgown with voluminous skirts, it was no doubt Fay’s voice that was heard to inquire of the commentator, ‘Is it drip dry?’”48 They were an entertaining group. Singletary recalled the community that developed: I was impressed with the type of reporters coming from all over the country to write about fashion. I thought they would be a pretty fluffy group but quickly changed my mind about all that! As I look back, I realize how lucky we were to have those years—such good friends, so much fun, so many things to laugh about, and, strangely enough, so much work.”49

In a speech about her career, Detroit fashion editor Yvonne Petrie described the work that went into covering the twice-a-year New  York fashion shows—one in January and one in July. She thought of it as a “mad, mad maelstrom” of “dawn-to-midnight” fashion shows. Then, in 1963, the Couture Group’s press director Eleanor Lambert left to form American Designer Showings. Petrie said that meant the writers had to cover a double jolt of fashion. At first, the week was stretched to an 11-day marathon. That first January, the two rival groups showed simultaneously in different hotels. As a result, reporters were sprinting between Fifth and Park avenues to cover the best of both events for readers.50 There were also what Petrie described as some glamorous aspects of press parties held

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at fancy locations such as El Morocco, 21, or the Stork Club. With more than 200 fashion editors attending, she described the sound as “maddening.” She also noted the overall annoyance of “cold-eyed” female fashion editors being served food and drink by Bunnies at the Playboy Club while reporting on men’s fashions. She noted, “All the powder-puff tails in the world couldn’t influence their opinions of a dinner jacket.”51 Publicity stunts were common in the hopes of media coverage. In one such campaign, a girdle company “gave away” a man at a raffle at Sardi’s: actor Ricardo Montalbán. A news story reported, “the flustered gray-haired editor who won him gave him politely back again.”52 Fashion editors reported that the uniqueness of the location of a fashion show would not influence coverage. As one editor wrote: “Her space is too limited for a cabaret travelog. She can—and often does—sit all day in a hotel ballroom, watching top designer collections march down a bare runway, and file a zingy, news-packed story without ever leaving the premises.”53 And, as another editor recalled, “In the hotel press rooms, are rows of typewriters and Western Union transmitters. The aroma of hot coffee fills the room and recreates the environment of a newspaper office.”54 The space was busy all day long with different deadlines for morning and afternoon newspapers. These journalists could be cynical in their coverage. One year when fancy brocades and piles of fur grew boringly repetitive during press week, “an editor roused herself from lethargy as a dazzling white satin ballgown swept by. It was printed with sheaves of golden wheat. ‘That’s the Lenox china pattern,’ she said, glassy-eyed.”55 By 1959, there were about 20,000 shows a year in New York City—more than twice the number of shows from 10 years before. A fashion story noted that there were two kinds of fashion shows: those for the trade and those for the consumers. About 85 percent of them were trade shows with the goal of selling clothes to stores and getting publicity.56 The reporter wrote: “In January the out-of-town fashion editors would converge upon the city to see the same trade shows and carry home purple tidings of what women will wear for Spring. There are also summer buying seasons (in February) and fall buying seasons (in June). Then, of course, come a host of specialists’ seasons: the corset season, the millinery season, the lingerie season and so on, almost endlessly.”57 Fashion shows and industry reports meant that fashion was always in the news.

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International Fashion American newspaper fashion editors often traveled to European countries to cover fashion. For example, Houston journalist Marjorie Paxson reported from Paris in 1955: “Parisian haute couture sprang few surprises this time and did little to change the prevailing long, slim silhouette. Skirt lengths were a bit lower in some houses, a little shorter at others, so the hemline remains about the same.”58 In another story reported from Paris in 1955, she explained: “The tunic, underlined and with a capital T, is the big thing with Balenciaga. He started the long tunic last season and enlarged on it this fall, introducing a new variation in the lower fullness gathered on a tight band.”59 She noted that Dior’s fall collection was conservative but also magical. “He left the shoulder strictly alone, keeping it small and following the natural line. Dior’s favorite trick this time is ripping side seams in suit pockets and evening coats all the way up under the arm.”60 During the same year, Paxson reported from Florence, Italy: “The tremendous amount of handwork which goes into many of the designs has to be seen at close range to be appreciated fully. For example, Simonetta’s white organdy short formal with a wide skirt of alternating rows of narrow black lace and narrow bands of organdy must have taken hours and hours of painstaking work.”61 She also reported on the thoughts of fashion reporters covering the shows in Italy: “The Americans think that maybe this is the year for a new shoulder treatment. A return of padding, perhaps.”62

Fabrics in Fashion Fabrics and the technology of new developments in fabric were common stories—especially after World War II. In 1954, the New York Times featured a story that explained the new developments in cotton—noting that coats made with the material often looked like wool or tweed.63 In 1955, the Times described what reporter Dorothy Hawkins described as “men’s fabrics.” These included Glen plaid and herringbone. The layout included several pictures.64 Another story from that same year was a photo package featuring models who were photographed in front of jewelry stores.65 Of all materials, jeans or denim seemed to mystify fashion editors the most in the 1950s and 1960s. Barbara Cloud wrote: “I also would NEVER have guessed jeans would become a fashion must-have. Maybe that is

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really the trend I never saw coming and was surprised when it did.”66 The patterns column in New York Times focused on the modern material: “Denim, that strong, sturdy cotton material that started out as a utility fabric and later crept into the sportswear field, emerges this season as a high-fashion fabric.”67 In another 1950s story: “From farm to fame, that is the course that denim, a thoroughly American fabric, has pursued. Taking its place in the world of feminine dress as the highly utilitarian Levi, it is now accepted in sophisticated circles. In its growing-up process, denim has been refined until its texture makes it acceptable for such costumes as illustrated here.”68 A decade later, the newspaper printed: “What is more apple-pie American than denim? This sturdy dark cotton used in jeans and work clothes looks like the all-star favorite for 1971. Denim overalls won’t be confined to the farm this year. They promise to be one of the big, young, kicky, status fashions.”69 Paper as a fashion material had its moment—including wedding dresses, shoes, and bikinis. Paper clothing and accessories included a paper hat, paper underwear, and paper jewelry. A fashion editor explained: “What seemed dim, a paper moon to fashion’s galaxy last year, is steadily growing fuller and shining on unlikely places. By summer, she will be able to slip her feet into paper shoes.”70 Dresses made with plastic also had their moment. A fashion story began with, “A woman going out for the evening in a Paco Rabanne dress of plastic and metal might slip pliers into her purse along with a comb and lipstick.” The story was clear that the dresses were for adventurous fashionistas: “What does one wear under his shimmering circles and squares linked by metal rings? A slip, or better yet a body stocking, the 30-year-old designer said.” He spoke in Spanish or French, but the English-speaking reporter wrote that Rabanne’s gestures translated easily. When he was asked: “What happens when you sit down?” Rabanne responded: “You shouldn’t— they are for dancing.”71 Not all fashion was intended to be functional.

Clothing Sizes and Age Clothing sizes have changed over time. A particular size is determined by industry and further refined by individual designers and manufacturers. According to an academic study, “Clothing size labels create cultural categories that reflect society’s view of women’s body sizes.”72 Normalized sizes began in the early twentieth century when women’s clothing changed from individual tailoring to patterns that could fit a variety of specific sizes

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and mass manufacturing could be done.73 Yet, over time, the debate over sizes was constant. In 1956, a fashion story noted that a tall women needed her own part of a department store. The fashion reporter wrote: Figuring it’s not so eccentric as it is expensive to be tall, Bloomingdale’s has opened a new shop for girls upwards of 5 feet, seven inches filled with coats, suits and dresses long on fashion, longer still on the waistline but short on price.74

Two years later, the needs of short women needed to be addressed. The reporter noted that many fashions were designed for tall, thin models. In this case, it was at Bergdorf Goodman: “The smaller you are, the harder you will fall for the Carven collection of ready-to-wear fashions. Mlle Carven, a petite French designer with a big reputation for dressing diminutive women, has created a group of fashions that is available in sizes 5 to 13.”75 Another 1950s story addressed smaller sizes. (A clothing manufacturer described a new size at the time as “petite.” It was explained as a “junior size that has grown older.”) The reporter wrote: “Every man thinks of his wife as the ‘little woman.’ But until now, few dress manufacturers have sized her up that way.” The reporter went on to note that many department stores divided clothes into categories of misses dresses or a short-waisted size called “juniors.” This was done despite the fact that research showed that more than 70 percent of American women are under five feet four.76 By the 1960s, several stories focused on larger-sized women. One story noted that in a time of small knits, pantsuits, and clingy jersey dresses, it seemed that larger women were forgotten. To make it more obvious, some people called the current fashion look “the skinny revolution.” Some people, like Totie Fields, the singer-comedienne who was one of the larger women, said: “I think it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to heavy women. There is hardly a dress over size 14 these days—and if there is, it’s one of those mother-of-the-bride affairs. You know, the horrible lace basic sleeve cover-up.”77 On the other hand, there were a few fashion shows aimed at larger women. Yet, the reporting noted that there was something unusual about such a show. The reporter described the lunch-hour crowd around the runway in Bryant Park. It featured “a group of plump, grandmotherly models pranced up and down the runway.” She wrote: “Men clustered about hoping to ogle the usual group of young and willowy models. They were in for a surprise. The show was given by Lane Bryant

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that specializes in clothes for the fuller woman.” A male clothing executive said: “This show is really progress. Usually the chubby fashions are the most neglected section of the industry. This shows there is more to fashion than just Geoffrey Beene and Norman Norell.”78

Moscow Fashion Show, 1959 One American fashion show that received international media attention took place in 1959 in Moscow. Ultimately, the stories were about more than clothes. In 1945, Dorothy Shaver launched a campaign known as the “American Look” to promote designers. A few years later, Shaver, president of Lord & Taylor, began giving speeches to fashion colleagues, saying that within the context of the Cold War, American fashion carried significant symbolic meaning. Shaver believed that fashion demonstrated the economic and cultural achievements possible within a democratic system. “Thus, fashion was another part of the Cold War’s cultural front,” she said.79 As the years went on, it became a social battle between the Unites States and the Soviets. According to a scholarly article, “American and Soviet leaders tried to use fashion to embody the ideological values of each political and economic system. Both also acknowledged a ‘fashion gap,’ whereby Americans enjoyed clear superiority thanks to a well-­ developed mass production system of ready-made, stylish clothing.”80 By the summer of 1959, competition moved from the space war to culture. The Soviets organized an exhibition of their technological and cultural achievements and showed it in New York. The American producers wanted to demonstrate through skits how America lives, rather than to present a traditional runway show. George V. Allen, director of the U.S. Information Agency, said, “I think the show could well display the girls in the kitchen or participating in some sports activity.”81 Rather than simply walking out and back in a straight line, the models would interact with each other on an outdoor, curving platform. It was meant to show idealized scenes from American life, such as rock ‘n roll, square dancing, a barbeque party with actual hot dogs, and wedding parties. There was a practice show before 250 fashion editors held at the Fashion Institute of Technology prior to the Moscow trip. Several said they had concerns after watching the performance, which seems problematic through today’s lens. One of the editors said she had found fault with a rock ‘n roll skit she said was suggestive of juvenile delinquency and with two wedding scenes. One of the weddings had white models portraying

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the bride and groom with “Negroes” depicting the attendants; the other, the reverse.82 The women filed a petition: We the American fashion press protest the presentation of fashions in the U.S.A. exhibition to Moscow as being not representative of the American way of life. The chief objections were voiced against scenes in which three Negro models—two female and one male—were integrated into a cast of 47.83

New York Times reporter Tobia Frankel wrote that more than 40 of the 250 American fashion editors signed the petition. Yvonne Petrie of the Detroit News described the show as “not factual.” Cathryn McCune of the Tulsa Tribune said: “Folks back home would have been shocked by the sight of Negro and white young people dancing together. The time may come when we play together, but it’s not here yet.” Graydon D. Heartsill of the Dallas Times-Herald said: “We would have been fools not to send out Negroes, but I do think that to show integration presents a false picture.” Mary Ellis of Wichita (Kansas) Beacon, “We never see fashion shows with Negroes here. Why take it to Russia?” She also mentioned the “mixed dancing” done between Black and white models. “It doesn’t represent our way of life in Wichita. Maybe it does to a New Yorker,” she wrote.84 The organization responsible for the show—the Fashion Industries Presentation Committee—responded that the claims were unfounded but also changed the show content. The group said that changes were only made because the show ran too long.85 The show organizers eliminated six scenes, including two weddings, one of which depicted the civil marriage of the Negro models Norma Jean Johnson and Gilbert Noble, who had white attendants and a garden wedding. The Negro models would participate as guests in the remaining wedding.”86 Later, 80 Americans traveled to Moscow to prepare for the fashion show they would present at the American National Exhibition.87 According to Smithsonian Magazine: At the opening of the exhibition, in the company of her husband, Pat Nixon glowed in natural raw silk suit and smart hat. She looked just as she was supposed to: like a sophisticated and well-heeled American housewife. The message was clear: the Russians might be ahead in space research and education, but they cannot match the sophistication of Western dress and the easy smoothness of an American lady going about her everyday life.88

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The New York Times noted that the “down-to-earth” approach was likely lost on most of its Russian audiences since it did not feature high fashion, such as Dior. Overly made-up models were described by someone in the audience as “painted like strawberries” and the American models were “so thin by comparison with their plumper Russian counterparts.”89 Ultimately it was the reaction to race relations that overshadowed the American clothes presented. This fashion show demonstrated the intersection of fashion, politics, and current events. The post-World War II years were a booming time for fashion editors who created sections for the growing women’s pages thanks to the advertising. The editors covered fashion shows, translated what they saw for local readers, and came up with story ideas. The editors had become a community—seeing each other often. The next chapter will examine national fashion editors and the publicists they often worked with.

Notes 1. Marylin Bender, The Beautiful People (New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1967), 147. 2. Marylin Bender, The Beautiful People (New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1967), 147. 3. No byline, “Spring Hats ‘to Please the Men’ and Suits of Rounded Lines Forecast by Miss Pope,” New York Times, February 4, 1946. 4. Eleni Sakes, “Fashion World Gets Ideas from Hidden Store,” INS, Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, September 20, 1949. 5. Eleni Sakes, “How American Fashions are Born in a Garment Center,” INS, Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, September 21, 1949. 6. Eleni Sakes, “Fashion News Creates New Fashion,” INS, Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, September 23, 1949. 7. Judy Klemesrud, “Way-Out Designer With Solemn Task,” New York Times, October 7, 1968. 8. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina, 1981), 51. 9. Angela Taylor, “A Fashionable Result of Vatican II,” New York Times, October 20, 1966. 10. Marylin Bender, “Ancient Symbol Becomes Fashion Fad,” New York Times, November 28, 1969. 11. Associated Press, “Longer skirts defended,” New York Times, September 18, 1947.

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12. Elizabeth Harrison, “Designer Mum On Kelly Dress,” New York Times, March 20, 1956. 13. Charlotte Curtis, “Bride’s Standard Attire Is Dreadful, Hatter Says,” New York Times, June 5, 1962. 14. Charlotte Curtis, “Julie Nixon Wed to David Eisenhower, New York Times, December 23, 1968. 15. Michel Martin, “Author Chronicles History of Black Designers,” NPR, September 12, 2007. 16. Margaret E.  Powell, The Life and Work of Ann Lowe: Rediscovering ‘Society’s Best Kept Secret, master’s thesis, Smithsonian Associates and the Corcoran College of Art + Design, 2012. 17. “Miss Bouvier Becomes Bride of Sen. Kennedy at Newport,” Washington Post, September 13, 1953. 18. “Reorders Strong for Corset Week,” New York Times, June 29, 1950. 19. Elizabeth Hawes, “Petticoat Look,” New York Times, September 26, 1954. 20. Elizabeth Hawes, “Petticoat Look,” New York Times, September 26, 1954. 21. “Older Women Sought As Fitters of Corsets,” New York Times, November 2, 1955. 22. “Emphasis in Corsetry Is Now on Its Fashion,” New York Times, August 19, 1963. 23. “Emphasis in Corsetry Is Now on Its Fashion,” New York Times, August 19, 1963. 24. Virginia Pope, “Fashions in Fur,” New York Times, August 8, 1948. 25. Dorothy O’Neill, “Fashions: Small White Furs Take the Limelight,” New York Times, December 9, 1952. 26. Dorothy O’Neill, “3 Nations’ Stylists in Fur Collection,” New York Times, October 6, 1953. 27. Dorothy O’Neill, “Fur Trims Add a Touch of Elegance to Resort Fashions,” New York Times, January 1, 1954. 28. Dorothy Hawkins, “Sporting Furs, New York Times, August 28, 1955. 29. Agnes Ash, “Air Cooling Inducement To Buy Fur,” New York Times, May 22, 1958. 30. Bobbi McCallum, “Seal’d for Delivery,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 25, 1968. 31. Bobbi McCallum, “Seal’d for Delivery,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 25, 1968. 32. Angela Taylor, “When Dress Designers Turn to Fur, Fashion Quotient Zooms,” New York Times, June 10, 1969. 33. Angela Taylor, “Shop Offers Poncho-like Mink Stoles,” New York Times, November 9, 1970. 34. Angela Taylor, “Shop Offers Poncho-like Mink Stoles,” New York Times, November 9, 1970.

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35. Angela Taylor, “Furs This Spring? Furriers Hope So,” New York Times, February 10, 1972. 36. Madeliene Corey Lennon Dies; Former Fashion Writer for J-B,” Providence Journal-Bulletin, January 29, 1983. 37. Angela Taylor, “If You Always Thought Fashion Was Frivolous,” New York Times, June 20, 1970. 38. Bernard Roshco, The Rag Race (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1963), 12. 39. Dorothy O’Neill, “Thirty Dollars and Under,” New York Times, October 14, 1951. 40. Dorothy O’Neill, “Fashion in Wool Boon to Budgets,” New York Times, August 24, 1951. 41. Dorothy O’Neill, “Summer Fashions at Budget Prices,” New York Times, May 21, 1953. 42. Bernadine Morris, “Under-$10 Fashion Shows Spring Look,” New York Times, February 17, 1966. 43. Elizabeth Harrison, “The House Dress, Once Lowly, Now Steps Outdoors,” New York Times, February 2, 1959. 44. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina, 1981), v. 45. Petrie, Penney-Missouri Awards, 5. 46. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina, 1981), v. 47. Chris Tomlinson, “Former AP fashion editor Anderson dies at 91,” Washington Examiner, January 9, 2013. 48. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina, 1981), 9. 49. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina, 1981), 8. 50. Yvonne Petrie, “It’s a Mad, Mad …” Missouri-Penney Award Banquet, March 19, 1964, 1. Penney-Missouri Award Papers, National Women and Media Collection. 51. Yvonne Petrie, “It’s a Mad, Mad …” Missouri-Penney Award Banquet, March 19, 1964, 2. Penney-Missouri Award Papers, National Women and Media Collection. 52. Petrie, Penney-Missouri Awards, 7. 53. Christy, Invasions of Privacy, 24. 54. Yvonne Petrie, “It’s a Mad, Mad …” Missouri-Penney Award Banquet, March 19, 1964, 3. Penney-Missouri Award Papers, National Women and Media Collection. 55. Petrie, Penney-Missouri Awards, 6.

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56. Martha Weinman, “No Biz Like Fashion Show Biz,” New York Times, November 15, 1959. 57. Martha Weinman, “No Biz Like Fashion Show Biz,” New York Times, November 15, 1959. 58. Marjorie Paxson, “Beautiful Fall Styles Emphasize Curves,” Houston Chronicle, August 11, 1955. 59. Marjorie Paxson, “Balenciaga Introduces Variations on Tunic,” Houston Chronicle, August 10, 1955. 60. Marjorie Paxson, “A Conservative Dior Retains Magic Touch,” Houston Chronicle, August 5, 1955. 61. Marjorie Paxson, “Simonetta, Fabiani Are Best ay Florence Show,” Houston Chronicle, August 2, 1955. 62. Marjorie Paxson, “More Luxury Expected in European Collections,” Houston Chronicle, July 27, 1955. 63. Dorothy Hawkins, “Cotton Lines,” New York Times, March 21, 1954. 64. Dorothy Hawkins, “Borrowed: Men’s Fabrics,” New York Times, February 6, 1955. 65. Dorothy Hawkins, “Fabulous Fabrics,” New York Times, October 2, 1955. 66. Stephen Knezovich, “Barbara Cloud,” Pittsburgh Magazine, January 2010. http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-­Magazine/ January-­2010/Barbara-­Cloud/. 67. Virginia Pope, “Pattern of the Times: Denim Goes High-Fashion,” New York Times, April 28, 1952. 68. Virginia Pope, “Sophisticated Demin,” New York Times, March 30, 1952. 69. Patricia Peterson, “Denim Comes to Town,” New York Times, January 17, 1971. 70. Angela Taylor, “Paper Expands Its Domain: Wedding Dresses, Shoes and Bikinis,” New York Times, March 8, 1967. 71. Angela Taylor, “The Dress for Dancing – Not Sitting,” New York Times, March 29, 1966. 72. Lisa J. Hackett and Denise N. Rall, “The Size of the Problem With the Problem of Sizing,” Clothing Cultures, 2018, 277. 73. Lisa J. Hackett and Denise N. Rall, “The Size of the Problem With the Problem of Sizing,” Clothing Cultures, 2018, 264. 74. Phyllis Levin, “Tall Girls Find Their Fashions Short in Price,” New York Times, August 21, 1956. 75. Agnes Ash, “Carven Has the Answers for the Diminutive Woman Caught Short on Style,” New York Times, October 3, 1958. 76. Agnes Ash, “Recognition To Be Given Petite Sizes,” New York Times, May 15, 1958. 77. Judy Klemesrud, “The Forgotten Woman in the ‘Skinny Revolution,’” New York Times, December 1, 1969.

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78. Judy Klemesrud, “A Day for Plump, Motherly Models,” New York Times, July 17, 1968. 79. Stephanie M.  Amerian, “The Fashion Gap: the Cold War politics of American and Soviet Fashion, 1945–1959,” Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, February 2016. 80. Stephanie M.  Amerian, “The Fashion Gap: the Cold War politics of American and Soviet Fashion, 1945–1959,” Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, February 2016. 81. “U.S. Asks Change in Fashion Show,” New York Times, July 16, 1959. 82. “Racial Mixing Assailed in Fashion Show for Moscow,” New York Time, July 15, 1959. 83. Gerri Major, “U.S. to Show USSR Bias Side, Say Integration Not Typical,” Jet, July 30, 1959, 42. 84. Gerri Major, “U.S. to Show USSR Bias Side, Say Integration Not Typical,” Jet, July 30, 1959, 42–3. 85. “Racial Mixing Assailed in Fashion Show for Moscow,” New York Times, July 15, 1959. 86. Gerri Major, “U.S. to Show USSR Bias Side, Say Integration Not Typical,” Jet, July 30, 1959, 44. 87. UPI, “80 in Moscow for Fair,” New York Times, July 22, 1959. 88. Djurdja Bartlett, “When the United States and Soviet Union Fought it Out Over Fashion,” Smithsonian Magazine, June 2019. 89. Tobia Frankel, “U.S.  Fashion Show Baffles Russians,” New York Times, July 27, 1959.

CHAPTER 4

National Fashion Editors, Public Relations Pioneers, and Fashion Designers

While almost all cities had their own fashion reporters, a few stood out as national newspaper fashion editors. Many of these women were reporting out of New  York City and Washington, D.C.  Their reach was in part because they had syndicated stories and columns. These women also often had connections to public relations practitioners—especially in New York. The journalism industry largely respects a clear line between news and public relations. Yet, the line could be fuzzy for the fashion editors. For example, legendary New York Herald Tribune fashion editor Eugenia Sheppard was a good friend of famous fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert. Together they created the best-dressed list that got national attention. Yet, Sheppard was also known for her honest—and sometimes cleverly blunt— criticism of designers who Lambert would have represented. The relationship between fashion editor and publicist was a complicated one with the power dynamic regularly shifting. Marylou Luther said that when she went to work at the Chicago Tribune in the mid-1950s, the publicist had too much power. At the time, she worked with fashion editor Eleanor Nangle, who agreed that there were too many restrictions on fashion editors. “This doesn’t make any sense,” Luther said. “If you told a sports reporter that you wouldn’t cover the World Series until three months after it happened, he’d say you were crazy. But that’s what we were doing.” Nangle, Luther, and their illustrator were seeing clothes three months after the buyers had seen them in shows. Luther got into the showrooms of a few designers—two of them were Lambert’s clients. She © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. W. Voss, Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73624-8_4

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was told that Lambert had said Luther could not be admitted. “Lambert was in complete control of the American fashion industry,” Luther said. “The press saw the collections when and how she dictated she would.”1 That access to designers and clothes were tightly controlled by publicists. Reporters largely abided by the reporters who feared repercussions and a ban from future access. As Washington Post fashion editor Robin Givhan noted of that time period: Modern fashion publicists and the media are forever engaged in a power struggle that is fraught with false intimacy and ambiguous intentions. Lambert didn’t aspire to a mutually beneficial relationship with the press; she wanted writers to be committed to celebrating American fashion, American designers, and, in particular, her clients. As Fashion Press Week became a habit within the media, Lambert’s power expanded.2

Fashion in New York City There were numerous newspapers in New  York City in the 1940s and 1950s. The most prominent for fashion coverage was the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune. The Times’ fashion editor Virginia Pope said: “Then came the war, and the Paris blackout. There were no reporters from Paris. So we did New York designer stories, and New York fashion stories.”3 She had to keep track of the stores that she wrote about. “When I first started out, mentioning names, I got the names from advertising…,” she said. “The only times I ever talked to our Advertising Department about editorial credits, I had a great chart that gave me the names of every advertiser. So, when Bergdorf Goodman was mentioned, they got a little mark; when Macy’s was mentioned, they got a mark, and so down to every mention of every store. And I never had a complaint.”4 The New York Times publisher defended the women’s page, following initial criticism, as a natural evolution at the newspaper. He said he was putting nothing new in the Times by this move, but instead was assembling a section of items that the content was always news, but previously was scattered throughout the newspaper.5 Fashion reporting was significant from the early days of the section. The idea for “Fashions of the Times” was initiated by Pope. She presented a series of small fashion shows for women’s clubs in the New York City—with help from the promotion and circulation departments. It highlighted the New York textile industry. According to a book about the Times: “When the war cut off Paris

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fashions the visitation became acute and Miss Pope wisely figured a Times-­ sponsored fashion show might help anchor the industry—and help bring in more national advertising.”6 There were several fashion editors and reporters at the New York Times—after all, there was so much material to cover. Patricia Peterson was working as Patricia Louis—the New York Times fashion editor—when she met fashion photographer Gosta Peterson in 1948. Several of his photos soon ran in her fashion section. They married in 1954. (Later, he became well known for his images of models Naomi Sims and Twiggy in the Times.)7 She covered post-World War II fashions for many years. Nan Robertson started in the women’s pages of the New York Times in 1955. She wrote hundreds of articles about fashion and shopping. In the 1960s, she became a Washington bureau reporter for the Times. She said she was assigned to cover the “first lady, her children and their dogs.”8 She would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for her article on toxic shock syndrome. Dorothy Hawkins became the fashion editor of the New York Times in 1955. She had served as Virginia Pope’s assistant since 1952—after covering fashion for magazines.9 She married journalist Larry Le Sueur in 1957 and her byline changed to Dorothy Le Sueur.10 She spent 1950 in Paris and later returned to cover designers. “For the choicest French fashions, the game is far from over,” she wrote in a 1955 story. “The next move is to rush the originals to the United States, have them copied and present them to the public in prices they can pay.”11 Later, she became the fashion editor of the Washington Post from 1965 to 1972. There, she found herself commenting on the changing fashions of the time, including the minimalist designs embraced by the youth culture: “Teenagers with a Twiggy bent will be ecstatic over the skinny minidresses which are so simple that they look as if they were made by Twiggy herself on her own toy sewing machine.”12 Reporter Agnes Ash covered fashion for the New York Times in the 1950s—as well as other topics. She went on to become the first female business editor at Miami News—one of the first women in the country. She eventually becoming newspaper publisher of Palm Beach Daily News—where she still covered fashion. A profile praised her ability to do more than just report on the latest styles: “Clothes are just the silky covering; the real guts of fashion is business and promotion, and Ash has an affinity for both.”13 Phyllis Levin also started covering fashion in the Times in the 1950s. “You covered the cut of the dress but what made it possible, really, and most interesting, was the biography of the past, the color of

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these people’s lives,” she liked to observe.14 Times reporter Tobia Brown Frankel was another fashion reporter who found herself traveling abroad to cover the fashion industry, including an American fashion show in the Soviet Union.15 Another popular Times’ fashion reporter was Carrie Donovan—who reached pop culture fame when she appeared in television commercials for Old Navy. She was interested in fashion beginning in childhood and at age 10, she sent fashion sketches to actress Jane Wyman. She received a handwritten letter back. She started as a fashion reporter at the Times in 1955 and snared an interview with magazine fashion editor Diana Vreeland in 1963. In the 1960s, she wrote of how designer Norman Norell viewed American women: “Her hair is shingled shorter than Zelda Fitzgerald’s at the height of the Twenties; her eyes are ringed with circles of black; her mouth is a slash of red in a dead white face, and she is wearing suits with divided skirts.”16 Angela Taylor covered fashion and beauty for the Times beginning in the 1960s. Many of her stories were about hairstyles.17 By 1970s she was writing about the constant debate over skirt length. She wrote about designer Paco Rabanne, who was not a fan of long skirts but did prefer ankle-length furs. For the future, “he reveals that it will be an evaluation of the body stocking,” she wrote.18 Enid Nemy covered fashion for the Times beginning in 1963 and continued for nearly four decades. In the early years, she wrote about the rejection of traditional clothing: “The hippies have given us a look of freedom and vast stretches of America have still never seen a hippie. The hair, the beads, the belts, the colors will all affect fashion generally.”19 Mary Burt Holmes often wrote about beauty and fashion. In the 1960s, she wrote about a cosmetic service for women in the hospital: When a pink uniformed woman pushes a pink cart topped by spaceman-like headgear through hospital halls it does not mean that a patient is about to be shot to the moon. It is simply the Hospital Beauty Service Systems, Inc., bringing its portable beauty salon to women who like to look well even though they do not feel it.20

Charlotte Curtis began her career at the Times as a fashion reporter in 1961, and two years later was assigned to the society beat. By 1965, she was promoted to editor of the Family/Style section and encouraged her fashion reporters to take a sociological view of fashion.21 Judy Klemesrud

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spent 19 years at the New York Times beginning in 1966 and ending in 1985 when she died. She covered many fashion stories, almost all of her stories touched on political and sociological issues. Her reporting demonstrated the overall impact of fashion—especially in relation to gender. Feminist leader Betty Friedan said of Klemesrud, “She is one of the people we can say thank you to.”22

Eugenia Sheppard Likely the most significant newspaper fashion journalist of the 1960s was Eugenia Sheppard. In 1956, she began her popular fashion column “Inside Fashion” at the Herald Tribune. Initially it ran twice a week and eventually it became a daily column; it became a “must read” in the fashion community. She was known for her witty way with words. This was how she wrote about the 1957 European fashion shows and the use of buttons and bows: “It’s all terribly cute, but like giving a girl candy when she craves steak.” Of Lanvin-Castillo's new extra-short skirt length: “Pretty sexy for a tall girl, but it may make a short one disappear altogether.” According to the New York Times, Sheppard “became known for her breezy writing style, a personalized approach to fashion and her ability to spot trends even before the trend-setters realized they were setting them.”23 Few American newspaper fashion editors were more influential in the 1950s and 1960s than Sheppard. She helped to define a new kind of American fashion society in the post-World War II years. Ultimately, she became as significant as the designers she wrote about. Artist Andy Warhol wrote of Sheppard, “She invented fashion and gossip together.”24 Her writing did have a distinctly gossipy tone, differing from previous fashion journalism coverage that was rather straightforward. She was known for her discovery that rich people “no longer craved privacy, and loved nothing better than to have their taste validated by attention in the public prints.” It was the beginning of fashion and celebrity that would become popular later. Sheppard was the right person to cover fashion at this changing time. Designer Mollie Parnis said of the journalist: “She was the first one to treat designers like celebrities. She made the average woman feel toward a designer like an audience to an actor.”25 That was a powerful approach. In an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, Sheppard said: “I tend to think of people as characters in novels. I was always more interested in the people

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who were designing the clothes and wearing them than the clothes themselves.”26 Pulitzer-Prize-winning fashion writer Robin Givhan wrote of Sheppard: She “nursed modern fashion reportage through its infancy in the 1950s and 1960s with her emphasis on personalities and trends.”27 Sheppard was a fashion journalism pioneer. Historians have noted that Sheppard as well as editor John Fairchild of Women’s Wear Daily helped to develop “a new kind of celebrity, fashion socialite. They instigated a merger of fashion and social gossip that spread like an epidemic through the press.”28 They covered fashion in a way that had not been done before. Sheppard also worked with the previously mentioned fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert to create the ultimate prize for fashion and celebrity— the official best dressed list.29 (Other members of the group making the decision in the 1960s included Diana Vreeland, Vogue editor Margaret Case, Harper’s Bazaar editor in chief Nancy White, and Life fashion editor Sally Kirkland.) Sheppard wrote of the recognition: The rumor that it takes vast sums of money to be elected one of the world’s most stylish women is absolutely true. A flat chest and the fashionable slouch posture also help— but being an international socialite is the greatest natural asset of them all.30

Givhan wrote that Sheppard “nursed modern fashion reportage through its infancy in the 1950s and ‘60s with her emphasis on personalities and trends.” During that time period, Sheppard’s column ran in the influential New York Herald Tribune and was also syndicated in more than eighty newspapers across the country. During the height of her power, no designer started their fashion show until Sheppard took her front row seat—a special spot was routinely reserved for her.31 It was not really helpful from a journalistic standpoint. Her poor eyesight—and her unwillingness to wear glasses—was well known. For example, American one-­named designer Adolfo said: “It was extraordinary. She could come to my shows and assimilate it all to perfection in her column, even though she didn’t see it so well.”32 Although, it should be noted that fashion shows were not her favorite journalism assignment. She said in an interview: “I don’t like to cover shows. I like stories where personalities are involved. I am more interested in personalities than in clothes.”33 Yet, she also had a knack for describing clothes. She wrote about designer Jean Dessès’ “dovetail look”: “Dresses have always been inspired

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by birds. I think it’s time somebody came right out and told this nice guy to switch to biology or some other ology. Anything but birds.”34 Sheppard had a way to analyze what made fashion significant: “Fashion is simply the way people look and the changes in the look that occur from one year to another or even from one day to the next.”35 She also understood the role of social class. Sheppard wrote: “Those women are New York’s greatest asset for making fashion. They are more willing and able to spend more money on clothes and gadgets than any other woman in the world.”36 Sheppard covered fashion internationally but never forgot that much of her readership  wanted a local connection: “To count for anything, a fashion has to get around. It has to go lots farther than to a designer’s salon, the clothes closets of a few chic women, or even a group in a single country. It has to reach the streets, and it reaches them in the greatest hurry in New  York.”37 She was not shy to share her opinion— which went beyond clothing: “At Louis Feraud yesterday, the bride wore a Snow White nylon wig with a white crochet wedding gown. The only gloomy thing about Paris was the weather. Indoor, it was a circus.”38 Sheppard’s writing often had a distinctly gossipy tone. Consider her column about American women’s desire to look like the fashionable First Lady with her pillbox hats: “Some of my best friends look like Jackie Kennedy. Everybody says so, and so do they, giving me the Jackie Kennedy smile.”39 Historians have written that Sheppard eventually became a celebrity in her own right, “one of fashion’s go-go girls.” Even as she approached her sixth decade, she continued party-hopping after a day of reporting and writing. One writer noted that, “On the dance floor, at fashion shindigs, she swung like a quivering blond dumpling to the new music.”40 Sheppard was as popular as the clothes and designers she wrote about. Early on, Sheppard discovered that rich people “no longer craved privacy, and loved nothing better than to have their taste validated by attention in the public prints.”41 It led to a different, more nuanced kind of society coverage. Sheppard was willing to cover the wealthy but she was not gentle in her writing. Both designers and the people who wore their clothes were likely to be skewered if Sheppard did not approve. Sheppard’s unique approach to covering fashion journalism is described as revolutionary in the book The Paper: The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune. The author wrote that her column: “revolutionized the journalism of style by adjusting its focus from inanimate fabric to the people who designed and wore it. … By deciding whom and what to write about she could create a whole new pattern of social commentary.”42

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Geraldine Stutz, president of elite department store Henri Bendel, knew Sheppard since the 1950s. She said of Sheppard’s column: “Inside Fashion was an enormous revelation. Up until then, fashion reportage was description of clothes. Eugenia was fascinated by fashion and began to talk about the people who made the clothes and the people who wore the clothes. She personalized fashion. It was the beginning of modern fashion reportage.”43 Initially, Sheppard became a society reporter at a newspaper in her hometown of Columbus, Ohio. This was a common career path for women in journalism at the time.44 She moved on to become a society reporter at the New York Post. Sheppard started working at the New York Herald Tribune as assistant editor of the women’s pages and largely covered home furnishings in 1938. She married fellow Herald Tribune journalist Walter Millis two years later.45 They lived in the famous Dakota apartment building on Manhattan’s West Side. (Beatles’ John Lennon lived there for several years before he was murdered outside the building in 1980.) By 1947, she became the Tribune’s fashion editor. In her new role, she combined fashion reporting with New  York gossip. As a New York Times wrote: “Miss Sheppard is an aggressive reporter who works in the moribund tradition of The Front Page. Nothing escapes her narrowed blue eyes.”46

Virginia Pope The previously mentioned Virginia Pope was the fashion editor of the New York Times from 1933 to 1955. She encouraged the young fashion designers who were just emerging during the World War II years. Fashion designer Pauline Trigere said of Pope: “I think she invented the reporting of fashion. Nobody thought of describing a dress as a news event before she did.” Designer Geoffrey Beene said of Pope: “She was a very knowledgeable woman. When first began to work in New York as designer, I was completely in awe of her. She was one of the great ladies of fashion.”47 In 1942, Pope started the “Fashions of the Times,” a fashion show she coordinator annually for nearly a decade that was intended as a showcase for American designers. She served as president of the New  York Newspaperwomen’s Club and she received the department store Neiman-­ Marcus Award in 1948 for significant contribution to the fashion industry.48

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In 1933, Pope took over the fashion section of the Times. Years later, she recalled: “I was trying to promote the American designer. We did write about French designers, and mention their names, but we ignored the Americans.”49 At the time, the names of stores were not included in stories. She went to her bosses and requested a query box so that readers could write in and get information about the designers and manufacturers featured in her section. By 1939 or 1940, she got the newspaper to include names. She recalled that the store Saks Fifth Avenue had a large fashion lunch at the Plaza Hotel. On the tables were a list of clothing, as well as Saks’s name. In other words, this was public information. She went back to the Times and said: “Look this is public. If I wrote about it, I wrote Saks’s name, and I write the clothes. Now, why can’t I do that with everything else?” The newspaper accepted the logic and changed the policy about including store names.50

Bernadine Morris Bernadine Morris began her career as what she described as “either the cheap dress editor or corset editor” of the trade newspaper Women’s Wear Daily. In 1963, on her 38th birthday, she was hired by the New York Times—answering a help-wanted advertisement in the newspaper for a fashion reporter. More than 4,000 bylines later, she retired as the newspaper’s chief fashion writer in 1995 after advancing fashion coverage to a stand-alone “Style” section of the Times. Several of her articles appeared on the newspaper’s front page. She was born Bernadine Taub in Harlem and graduated from Hunter College in 1945 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. While working at Millinery Research, a fashion weekly, she earned a master’s in English from New York University. Before being hired at the Times, she worked at the Fashion Trades magazine and at the New York Journal-American. She was quoted as saying that the theater critic of the New York Times wielded power. “But not the fashion editor. It’s too diffuse. The most I can do, if I’m really enthusiastic, is get a buyer to go see the collection.”51 She described Norman Norell as “the dean of American fashion designers” and wrote about Claire McCardell’s comfortable sportswear, the wearable elegance of Calvin Klein’s women’s styles, and documented the collections of Geoffrey Beene, Halston, and Donna Karan. Morris could be a trendsetter herself—including wearing patterned stockings before they were fashionable. Overall, she favored practical sportswear.

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Washington, D.C., Fashion Nina Hyde Nina Hyde was the fashion editor at two Washington, D.C., newspapers. She was known for covering fashion as intently as if she were covering a war, searching for the sociological significance of clothing trends. Hyde was born in Manhattan and graduated from Smith College. One of two women accepted at the time to New York University’s Law School, she dropped out of school to work for famed advertising agency McCann-­ Erickson and then the Maidenform Brassiere Company. Later she joined Women’s Wear Daily as the corset and brassiere editor. In 1961, she and her new husband moved to Washington where she wrote a column, “Hyde & Chic,” for the Washington Daily News. After that newspaper’s demise she joined the Washington Post, in 1972.52 According to an article about her, she did not own high-heeled shoes. She was fond of more common clothes—such as wearing a Swatch watch for years that she bought at the airport. When she found a favorite outfit, she would wear it several times a week. She kept a pair of silver earrings— cone-shaped snail shells—in a drawer of her desk for television interviews. They were typically the only jewelry she wore besides her wedding ring.53 She was known for smuggling her writers into parties so they could meet famous designers such as Bill Blass, Ralph Lauren, and Calvin Klein. According to a tribute about Hyde: She was a city girl. She was handsome, beautiful. She spoke with an old-line voice from the Upper East Side where she was raised. Nina had style but taught us all about substance instead. She shared her gossip, her thoughts, her contacts, her bran muffins. When Diana Vreeland called, Nina would whisper: “You want to hear her voice? Pick up your extension—go ahead, listen in.”54

Eleni Epstein One of the most noticeable Washington, D.C., voices in translating fashion news in the post-World War II era through 1981 was Eleni Sakes Epstein of the Washington Star.55 Epstein’s role working in the nation’s capital for more than three decades make her career especially interesting in understanding the social history of dress and fashion journalism in

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Washington, D.C.  She wrote about public’s fascination with the First Lady’s attire and role of women reporters in feeding that interest: “Male reporters give the nod to their female colleagues, and frequently run to them for help in describing ‘that thing on her head.’”56 Epstein found fashion to have a unique role in Washington. After all, as she pointed out, it was her city’s unique social events that required the high couture clothing that she wrote about. “Washington women have always been interested in fashion,” she said. “Our city is one of achievers and doers.”57 It was a world that Epstein also traveled in and that she would translate to her readers as someone who could rarely afford some of the fashions she wrote about. Yet, she also wrote about the fashions of working women. She encouraged her readers to shop in Washington, and would be insulted when she learned that they had gone to New York City for their clothes.58 Eleni Epstein was born Helen Sakes in Washington, D.C., in 1926. One of her boyfriends was Washington Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson who used to eat at her father’s restaurant. Their dates were occasionally covered by the society columns—the kinds of columns that would later run in her section.59 In another column, a society writer described Jackson as Epstein’s date to a fashion show at the National Press Club.60 Much of the early years of newspapers’ fashion journalism grew out of society coverage as women’s page journalists recorded who went to parties and what was worn. She attended George Washington University and Columbia University before joining the Washington Star during World War II as a copy assistant. There were already two “Helens” working at the newspaper when she was hired, so Helen Sakes became “Eleni”—a unique name befitting her future as a sophisticated fashion persona. She briefly left to work at a news wire service during the war before returning to the Star. By the time she was 21 years old, she rose to the position of fashion editor, her career paralleling the growth also being experienced by the Star’s expanding circulation (though unfortunately advertising sales would later decline and lead to the end of the newspaper). In 1953, Epstein covered a fashion exhibit that included gowns from past Inaugural Balls, including one worn in 1861 at President Abraham Lincoln’s celebration.61 The following year, she wrote about a Washington, D.C., fashion show called, “The Government Girls.” The focus was on budget-conscious clothes for women who worked at the capital. The guest speaker was Ivy Baker Priest, the U.S. treasurer at the time.62 Also that

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year, she covered a Turkish fashion show called “Fashion is an Art.” It was a benefit for the costume collection of the Smithsonian Institute. The honorary co-chairs were future First Lady Pat Nixon and the wife of the Ambassador of Turkey.63

Syndicated and National Fashion Editors Dorothy Roe One of the most significant wire service in the 1940s through the 1960s was the Associated Press. The AP’s women’s page editor was Dorothy Roe. In her position, she covered fashion and got to know many of the regional fashion editors. Along with many newspapers across the country, the Globe and News Herald in Missouri carried her bylined stories starting in 1943. Generally, the most common topic covered was the newest fashions. After the war, fashion writing increased and no longer were restricted by wartime limitations. She began by comparing postwar styles with those of prewar years. She was able to meet the leading designers of the day, developing a good working relationship with Lilly Daché. Daché was a soon-to-be designer who had immigrated to the United States with little money but a strong sense of style. She began as a milliner, becoming famous for hats for Broadway and Hollywood stars. Later, she transitioned to creating accessories, perfume, and costume jewelry. Her personality and interesting life made her a great character for an autobiography. Roe was the one chosen to edit it. Talking Through My Hats was published in 1946. A decade later, Daché’s Glamour Book, which Roe also edited, described how to create a distinct personal style.64 Freddye Scarborough Henderson Freddye Scarborough Henderson was one of the most well-known black newspaper fashion editors. From 1950 to 1955, she was a fashion editor for the Associated Negro Press and authored a syndicated column “Fashion Trends,” which was published weekly in the nation’s leading black newspapers. In the early 1950s, she also worked as a radio commentator and was featured on a program entitled “Freddye’s Fashion Forum” on WERD radio station in Atlanta. At one point, she served as the president of the

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National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers. In that position, she organized the first fashion show program ever sponsored by a black group in New York’s Waldorf Hotel and focused national attention on black fashion designers. In 1954, Henderson directed the first Fashion Tour Group to visit the major fashion houses of Paris, Rome, and London. In Paris, members of the all-Black group were personal guests of the House of Dior for a lunch and fashion show.65 Marian Christy Another significant fashion reporter of the 1960s and early 1970s was Marian Christy, who later became a celebrity columnist. She started as a fashion reporter at the Boston Globe in April 1965 and her work was later picked up by the syndicate United Press International. “To cover fashion was then considered the glamorous side of newspapering,” she said. Her work then ran in more than 100 different newspapers. For example, she described the see-through blouse from a late-1960s Saint Laurent fashion show: “Haute couture is a laboratory for new ideas. Saint Laurent was not advocating public near-nudity. It was poetic exaggeration to shock the eyes. Once you see the extreme overstatements, watered-down versions seem reasonable and palatable. This was the late sixties and Saint Laurent seemed to be suggesting that women’s bodies should be unharnessed.”66 She won Penney-Missouri Awards in 1966, 1968, and 1970. Christy took a progressive, sociological approach to fashion—rather than writing for advertisers, which eventually cost her the position of fashion reporter.67 She was known for her critical assessment of designers’ collections— although it did occasionally get her in trouble. In 1972, after she had been covering European couture for five years, the Globe got a letter from Paris letting the newspaper know that she was no longer welcome to cover couture. The reason given in the letter was that she had described a less than “la vie en rose picture of French fashion.” The letter said the French organization that approved credentials to get into the shows, La Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, would no longer validate her. Eventually, the Globe used its contacts in the French Embassy and the French consulate to get her press card back. She also had to meet with a local French government official in Boston. He told her that she must toe the line in the future and be less critical.68

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Marylou Luther Marylou Luther had little exposure to fashion when she began her career at the Lincoln Journal, the Des Moines Register, and the Chicago Tribune. Throughout her forty years as a reporter and editor, she became the Creative Director of Fashion Group International, Editor of the International Fashion Syndicate, and a CFDA Award winner. Luther was there when Yves Saint Laurent debuted his first collection for Christian Dior in January of 1958. She recalled: “He came out on the balcony of the House of Dior and traffic stopped. People were yelling and screaming in the streets. It was a national event.” At that time, Luther had only been covering fashion for a few years, but she knew she had seen a defining moment in fashion history—both in the collection and in the crowd’s reaction.69 When Luther was covering fashion for the Chicago Tribune, she interviewed numerous designers including Dior. He considered the questions she asked him “naughty” when she asked what part sex played in determining his fashion aesthetic.70 In 1968, Luther was hired to be the Los Angeles Times’ fashion editor, so she and her husband moved to California. Their home in Beverly Hills was near Edith Head’s home, the legendary Hollywood costume designer. The couples often had martinis together.71 While out West, Luther became friends with many in the fashion community. She was the first person designer Rudi Gernreich’s partner called in New York immediately after his death in Los Angeles.72

Fashion Publicity Eleanor Lambert Eleanor Lambert was one of the most well-known American fashion publicists. She increased the international significance of the American fashion industry and promoted New York City as a fashion capital. Lambert was the founder of New York Fashion Week and the International Best Dressed List. Fashion illustrator Joe Eula, who worked with Lambert producing charity fashion shows in the 1940s and 1950s, said of her: “Eleanor was tougher than any man I knew. She was the godmother of the Fashion Mafia! There wasn’t a soul on Seventh Avenue who didn’t have Eleanor behind her.”73 She studied fashion at the Art Institute of Chicago. Initially, she started an advertising agency in New York City and focused largely on

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art. In the 1940s, Lambert founded the International Best Dressed List, and the Coty Fashion Critics’ Award (which later became the CFDA Awards). Lambert was instrumental in the staging of major American fashion events around the world, such as the 1973 ͞Battle of Versailles designer fashion show that put American talent on the international fashion radar. She also oversaw the first and only White House fashion show. She was often referred to as the Empress of Seventh Avenue. She dressed the part with her trademark turbans and outsize jewelry.74 Over the years, she represented Norman Norell, Bill Blass, and Anne Klein. She founded the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1962 and headed it for a decade. In 2001, the CFDA created The Eleanor Lambert Award. Months before she died, she had left her International Best Dressed List to the magazine Vanity Fair. Ruth Finley and the Fashion Calendar Another significant woman in fashion publicity was Ruth Finley. Her Pink Fashion Calendar was printed for 70 years. It began in 1945 with a $1,000 loan from a college classmate. The concept sprang from an overheard conversation between two friends, both fashion editors, who were discussing conflicting fashion shows at  department stores Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. The idea for an official calendar was born.75 According to fashion history, it was not easy task to have designers pay for the calendar service. Finley’s business took off thanks to designer Norman Norell. “He didn’t think he had to clear his date with us, but ran into a terrible conflict. He had to cancel his show and reschedule, which in those days was an enormous headache, and from then on he made sure to save his date with us. He wouldn’t even let his secretary do it, he would call himself,” Finely said.76 By the time the CFDA was born in the early 1960s, Finley’s Fashion Calendar had already been in existence for more than a decade. Finley’s calendar was popular. She answered as many as 200 phone calls a day. The fashion industry paid hundreds of dollars to subscribe to her much sought-after publication. Initially, the calendar was created on a mimeograph, and eventually on a computer until it became digital. The Fashion Calendar served as a key resource of information for people working within the fashion industry. It was designed as a tool to navigate the increasingly large American fashion business: “Fashion Calendar,

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and by extension Finely, occupied a central role in the development and evolution of the fashion industry and provided an essential service.”77 In a tribute to Finley, it was noted that the “pink-sheeted schedule was an indispensable part of New York Fashion Week for seven decades, right up until the age of Instagram.”78 In 2014, Finley sold it to the Council of Fashion Designers.79 Fashion Show Descriptions Fashion shows are as much about clothes as theater. The models often strut the catwalk in elaborate hair and makeup. Music and lighting truly make it a show. In the 1950s and 1960s there were often cocktails and appetizers. In 1957, Howard Greer presented his show by announcing that he was not interested in modesty. He proved his philosophy with a “collection of adhesive-fitting, low-cut gowns.” He credited his “devotion to the décolletage” to the designer Hattie Carnegie, who advised him when he first began. She told Greer that a woman who attended dinner parties liked to look stunning across the table. “He has not forgotten his first fashion lesson.”80 At the time, top fashion shows were typically attended by the fashion press and department store buyers—plus a few boutique owners. They attended both U.S. and European shows. In 1961, Chanel showed her collection in Paris. A fashion reporter wrote of the show: The press beamed with joy this afternoon like children on Christmas morning who get what they wanted. Coco Channel was responsible. She showed beautiful, newsworthy fashions that also were eminently wearable. That is a lot to expect and Chanel delivered.81

The following year, Yves St. Laurent debuted his own collection in Paris. Fashion editors reported that he had “grown up” and included tunics and pants—including puffy bloomers and harem pants. One editor wrote: “Everyone wanted this young man to have the staggering success that would make fashion history. It is hard to live up to such high expectations and St. Laurent, although he produced a very good collection, did not say anything new.82 Burke-Amey showed his collection for 1963 with new takes on the shape of spring clothes. They moved away from complicated construction and toward a softer silhouette. His approach echoed that of many American designers.83

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Not all fashion shows made a splash. The fashion editors—who went to many fashion shows every year could be cynical. In 1969, designer Norman Norell showed his fall collection at 5 p.m.—hours earlier than usual. He did serve his customary champagne and highballs, along with finger sandwiches. One reporter wrote that the “middle-aged models navigated his skinny skirts with a mincing gait and white gloves clutched firmly in the palm of one hand.” The show was shorter than most at the time—a little more than an hour, “but Norell likes to hammer out his ideas in every possible color, and when the 10-minute intermission was announced, one buyer announced wearily, ‘So it’s a coat and a suit.’”84 It is worth noting that some designers still refused to allow fashion reporters to attend fashion shows—often worried about news getting out. In 1962, department store buyers noted that Givenchy’s collection was the best he had ever created: “How can Balenciaga top this? It’s impossible.” Fashion reporters could not comment because Givenchy barred them from the fashion show for at least another month. He, the most influential designer in Paris, excluded the fashion press worried that information could leak to the public before the clothes were ready for delivery to stores.85 Fashion Designers and Their Fashion Shows Several fashion editors were known for discovering designers. For example, Chicago fashion editor Margaret “Peg” Zwecker was known for having an eye for talent. She was one of the first to write about a promising hat-maker then known as Roy Frowick. Later, his fashion line became known by his middle name, Halston.86 This fact was mentioned in a story about Halston, as “fashion editor Peg Zwecker quickly took a shine to the young designer.”87 According to Zwecker’s assistant: Halston was Peg Zwecker’s discovery. He was a young designer and was working at the beauty salon in one of the downtown hotels, designing hats that were sold as one of the salon’s services—in case you wanted to buy a hat to go along with your new hairdo. Peg thought he was really talented. Later when he opened his own little business, she wrote about him a number of times and then recommended him to a hat designer in New York, Lily Dache, who hired him and he eventually became one of the top U.S. designers.88

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The editors could also be tough in their coverage of fashion. Designer Bill Blass wrote that fashion editor Sheppard gave him some of the toughest and most important advice of his career. She told him that he should stop trying to produce clothes for the middle of the country and stick to the New York women who made him famous. He wrote that it was difficult to hear but that she was correct.89 She was unwaveringly honest, according to Bass: “Eugenia never missed a trick. She was the first journalist to write about me because she sensed the social angle—and Eugenia could see how that story, the merger of society and fashion, was shaping up as one of the biggest stories of the sixties.”90 Furthermore, he said: “Eugenia has gotten the designer into the vernacular. There used to be a stigma about designers. I didn’t like to say what I did. But now people know that designers are a substantial part of the community and interested in other things.”91 It did not mean, however, that all designers were happy with her fashion coverage. Sheppard’s reporting was so significant that she was banned, at times, from the showrooms of designers Cristòbal Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, and Hubert de Givenchy for writing negative reviews of their collections.92 In 1969, Norrell regretted not experimenting with hemlines as other designers had. “We got burnt,” he said when asked after a show. In the summer 1968 collection, he did drop hems to mid-calf and ankle, but he said the response from his clients was disheartening. He also did a series of shorter coats to go with the pants he created for travel and city wear. The trousers were described as “straight, wide and cuffless.”93 Beginning in the mid-1960s, American designers were becoming more well known—many serving as household names. For example, Bonnie Cashin was described as American as apple pie. A fashion editor wrote: “There aren’t too many fashion designers around who can make that statement.” At the time, she was designing ponchos, capes, and pants— some with leather and fringe. Her clothing was very colorful. Her hues were named after her birds: parrot (green), love birds (a lighter green), and swallow (pale purple).94 While several designers were becoming celebrities, their lives were not necessarily glamorous. One fashion editor explained that the designers did not drive Cadillacs nor lived in penthouses. Instead, they shopped at supermarkets, worried about finding the right schools for their children, and went on vacations for relaxations not to network with the “haut monde.” A fashion editor wrote:

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They’re family men who may live in Queens or on the West Side and go to their jobs on Seventh Avenue as other men go to Wall Street. Shunning the snobbery, hyperbole and flamboyance of the fashion business, they design clothes that real women—women like their wives—would wear.95

Fashion editors in New York and Washington, D.C., had a significant fashion influence and often their work was syndicated beyond their cities. They often interacted with fashion publicists and walked a balancing line between personal and professional relationships. Fashion, of course, is often local. The next chapter will address newspaper fashion editors at cities from Dallas to Pittsburgh to Milwaukee.

Notes 1. Robin Givhan, Battle of Versailles (New York: Flatiron Books, 2015), 37-8. 2. Robin Givhan, Battle of Versailles (New York: Flatiron Books, 2015), 37. 3. Virginia Pope’s oral history, New York Times, May 21, 1971, held at New York Public Library, 16. 4. Virginia Pope’s oral history, New York Times, May 21, 1971, held at New York Public Library, 43. 5. Meyer Burger, The Story of the New  York Times, 1851-1951 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1951), 494. 6. Meyer Burger, The Story of the New  York Times, 1851-1951 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1951), 494. 7. Sam Roberts, “Gosta Peterson, Barrier-Breaking Fashion Photographer, Dies at 94,” New York Times, August 2, 2017. 8. Margalit Fox, “Nan Robertson, Pulitzer-Winning Times Reporter, Dies at 83,” New York Times, October 14, 2009. 9. “New Fashion Editor Named by the Times,” New York Times, November 3, 1955. 10. “Dorothy Hawkins Becomes Fiance,” New York Times, January 17, 1957. 11. Dorothy Hawkins, “Paris in New York,” New York Times, March 13, 1955. 12. “Dorothy Le Sueur,” Washington Post, July 3, 2009. 13. Liz Doup, “The Rich Are Different From You and Me. Just ask Agnes Ash, Publisher of the Palm Beach High Society’s Bible,” Sun-Sentinel (Florida), November 9, 1986. 14. Amanda Svachula, “When the Times Kept Female Reporters Upstairs,” New York Times, September 20, 2018. 15. “Tobia Brown Frankel, Teacher and Editor, 52,” New York Times, March 17, 1987.

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16. Carrie Donovan, “Face From Out of the Past and Costumes Designed for Tomorrow,” New York Times, June 22, 1960. 17. Angela Taylor, “Fashion Writer, 82,” New York Times, January 11, 1997. 18. Angela Taylor, “If You Always Thought Fashion Was Frivolous,” New York Times, June 20, 1970. 19. Enid Nemy, “A Free Spirit Battles Puritanism Despite Chill,” New York Times, January 17, 1968. 20. Mary Burt Holmes, “Hospitalized Women Get Beauty Treatment, Too,” New York Times, November 11, 1961. 21. Robert D.  McFadden, “Charlotte Curtis, A Columnist for the Times, is Dead at 58,” New York Times, April 17, 1987. 22. Georgia Dullea, “Judy Klemesrud, 46, is Dead; Reporter for Times 19 Years,” New York Times, October 13, 1985. 23. Anne-Marie Schiro, “Eugenia Sheppard, Fashion Columnist, Dies,” New York Times, November 12. 1984. 24. Pat Hackett, ed., The Andy Warhol Diaries (New York: Warner Brothers, 1989), 614. 25. Nina Hyde, “High Fashion Columnist Eugenia Sheppard Dies,” Washington Post, November 13, 1984. 26. Nina Hyde, “High Fashion Columnist Eugenia Sheppard Dies,” Washington Post, November 13, 1984. 27. Givhan, 2015, 162-163. 28. Bender, 76-77. 29. Amy Fine Collins, “The Lady, The List, The Legacy,” Vanity Fair, April 2004. 30. Eugenia Sheppard, “Making the Best-Dressed List, Saturday Evening Post, January 5, 1963. 31. Anne-Marie Schiro, “Eugenia Sheppard, Fashion Columnist, Dies” New York Times, November 12, 1984. 32. Nina Hyde, “High Fashion Columnist Eugenia Sheppard Dies,” Washington Post, November 13, 1984. 33. Venessa Lau, “Just Write,” Women’s Wear Daily, March 11, 1963. 34. “The Press: Hemlines of the Week,” Time, August 12, 1957. 35. New York, New York, (New York: Delta Book, 1964), 106. 36. New York, New York, (New York: Delta Book, 1964), 109. 37. New York, New York, (New York: Delta Book, 1964), 108. 38. Eugenia Sheppard, “Will Plastic Replace Silk?” Toledo Blade, January 24, 1966. 39. Eugenia Sheppard, “Words for Brunets to Live By,” Los Angeles Times, February 11, 1961. 40. Bender, 80.

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41. Richard Kluger, The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986), 625. 42. Kluger, The Paper: The Life and Death of the New  York Herald Tribune (New York: Knopf, 1986): 265. 43. Anne-Marie Schiro, “Eugenia Sheppard, Fashion Columnist, Dies” New York Times, November 12, 1984. 44. Maurine H.  Beasley and Shelia J.  Gibbons, eds, Taking Their Place: A Documentary History of Women and Journalism (State College, Pennsylvania: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2003); Kay Mills, A Place in the News: From the Women’s Pages to the Front Pages (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990); Marion Marzlof, Up From the Footnote: A History of Women Journalists (New York: Hasting House Publishers, 1977); Jan Whitt, Women in American Journalism (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2008) 45. “Walter Millis, Military Writer, Editor and Historians, 69, Dies,” New York Times, March 18, 1968. 46. Bender, 79. 47. “Virginia Pope, 92, Fashion Editor of The Times 22 Years, Is Dead,” New York Times, January 17, 1978. 48. “Virginia Pope, 92, Fashion Editor of The Times 22 Years, Is Dead,” New York Times, January 17, 1978. 49. Virginia Pope’s oral history, New York Times, May 21, 1971, held at New York Public Library, 13. 50. Virginia Pope’s oral history, New York Times, May 21, 1971, held at New York Public Library, 15. 51. Sam Roberts, “Bernadine Morris, Veteran Observer of Fashion, Dies at 92,” New York Times, January 25, 2018. 52. Bernadine Morris, “Nina Hyde, 57, a Fashion Editor Who Became a Pacesetter, Is Dead,” New York Times, May 6, 1990. 53. Jura Koncius and Martha Sherill, “Appreciation: Nina Hyde,” Washington Post, May 6, 1990. 54. Jura Koncius and Martha Sherill, “Appreciation: Nina Hyde,” Washington Post, May 6, 1990. 55. The Washington Star went through various name changes, including the Washington Star-News and the Washington Evening Star. For consistency sake, the newspaper will be referred to as the Washington Star throughout this book. 56. Eleni, “Is the White House a Fashion Display Case?” Washington Star, 1960. Papers of Eleni Epstein, National Women and Media Collection.

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57. John Sherwood, “Eleni Epstein Knows Who She Is, Honey,” Washington Times, November 16, 1983. 58. Claudia Levy, “Eleni Sakes Epstein, Star Fashion Editor, Dies,” Washington Post, January 29, 1991. 59. Jane Eads, “Washington Letter,” The Ada Evening News (Ada, Oklahoma) August 11, 1954. 60. Jane Eads, “Socialites Top Models In Turkish Costumes Display,” The (Ohio) Evening Independent, August 13, 1954. 61. Fashion Group International, The Bulletin, January 1953, 2. Box 145, folder 9. Fashion Group International Records, New York Public Library. 62. Fashion Group International, The Bulletin, June 23, 1954, 2. Box 145, folder 10. Fashion Group International Records, New York Public Library. 63. Fashion Group International, The Bulletin, July 7, 1954, 2. Box 145, folder 10. Fashion Group International Records, New York Public Library. 64. Bill Caldwell, “Dorothy Roe was a small-town girl with big-city dreams,” Joplin (Missouri) Globe, May 9, 2020. 65. Jessie Carney Smith, Notable Black American Women, Book 2 (New York: Gale, 1995), 285-286. 66. Marian Christy, Invasions of Privacy (Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1984), 19. 67. Marian Christy, Invasions of Privacy (Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1984), 19. 68. Marian Christy, Invasions of Privacy (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1984), 21-22. 69. Kim Crow, “French Government Honors Fashion Writer Marylou Luther,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 14, 2008, 1. 70. Kim Crow, “French Government Honors Fashion Writer Marylou Luther,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 14, 2008, 3. 71. Kim Crow, “French Government Honors Fashion Writer Marylou Luther,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 14, 2008, 4. 72. Kim Crow, “French Government Honors Fashion Writer Marylou Luther,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 14, 2008, 4. 73. Amy Fine Collins, “The Lady, the List, the Legacy,” Vanity Fair, April 2004, 6. 74. Enid Nemy, “Eleanor Lambert, Empress of Fashion, Dies in 100,” New York Times, October 8, 2003. 75. Nicole Phelps, “Ruth Finely, Keeper of New York Fashion Week’s Pink-­ Sheet Calendar, Has Died,” Vogue, August 27, 2018. 76. “Remembering Ruth Finely,” CFDA News, August 27, 2018.

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77. Natalie Nudell, “Ruth Finely’s Fashion Calendar,” in Nancy Deihl, ed., The Hidden History of American Fashion (New York: Bloomsbury, Academic, 2018), 179. 78. Nicole Phelps, “Ruth Finley, Keeper of New York Fashion Week’s Pink-­ Sheeted Calendar, Has Died, Vogue, August 2018. 79. Jill Griffin, “Four Lessons From the Life of Fashion Pioneer Ruth Finely,” Forbes, September 24, 2018. 80. Agnes Ash, “‘Modesty Not a Policy’ of Designer Whose Clothes Slither Into Room,” New York Times, September 18, 1957. 81. Patricia Peterson, “Enthusiastic Reception Greets Chanel,” New York Times, July 29, 1961. 82. Patricia Peterson, “Yves St. Laurent in Debut on His Own,” New York Times, January 30, 1962. 83. Patricia Peterson, “One Designer Lowers Hems On All Styles,” New York Times, December 26, 1962. 84. Marylin Bender, “From Norell for the Fall, It’s the Tried and True,” New York Times, July 17, 1969. 85. Patricia Peterson, “Givenchy’s ‘Best’ Show Hailed by Store Buyers,” New York Times, February 1, 1962. 86. Serena Maria Daniels, “Margaret Zwecker, 1910-2010: Longtime Chicago fashion editor,” Chicago Tribune, June 21, 2010. 87. Katherine Cole, “Halston: An American (And Chicago) Original,” Chicago Tribune, October 13, 1999. 88. Lois Wille, “Women in Journalism” oral history project, Washington Press Club Foundation, April 1, 1992, 135. 89. Bill Blass, Bare Blass (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 90. Blass, Bare Blass. 91. Bender, 79. 92. Francesca Sterlacci and Joanne Arbuckle, The A to Z of the Fashion Industry (New York: Scarecrow Press, 2009), 243. 93. Marylin Bender, “From Norell for the Fall, It’s the Tried and True,” New York Times, July 17, 1969. 94. Bernadine Morris, “From Bonnie Cashin, Cheerful Colors,” New York Times, November 13, 1970. 95. Bernadine Morris, “Fashion Designers Who Shun the Fashion Scene,” New York Times, June 30, 1969.

CHAPTER 5

Local Fashion Editors, Business Impact, and Regional Fashion Shows

Newspapers have a long history of covering fashion. For example, the Milwaukee Journal added fashion news in 1900 and its first spring fashion section in 1909. A fashion reporter, accompanied by a sketch artist, would visit local stores looking for the new or unusual in women’s clothing. Store names were never listed in print. Instead, stories invited readers to telephone and ask where these clothes could be found. In June of 1937, photos documented one of fashion editor Aileen Ryan’s fashion trips to Europe and became the first color photos printed in the Milwaukee newspaper. The Milwaukee Journal also was the first to print fashion pictures from Paris in August 1944, after Nazi forces were driven from France, according to a history of the publication.1 One way to determine the significance of a fashion editor was by the publicity that her newspaper provided. Many of the fashion editors were featured in newspaper advertisements—often known as “in-house ads.” For example, the Arizona Republic featured a full-page ad for the women’s pages’ 1958 College Fashion Advisory Board—featuring well-known women’s page editor Maggie Savoy who covered fashion.2 In another example, the Indianapolis Sunday Star included an ad with the headline, “Hemlines for ’62.” The reader was encouraged to read the fashion pages: “Whether buying or talking fashion … be informed!!”3 The editor was noted as an expert in her field. In another ad that same year, the San Francisco Examiner featured a full-page ad with the slogan: “First Choice for Fashion News.” It included a photo of San Francisco fashion editor © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. W. Voss, Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73624-8_5

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Mary Stanyan and the endorsement, “She’s first choice for fashion news.”4 In 1965, the Tucson (Arizona) Daily Citizen featured a large ad which included a photo. The promotion previewed her story about a local beauty and health resort: “You won’t want to miss a single word of Betty Milburn’s report on this feminine dream world.”5 In many ways, fashion is inherently local. What people wear is impacted by weather, regional norms, and what was available to be purchased at the department store. Not every trend included in a national fashion magazine was adopted by regional fashionistas. The same could be said for the journalists who covered local fashions. As journalism historian Eileen M. Wirth has noted, local history needs to be included in the understanding of female journalists. “We cannot understand the history of women in the United States unless we consider local and regional dimensions,” she wrote.6 Several fashion editors made a mark in their communities and documented developments in fashion. Often, they traveled the country and the world to cover fashion shows and interview designers. The Penney-­ Missouri Awards offered a specific fashion prize. The prize included travel money to visit Europe and a several-day-long journalism workshop. These events allowed for both professional development and networking for women who rarely had the opportunity. As these regional fashion editors started to congregate at national events such as the Penney-Missouri workshops, they began to lament the lack of recognition for styles or trends outside of New York or Europe. North Carolina fashion editor Annie Lee Singletary, who won a Penney-­ Missouri Award for fashion coverage in 1966, did not mince words when speaking about her fashion reporting at the awards: They keep talking about the string-bean silhouette in New York; but no one is doing anything for us poor butterbeans. Fashion is something that should be for all women—not just those under 20, with waistlines under 20 inches, and 20-20 vision. And I’m here to state that for at least three-fourths of the women in this country the state of fashion is in a bad way. Usually, I covet everything I see at the New York shows. In January I coveted very little of what I saw—even if I had had the figure for it or the cash.”7

Furthermore, she explained that “no fashion news is good news.” Fashion editors should be concerned about the state of the industry. “Who

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is killing fashion? Let’s do some sleuthing,” she wrote. She blamed designers, including Oleg Cassini, Gernreich, and Givenchy and the “youth kick.”8 She also blamed the press: I think we have a responsibility to be honest with our readers. In fashion, we should call them as we see them; we should not be satisfied just to let women make their own mistakes. We shouldn’t just espouse the youthful and the kooky; we should put ourselves also on the side of the size 12’s and 14’s and even, Lord help us, the 16’s and 18’s.9

Fashion editors covered Singletary’s speech—including the national Associated Press. She said she received piles of mail in response and not one letter writer disagreed with her. Overall, the question they asked was: “Why do so many women—and especially, so many young women—look the way they do in a country that spends at least $18 billion annually on something called fashion?”10 From the 1940s through the 1960s, a best dressed list was issued by the Couture Group of the New York Dress Institute. The list was compiled by a committee of fashion editors who preferred to be anonymous to avoid pressure about responsibility for the reference list.11 The problem is that the list catered to the coasts, often ignoring the center of the country. St. Louis fashion editor Jane Clark said she did not know of anyone from St. Louis who had made the list “unless she was born here and left at 8 months. They do not seek nor are they sought out for the type of publicity that would get them on the list.”12 Peg Zwecker of the Chicago Daily News said she was also bothered by the women of her city being left off the best-­ dressed list, noting she was “always upset that we don’t have better representation from Chicago, since this is one of the most exciting cities in the country.”13 Barbara Flanagan of the Minneapolis Star agreed: “We’re even impressed when a woman from Chicago, Detroit, or Dallas is mentioned.” Eleni Epstein of the Washington Star defended the sentiments of her Midwestern colleagues. “The only fair poll would be a regional one,” said Epstein. “There is an army of well-dressed women who are unsung.”14 It was the local fashion editors who worked to raise the stature of the women in their cities.

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The Fashion Group International The representation of local fashion can be found in the regional groups of the Fashion Group. The organization has a long history of providing city representation from the early years. In 1930, forty-five women met in New York City to create the organization. Charter members included First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and beauty businesswoman Helena Rubinstein. By the end of the year, The Fashion Group was incorporated with bylaws, officers, and seventy-five members. By the following year, the group had 375 members and offices in the Women’s Wear Daily location. A Cleveland Regional Group was established in 1932 and a Chicago version the following year. The organization held a fashion show, Fashion Future, with trend-setting clothes from Paris. The Hotel Astor Ballroom was filled to capacity.15 By 1937, a third Fashion Future show was held. In 1954, a fashion training course was initiated with proceeds to benefit the Fashion Institute of Technology’s library. By 1959, there were twenty-six different regional groups across the United States—many in the Midwest.16 Several newspaper fashion editors were involved in these national and regional organizations. For example, in Denver in 1958, a group of women formed the Denver chapter of Fashion Group International. Gretchen Weber, fashion editor and illustrator for the Denver Post, got the original group together. She and her industry cohorts held important jobs in fashion. They believed that their industry “needed a forum, a stage or a force to express and enhance a widening awareness of the American fashion business and women’s roles in the business.”17

Fashion Coverage by City Oakland Nora Hampton was the longtime fashion editor in Oakland, California. In 1965, her newspaper announced she would be reporting from the “nation’s style capital.” She described one show as featuring “stripes of fashion with a silk shift with a print chiffon overshell” and “mad plaid”— bold white and grey shadow plaid on black silk.18 In another story from that trip, she wrote of “daytime hems above the knee, afternoon skirts at midcalf; early evening at the ankle.”19 The following year, she again wrote about skirts—this time, it was about short skirts: “The tables are turned; now it’s American designers who are too extreme for European tastes.”20

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The story that she was most known for came from a plane trip she took in 1969. The flight was hijacked. She wrote: “Goateed Man With Pistol Altered Cocktail Schedule.” Her Pulitzer-Prize nominated story included an extensive narrative, including the title of the book the hijacker was reading and his seat number.21 Houston International travel for fashion journalists was common, too. Take, for example, Houston women’s page journalist Marjorie Paxson. With a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and experience in hard news during World War II, she returned to the women’s pages in peacetime. In 1955, Paxson and her fashion editor Rosemary Sullivan spent five weeks in Europe reporting about fashion. They worked for the Houston Chronicle; its women’s page slogan was “The Newspaper Smart Women Read.” During their trip, Paxson regularly sent back stories. From Florence, Italy, Paxson wrote about the latest milliner fashions, including long-haired felts and Bristol velour.22 From Paris, she wrote about skirt lengths.23 Later, she reported from the same city about Christian Dior’s conservative new designs.24 Houston fashion editor Judy Lunn took a different path to her position as a fashion editor. While she had a knack for writing, it was fashion that caught her interest so she attended the Rhode Island School of Design to study fashion design. She liked to draw and design but hated to sew. Lunn developed the Fashion Today section for the Post and won many national fashion prizes with that section, including a Penney-Missouri Award. She was not fazed by the celebrity of fashion although she had met the big names. She was in the home of Coco Chanel, and she visited with famed designer Bob Mackie when he visited Houston and Galveston. Milwaukee During fashion editor Aileen Ryan’s reign at the Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee was a major textile-manufacturing center in the 1950s and 1960s and played an important role in the fashion world.25 In 1963, Ryan convinced the Milwaukee-area apparel and textile makers to unveil their products in Milwaukee before the New York shows. As part of that drive, she helped establish the Heritage Milwaukee event to promote local

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companies such as the Junior House (now JH Collectibles) and the Great Lakes Mink Association. The showings at the event attracted newspapers from across the country, including the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times. As many as two dozen fashion editors would make the trip to Milwaukee for the event, putting the city on the fashion map. According to the late Milwaukee public relations executive Lyn Skeen, Milwaukee’s fashion industry was larger than its brewing industry at the time: “Fashion was big business in our state,” she said.26 In the meantime, Ryan was becoming known for her fashion expertise. She was soon nicknamed the “dean of the American Newspaper Fashion Press.”27 For example, in October 1941, she addressed the Kohler Women’s Club,28 and she spoke to the Texas Daily Newspaper Association about fashion in September 1952.29 A 1969 New York Times article titled “Milwaukee: Famous for Beer, Bratwurst—and Fashion” noted that Wisconsin ranked fourth nationally as a producer of women’s fashion apparel, behind California, New York, and Texas.30 By 1970, Ryan received the annual Gimbels Fashion Forum Award for making a significant contribution to fashion. Upon accepting the honor, she addressed the current trend of miniskirts—a trend that likely did not shock the reporter who had covered the flapper era. Fashion experts have noted parallels to those two eras of fashion.31 In her talk, she noted that the skirt would make sitting down difficult and it might not be realistic in the cold Milwaukee winters.32 Vivian Kawatzky was named fashion editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1964, after working in the women’s section for several years. At one point she wrote of the miniskirt trend, noting that “not since the era of Betty Grable and pinup pictures have legs been the cause of so much observation.”33 In addition to her weekly sections, she produced three special fashion sections each year. She also covered the semiannual New  York fashion shows and those held in California. She also covered the European shows. Her work resulted in a Penney-Missouri Award in 1968. Dallas Graydon Heartsill was a longtime fashion editor at the Dallas Times Herald, beginning in 1943. A Dallas native, Heartsill earned a journalism degree from Southern Methodist University where she served as a campus correspondent for the Dallas Dispatch. After graduating in 1928, she began work at the Dallas Times Herald where she remained for decades.

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In 1943, she covered the first national press week of the New York Dress Institute and became the newspaper’s fashion editor. She reported on the Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Miami fashion markets. She twice covered the European fashion shows. Dallas was a significant fashion city because of the high-end Neiman Marcus department store, which hosted the country’s first boutique fashion show. Five years later, she went to Europe to cover the first fashion shows after World War II. By July 1955, she was honored for attending the fashion shows in New York City twenty-five times. Heartsill noted that the clothes that were shown at the major fashion shows would later be shown at high-end department store Neiman Marcus. She won numerous prizes for her work, including a Penney-Missouri Award for fashion writing in the 1960s. Her editor responded: “We have long known here at the Times Herald that Graydon is not only one of the outstanding authorities in the nation on fashion but is also one of the best writers, fashion or otherwise, in the kitchen.”34 She responded to the award: “Winning the award which we in the fashion press call ‘the big one’ is a thrilling thing—and being notified on Christmas morning made it complete.”35 During her career, Heartsill never missed a New York City fashion show season. In large part it was because her local Neiman Marcus department store would make the latest fashions available to her readers. “We love new things,” she said. “Besides, Texas women are lithe and long waisted. The chemise looks well on them.”36 She also covered fashions that would be sold at lesser department stores, such as clothes by designer Mary Quaint: “Ever since the ‘Kookie Look’ popped out of the little Chelsea workrooms of a young London designer, the star of Mary Quant has been shining bright in the international fashion constellation.”37 Heartsill wrote that Quant’s work was going to be sold at the Dallas JCPenney stores. San Antonio Mildred Whitaker, the San Antonio fashion editor, wrote a series of articles in 1960 called “Life begins at 65.” The seventh article in the series had several images including two women in hats and another in front of a typewriter.38 As the decade went on she covered fashion through the lens of space, once even covering a photo shoot of models wearing clothes created by film costume designers. “The event had further fashion emphasis—also ‘Sputnik’ rumblings,” she commented. “It marked the first

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public unveiling of Helen Rose’s five-piece weekend wardrobe for a rocket trip to the moon.”39 On her ninth time reporting from the European fashion shows, she noted: “One of the first stops was the Tower of London for a look at the Crown Jewels. What a fantastic sight—crowns and jewels. That 106-carat Kohinoor diamond—a British crown jewel since 1849—makes Liz Taylor’s diamond look like a bauble.”40 Rhode Island Madeliene Corey was the fashion editor for the Providence Journal-­ Bulletin for close to 50 years—from 1930 to 1980, and she hosted a fashion radio program. Corey was known for wearing a hat everywhere she went. She didn’t hold back in her fashion columns, freely pointing out tacky style and taste wherever she found it. She died three years after retiring, and was inducted into her state’s journalism hall of fame in 1991. Her honor noted that Corey “brought verve and wit to the field of fashion reporting and in the process became the foremost arbiter of style and good taste in Rhode Island.” Her obituary called her a “fixture on the local fashion and art world, as famous for her hats and fur coats and her uproarious sense of humor as she was for her ability to skewer repulsive clothing trends.”41 A colleague of Corey said of the fashion editor: “There probably hasn’t been a single morning that Madeliene hasn’t dressed as though she expected Queen of England to drop by. She has been the epitome of grand stylishness.”42 Pittsburgh Barbara Cloud reported about fashion in Pittsburgh for more than three decades. Her writing was truly for a local market; her sources were often based on who visited her city and the department stores that dominated the local market. Ultimately, her reporting was about the heart of journalism: people. For all the talk of trends, hemlines, and fabrics, she quoted Halston: “Fashion is made by fashionable people—not designers.” Cloud developed her own fashion reporting style and influence. As she noted, it was not every reporter who could call and get through to Ralph Lauren as she could. This was because she first met him selling neckties at Kaufmann’s Department Store in Pittsburgh. She wrote about Pittsburgh native model Naomi Simms, who was the first African American model to appear in a

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national television commercial and the first to appear on the cover of a major women’s magazine—the Ladies Home Journal. Cloud noted that Pittsburgh was home to the traditional major department stores: Gimbels, Kaufmann’s, Joseph Horne Co., and Saks Fifth Avenue.43 Furthermore, each of these department stores served its own customer base and catered to its own demographic, from high fashion to practical, discount clothing. Cloud said in an interview, “Of the three stores, I suppose Gimbels was the least ‘fashion savvy’ in most eyes.”44 These stores either no longer exist or are a shadow of their former influence. Cloud’s work reached a large audience and impacted readers in one of the most personal manners possible—in the clothing they wore. As the former mayor of Pittsburgh wrote, “Whether she’s writing about fashion consumerism or the human condition, Barbara Cloud is always one step ahead.45 Cloud was known for her ability to dress well on a reporter’s salary and was cited as a best-dressed woman in the city.46 She was known as a determined journalist, and her crisp writing matched her fashion sense, said Post-Gazette Publisher John Robinson Block. “She was one of the most gifted newspaper writers that I think I’ve known over many years,” he said. “She was of the older school of journalism, characterized by the clarity of how they wrote.”47 Cloud’s fashion background was influenced by visits to clothing boutiques visited during her childhood. “My mother introduced me to beautiful clothes,” she said. “In my hometown, we had Ina’s Dress Shoppe and she carried names like Claire McCardell, Vera Maxwell, Pauline Trigere, Larry Aldrich. I would meet all but McCardell.”48 Chicago Peg Zwecker of the Chicago Daily News (and later of the Sun-Times) wrote that she looked forward to the fashion showings with enthusiasm: “I know that many beautiful things have been done with the relaxed shape. Even the most reluctant women will now accept the chemise.”49 Chicago Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Lois Wille was initially hired by Zwecker to be her assistant. “Peg who more of a pioneer than I was,” Wille recalled. “She’d raised two children and gone back to work, which was pretty unusual in those days.” Unlike most women’s page journalists, she was able to make hiring decisions. According to Wille, the boss wanted someone with more fashion experience: “But as the managing editor told me

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later in his chauvinistic way, ‘Peg stomped her little foot and said, “This is the one I want.” So they said okay.’”50 Eleanor Nangle was the beauty and fashion editor at the Chicago Tribune from 1926 to 1971. “During that time she became an authority on fashion with an almost unerring ability to predict future trends,” her obituary boasted.51 “In the early 1960s, when men uniformly wore their hair short and suits dark, Nangle shocked some of her male coworkers by telling them that there would soon be something called ‘unisex’ in which boys would wear their hair long as girls and it would be difficult to distinguish between men’s and women’s clothing. Within a decade, it had come to pass. She was credited with being the first writer to discover the tie-dye fashion. Always ready to support a fashion style she believed in, she was once thrown out of New York’s elegant Cote Basque restaurant for wearing a pants suit.”52 At the Chicago Tribune, Nangle first hired fashion photographer Bill Cunningham—who went on to fame at the New York Times as a street photographer. “A wonderful woman,” he recalled of Nangle. “The best of the best. The Tribune had an office in New York, in the Times building. One night, in about 1966, the illustrator Antonio Lopez took me to dinner in London with a photographer named David Montgomery. I told him I wanted to take some pictures. When David came to New York a few months later, he brought me a little camera. It cost $35. He said, ‘Here, use it like a notebook.’ And that was the real beginning. I had the most marvelous time with that camera. Everybody I saw about, I was able to record, and that’s what it’s all about. I realized that you didn’t know anything unless you photographed the shows and the street, to see how people interpreted what designers hope they would buy. I realized that the street was the missing ingredient.”53 Detroit One of the most well-known of the regional fashion reporters was Marji Kunz in Detroit. At the time, Detroit was a thriving city with wealth coming from auto executives and music moguls. Kunz joined the Detroit Free Press in 1964, moving to the Detroit News two years later. She wrote about everything from the controversy over women wearing pants—headline on one story was “Party Trousers Turn Women into Bewitching Little Boys”54—to wigs. “In an era when most women think everything that can happen to wigs has happened, it’s refreshing when someone comes up

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with a revolutionary idea,” she wrote in 1971. “And more so when the inventors happen to live and work in Detroit, rather than Paris or New York.”55 She wrote about the clothing and makeup of Detroit female impersonators—including “Freda Payne” who wore red sequins on her eyes.56 It later led to her courtroom testimony about cross dressing. She wrote stories about department stores, including Bonwits.57 In 1967, Kunz wrote about the wedding of Chuck and Joni Mitchell—although the couple actually married in 1965. Kunz and her husband were friendly with the singer and her husband.58 Billie Blair began her career as a model by working through local modeling agencies in Detroit, which largely booked models for the local auto shows. She credits much of her claim to fame in the 1970s to Kunz. With Kunz’s guidance, she flew to New York in 1973, a trip that was planned for three days, but instead turned into more than 20  years after Blair signed with the Ellen Harth Agency and Ford Models Agency. Yvonne Petrie was another longtime fashion editor in Detroit in the 1950s and 1960s. Petrie’s coverage included a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the work done by publicity representatives for Detroit department stores.59 She also wrote about a Detroit model who made it big in Europe.60 Her work led to a Penney-Missouri Award for fashion reporting in 1964, where she was invited to give a speech at the workshop about her techniques. Seattle Young Seattle fashion reporter Bobbi McCallum learned about the world of fashion from her editor Sally Raleigh at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Soon McCallum began developing her own style, in her reporting and in her own wardrobe. Photos of McCallum show her in fashionable outfits— including a pantsuit accessorized with white feathers. McCallum wrote about new, local stores—focusing on youthful fashions. “Memo to boutique buyers: take one bright idea, one bright girl—or three—and a flair for fashion,” she began in one of her stories. “Combine the right location. The result? Two new treats to tempt boutique-hungry Seattle shoppers.”61 She described the shop owners as career women and elevated the importance of fashion in her female readers’ lives. In another article, she described the opening of Elizabeth Arden’s Red Door salon, which included a fashion show.62 Again, she wrote about a topic women cared

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about in a way that did not dismiss fashion as frivolous. In a first-person story, she explained the role of fashion in women’s lives to men—showing that more men were reading the women’s pages. She wrote: “Sometimes a man just doesn’t understand” when a woman with a closet full of clothes has nothing to wear. After mentioning that clothes can be a boost for morale, she concluded the article with, “Now you understand, don’t you?”63 Other stories were playful descriptions of trends in accessories. For example, this is the lead in an article about belts: “Designers have moved heaven and earth to boost the belt to star status for the ’68 fall season. Cleopatra had the right idea when she gave the nod to the navel jewel. But even Cleo couldn’t conjure up the body adornments Twentieth Century men have devised for the ultimate waist.”64 The article was accompanied by images of chain-like belts from different designers. The lead to an article about the trends in hats was, “The Mad Hatter would go wild—si-si-­ simp-ly w-w-wi-wild.” She went on to note, “The beret is conventionally bi-partisan in red, white and blue above a flip-skirted flannel dress.”65 In a story about the new, fashionable color, McCallum began, “In a gray mood? You’re in the right color key for fall.”66

Phoenix and Tucson Maggie Savoy was an Arizona women’s page editor who often doubled as a fashion reporter. She once wrote, “Call fashion spinach or call it a tyrant—laugh at it or worship it—scorn it or kowtow to it—it’s still one of the main interests in a woman’s life.”67 She wrote stories about fashionable women in her community and local seamstresses: “The New York couture designers have just displayed their wares. And right here in Phoenix we have our own Lilliputian fashion world! This is the world of Mrs. Dorothy Swander, a little world in a single room where Dorothy lives and sews fairy-tale gowns and dresses.”68 In one story, she covered the 1961 fashion show by designer Cole Peterson called “The Joy of Living in Tucson.” The outfits were priced around $5000 and aimed at travelers, as well as for local women. “They’ll be gala garb for the holiday debs,” she wrote, “a week’s worth of wardrobe for the young careerist, a calendar-full of clothes for the clubwoman and a whole series of wearables for women with a mature view and figure to match.”69 Clothing for travel was a common theme. “Women with

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nothing but money have little to worry about,” she declared in a 1963 story. “High fashion designers have worked out the problem for them in seven-way and nine-way ensembles that will weigh in under the 60-pound limit.” If the cost was too much, she noted there was the option of sewing. After all, there was a partnership with airlines and Vogue patterns to promote travel clothing.70 Savoy also covered fur trends in her city: “Fashion has come a ‘fur’ piece since the day every clerk and bottle washer spent her day-dreaming hours thinking of the happy time she’d be wearing mink.” Although her city’s climate did not often require a fur coat, there was always the option of fur details, such as mink on a pocket flap, a purse made from dyed beaver and fur of black fox at the hemline.71 Baltimore Vida Roberts was the fashion editor of the Baltimore Sun and said of the Baltimore women: “Their style may be pink-collar, blue-color or house dress, but, hey, who cares? Under those festive double-knit, stretch tops beat hearts of gold.”72 She believed that black would endure for any occasion,73 but, on the other hand, she was not a fan of plaid: There is no such thing as a slimming plaid. The way to get around the hip factor is to keep the pattern in the jacket with a narrow, dark skirt or dress beneath. If putting the pattern on the lower body, choose a pleated skirt with hip stitching that will hug the hips. Don’t even think about plaid pants unless you’re tall, lean and teen.74

She often interviewed designers. Of Isaac Mizrahi, she wrote: “He’s the fashion designer who punches sequins from Coke and Seven-Up cans and recycle them into glamour. He makes fashionable women applaud pink babushkas.”75 She also covered fashionable people in her city—believing that street clothes should be respected: Fashion treats them very shabbily. They’ll come up with a look they assume their mothers would not dream of wearing and as sure as God made little green apples, four years later someone will put it on a runway in an expensive version.76

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Denver Gretchen Weber joined the Denver Post in 1931, working as an illustrator, columnist, and fashion editor until her retirement in 1969. She often only went by her first name as her byline and noted that she “numbers oil and cattle baronesses among her readers.” They were interested in beautiful evening dresses, tailored outfits, and casual clothes to be worn at mountain lodges—although they could be conservative. “We are a little slower than New York to accept trends,” she said. “We have just begun to shorten our skirts.”77 In July 1958, Weber was among the 200 newspaper women in New York City scouting out couture collections for her fall 1958 fashion report. She regularly attended fashion shows in Europe and interviewed high-profile designers Christian Dior and Yves St. Laurent. Yet, she also understood her Colorado readers. Several of her scrapbooks of her published fashion articles and her hand-drawn fashion illustrations are available at the Denver Public Library. North Carolina Annie Lee Singletary was a longtime fashion editor in North Carolina, but she covered the New  York City fashion shows for decades. She recalled how she had to continually educate people about the work of covering the fashion shows, once telling the story of a Winston-Salem store buyer who, on the same train as the fashion reporters en route to New York, referred to their work as a paid vacation. “It’s as though they are telling you to enjoy yourself at the fire sale after you’ve been burned in the fire,” she said.78 A Penney-Missouri Award winner for fashion, Singletary was not afraid to be critical of the fashion industry. “I started to plead for some mature fashions until I realized that mature refers only to whisky where fashion jargon is concerned,” she said in a speech to other fashion reporters at the Penney-Missouri workshops. “The only thing a woman over 30 years old and 30 inches around can do these days is to shoot herself or go bare to the ball.”79 Indianapolis Protesting that she knew nothing about fashion, Lotys Benning Stewart became the first fashion editor of the Indianapolis Star in 1946. She also

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eventually became the newspaper’s home furnishings editor. “Although she had not sought the role, the quality, volume and impact of her work made her a mid-century celebrity in Indianapolis,” said her son William Stewart. A regular speaker for women’s organizations and college classes, she also gave numerous radio interviews about fashion. She covered numerous fashion shows and fashion previews, usually with pictures. For example, in 1952, Stewart wrote: Glimpses of Spring come earlier than the first robin in the fashion world. The second week in January always marks the unveiling to the nation’s fashion editors of leading American designers’ plans for Spring wardrobes. Spring suits take two main silhouettes—the softly curved and fitted jacket with ripped waist or short, loose, boxy jacket over a pencil-slim skirt.80

Regional Fashion Shows While New York fashion shows were well known, there were numerous regional fashion shows that fashion editors covered. In Seattle, Bobbi  McCallum covered local fashion shows. For example, she began one fashion show story with this observation: “The Mother of the Mod, England’s Mary Quant, has moved on to other things in ’68. Anything goes with her feel for free movement in fashion—punchy polka-dot jumpsuits or long-line silhouettes in all-American colors.”81 Another fashion show story featured clothing for older women. She began the article with a question: “Fashionably speaking, is a woman sunk in the September of her years?” She goes on to answer in the negative and offers tips based on the current style of “Indian Summer.”82 California also began hosting regular fashion shows, but fashion editors found them to be a challenge to cover. One fashion editor wrote that there was no pressroom on hand, as had always been the case at the traditional hotel locations. Stories to meet noon deadlines had to be phoned in from phone booths in the midst of wholesale noise and confusion. The experience of having to spell everything out over a poor connection at least resulted in somewhat briefer stories. A Texas fashion editor experienced the same frustration in calling her newspaper from the California fashion shows. “I am completely unglued,” she lamented. “Have you ever tried dictating a fashion story to the farm editor?”83 Despite the difficulties of reporting from California, fashion editors began making the West Coast shows a regular stop on their annual

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itineraries. For example, in 1951, fashion journalists from nearly every state traveled to Los Angeles for the opening of National Press Week sponsored by the California Fashion Creators.84 Gretchen Weber of the Denver Post spoke of the involvement of editors from her region and their new respect for California designers: “Women of the 13 states of our Rocky Mountain Empire show great interest in California-designed clothes, particularly adaptable to the climate and activities of the region. I believe California’s distinguished couturiers now merit the same attention and publicity as those in New York and Paris.”85 Regional fashion shows and department fashion shows would continue to be popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Fashion editors at metropolitan newspapers were significant journalists. They translated fashion news and had regional identities. They hosted fashion shows, dealt with reader questions, and some had local radio or television shows. The editors did their jobs while dealing with sometimes tricky ethical questions. The next chapter will address these issues.

Notes 1. Jacquelyn Gray, “Journal Got a Quick Start on Fashion,” Milwaukee Journal, March 31, 1995. 2. “Here We Are,” Arizona Republic, August 7, 1958. 3. “Hemlines for ’62,” Indianapolis Sunday Star, February 6, 1962. 4. “First Choice for Fashion News,” San Francisco Examiner, August 12, 1962. 5. “Texas Green,” Tucson Daily Citizen, September 15, 1965. 6. Eileen Wirth, From Society Page to Front Page: Nebraska Women in Journalism (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013), 164. 7. Annie Lee Singletary, “Penney-Missouri Awards Workshop Speech, March 29, 1966, 1. Papers of the Penney-Missouri Awards, National Women and Media Collection. 8. Annie Lee Singletary, “Penney-Missouri Awards Workshop Speech, March 29, 1966, 2. Papers of the Penney-Missouri Awards, National Women and Media Collection. 9. Annie Lee Singletary, “Penney-Missouri Awards Workshop Speech,” March 29, 1966, 3. Papers of the Penney-Missouri Awards, National Women and Media Collection. 10. Annie Lee Singletary, “Female Fashions Failed,” Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Sentinel nd, 1966.

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11. Bernadine Morris, “The World’s Best-Dressed Women: Who?” New York Times, December 16, 1965. 12. Bernadine Morris, “The World’s Best-Dressed Women: Who?” New York Times, December 16, 1965. 13. Bernadine Morris, “The World’s Best-Dressed Women: Who?” New York Times, December 16, 1965. 14. Bernadine Morris, “The World’s Best-Dressed Women: Who?” New York Times, December 16, 1965. 15. Valerie Wingfield, “The Fashion Group International Records,” New York Public Library, May 1997. 16. Valerie Wingfield, “The Fashion Group International Records,” New York Public Library, May 1997. 17. Jennifer Tom, “Fashion Group International Celebrates 60 Years in Denver,” 303 Magazine, January 31, 2018. 18. Nora Hampton, “Color is the King for Spring,” Oakland Tribune, January 4, 1965. 19. Nora Hampton, “’Guess Where Your New Hemline Is?” Oakland Tribune, January 5, 1965. 20. Nora Hampton, “’66 Knee Ticklers and Eye Openers,” Oakland Tribune, January 20, 1966. 21. Nora Hampton, “Story of Pirated Jetliner – Our Gal in Havana,” Oakland Tribune, June 18, 1969. 22. Marjorie Paxson, “Italian Milliners Know Their Way Around Felt,” Houston Chronicle, July 29, 1955. 23. Marjorie Paxson, “Beautiful Fall Styles Emphasize Curves,” Houston Chronicle, August 11, 1955. 24. Marjorie Paxson, “A Conservative Dior Retains Magic Touch,” Houston Chronicle, August 5, 1955. 25. Genevieve McBride, Women’s Wisconsin (Madison, Wisc: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2005), 303. 26. Bill Nelson, Works Beyond Words (Milwaukee: Morgan & Myers/The Barkin Group, 1996), 65. 27. Nelson, 78. 28. “Place of America In Fashion World Demonstrated Tuesday,” Sheboygan (Wisc.) Press, October 17, 1941. 29. “Newspaper Seminar Set,” The Galveston (Texas) News, September 14, 1952. 30. Judy Klemesrud, “Milwaukee: Famous for Beer, Bratwurst – and Fashion,” New York Times, May 28, 1968. 31. Bender Altschul, 18. 32. Associated Press, “Aileen Ryan Receives Award,” Sheboygan (Wisc.) Press, September 28, 1970.

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33. Vivian Kawatzky, “Walk on the Wild Side,” Lowell (Lowell, Mass.), November 29, 1968. 34. Hal Lewis letter to Dean Earl F.  English, December 26, 1962. Penney-­ Missouri Award Papers, National Women and Media Collection. 35. Graydon Heartsill letter to Dean Earl English, January 2, 1963. PenneyMissouri Award Papers, National Women and Media Collection. 36. Agnes Ash, “200 Visitors Getting Set For a Fashion Marathon,” New York Times, July 15, 1958. 37. Grayson Heartsill, “Kookie Look Now Assumes Sportive Air,” Dallas Times Herald, August 6, 1963. 38. Mildred Whitaker, “Smart Fashions for the Woman of ‘Fifty Plus,’” San Antonio Express and News, May 22, 1960. 39. Mildred Whitaker, “A Fashionable Look at Movieland,” San Antonio Express and News, November 24, 1957. 40. Mildred Whitaker, “Out of Petrol in London,” San Antonio News and Express, May 18, 1971. 41. “Madeliene Corey, Rhode Island Journalism Hall of Fame, 1993.” https://www.ripressassociation.org/hall-­of-­fame-­1990-­1999. 42. “Madeliene Corey Lennon Dies; Former Fashion Writer for J-B,” Providence Journal-Bulletin, January 29, 1983. 43. Teresa Lindeman, “30 Years: Department Store Era Comes to a Close, New Options Open,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 6, 2013. 44. Michael J.  Lisicky, Gimbels Has It! (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2011), 73. 45. Barbara Cloud, By-line, back cover. 46. “Ten Pittsburgh Career Women Named Best-Dressed for 1961,” Pittsburgh Gazette, March 3, 1961. 47. Ann Rodgers, “Barbara Cloud/Fashion Editor Exuded Beauty Inside, Out,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 16, 2012. 48. Email interview with Barbara Cloud, February 8, 2011. 49. Agnes Ash, “200 Visitors Getting Set For a Fashion Marathon,” New York Times, July 15, 1958. 50. Lois Wille, “Women in Journalism” oral history project, Washington Press Club Foundation, April 1, 1992, 135. 51. “Eleanor Nangle: Was Tribune Fashion Expert,” Chicago Tribune, November 8, 1986. 52. Eleanor Nangle: Was Tribune Fashion Expert,” Chicago Tribune, November 8, 1986. 53. Eleanor Nangle: Was Tribune Fashion Expert,” Chicago Tribune, November 8, 1986. 54. Marji Kunz, “Party Trousers Turn Women into Bewitching Little Boys,” Detroit Free Press, January 8, 1966.

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55. Marji Kunz, “Something New: A 2-in-1 Wig,” Detroit Free Press, November 4, 1971. 56. Marji Kunz, “The Queen of Queens?” Detroit Free Press, November 4, 1975. 57. Marji Kunz, “Fashion Leaders Toast an Opening,” Detroit Free Press, April 17, 1969. 58. Marji Kunz, “Brides in Detroit,” Detroit Free Press, February 5, 1967. 59. Yvonne Petrie, “The Fashion Spy,” Detroit News, May 8, 1966. 60. Yvonne Petrie, “Barefoot Girl With Chic,” Detroit News, April 15, 1966. 61. Bobbi McCallum, “Talent and Teens Bring Boutiques,” Seattle Post-­ Intelligencer, June 27, 1968. 62. Bobbi McCallum, “Day of Beauty Makes Debut,” Seattle Post-­Intelligencer, June 25, 1968. 63. Bobbi McCallum, “Understand Now, Don’t You Dear?” Seattle Post-­ Intelligencer, July 11, 1968. 64. Bobbi McCallum, “New Belts Make Midas Look Like a Miser,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 25, 1968. 65. Bobbi McCallum, “Mad Hatter’s Moment,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 8, 1968. 66. Bobbi McCallum, “Get in the Gray Mood for Fall,” Seattle Post-­ Intelligencer, July 18 1968. 67. Maggie Savoy, “Fashion is Expression,” Arizona Republic, October 22, 1961. 68. Maggie Savoy, “Scraps Bring smiles to Kids,” Arizona Republic, January 27, 1960. 69. Betty Milburn, “What We Wish For …What We Wear … Both Are In Cele Peterson Show,” Tucson Daily Citizen, September 30, 1961. 70. Maggie Savoy, “Wardrobe Meets the Travel Test,” Arizona Republic, April 9, 1963. 71. Maggie Savoy, “Everybody’s Wearing Mink These Days,” Arizona Republic, July 10, 1957. 72. Fred Rasmussen, “Vida Roberts, 56, Sun fashion editor who began career at News American in 1966,” Baltimore Sun, June 10, 1998. 73. Fred Rasmussen, “Vida Roberts, 56, Sun fashion editor who began career at News American in 1966,” Baltimore Sun, June 10, 1998. 74. Rod Stafford Hagwood, “A Monthly Look at the Men of Cuba,” Florida Sun-Sentinel, September 22, 1991. 75. Fred Rasmussen, “Vida Roberts, 56, Sun fashion editor who began career at News American in 1966,” Baltimore Sun, June 10, 1998. 76. Fred Rasmussen, “Vida Roberts, 56, Sun fashion editor who began career at News American in 1966,” Baltimore Sun, June 10, 1998.

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77. Agnes Ash, “200 Visitors Getting Set For a Fashion Marathon,” New York Times, July 15, 1958. 78. Jo Woestendiek, “Book Grows From Decades Covering Fashion,” Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Sentinel, June 11, 1981. 79. Annie Lee Singletary, “Penney-Missouri Awards Workshop Speech,” March 29, 1966, 1. Papers of the Penney-Missouri Awards, National Women and Media Collection. 80. Lotys Benning Stewart, “Spring Fashion Preview,” Indianapolis Star, January 6, 1952. 81. Bobbi McCallum, “Pacers Stage Pretty Salute,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 1, 1968. 82. Bobbi McCallum, “Sultry Indian Summer,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 5, 1968. 83. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina, 1981), 8. 84. Fay Hammond, “Deadline Dolls Make Headlines on Hemlines,” Los Angeles Times, October 28, 1951. 85. Fay Hammond, “Deadline Dolls Make Headlines on Hemlines,” Los Angeles Times, October 28, 1951.

CHAPTER 6

Ethics, Advertising, and the White House Fashion Show

Writing, of course, is central to journalism. Ethical coverage is equally as important. This was true for fashion journalists as much as it was for any other reporter. These women made a difference in their communities while keeping advertisers at arm’s length to avoid influence. Longtime Washington Post fashion editor Robin Givhan, the first winner of a Pulitzer Prize for fashion commentary, stressed that she wanted her reporting and her column to be driven by news.1 “If you want to do fashion writing for a newspaper, stay at arm’s length from the center of the fashion industry to maintain objectivity,” she said. “Your goal is not to celebrate fashion but to eye it with respect.”2 Detroit fashion writer Yvonne Petrie spoke at the Penney-Missouri Awards in 1964 about the difficulty of being objective when being influenced by celebrities—and famous designers. Rather than focusing on the prominence of the individual, the emphasis was on the clothing. “What a newspaper fashion reporter does is report the news,” Petrie said. “Her own interpretations of trends must be impartial and painfully honest.” In another example, designer Geoffrey Beene said New York Times fashion editor Virginia Pope’s understanding of innovation was particularly helpful to her critiques. “She could look at clothes objectively,” he recalled. “That is a great talent.”3

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. W. Voss, Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73624-8_6

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Journalism Ethics Concerns about journalism and objectivity are a central ethical concern— for both hard and soft news. (This was the terminology of the time. Today, it may be more common to use breaking news and features.) Typically, there was a distinct separation between the news/editorial side and the advertising department. This is to ensure that reporters and editors are not influenced by who pays the bills. For example, many newspapers have ethical guidelines that prevent journalists from accepting freebies and preventing department store influence. For example, Pittsburgh fashion editor Barbara Cloud’s job included traveling to fashion shows across the country and abroad, but it was not as glamorous as some may have thought. “Fashion writers do not spend leisure hours on the Riviera or in fashion salons,” she wrote in a 1991 column. “I’ve never been to the Riviera. And it’s a myth that fashion writers get their clothes for free. Newspaper’s ethics policy forbids it.”4 Similarly in Detroit, Petrie wrote in a letter, “Many papers, including the Detroit News, will not accept transportation reimbursement, leaving the writer free to attend only news-producing shows and to scout around for news on her own during Press Week.”5 New York Times fashion writer Nan Robertson recalled all of the free gifts that arrived from stores, designers, and publicists. These freebies included coats, dresses, and jewelry. “I could not see how I could report on these people fairly and accept their gifts,” she wrote. “Three little words kept occurring to me—conflict of interest.”6 Robertson always sent the gifts back with a note explaining the ethical problem that the present caused a journalist. She said the only time she was tempted to open something was when a box arrived from esteemed jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels. Instead, she sent the unopened box back with a note explaining the conflict. She soon got a phone call from the store’s publicist: “I received your gift back. I couldn’t agree with you more.”7 Milwaukee fashion journalist Aileen Ryan started under the editorship of women’s page journalist Elizabeth B.  Moffet. Moffett had been recruited from the Kansas City Star, where she had pioneered a new method of covering fashion that went beyond simply promoting the clothing of the advertisers. Moffet was hired because the Milwaukee Journal publisher wanted to “handle fashion news with more objectivity.”8 Moffett would visit the local fashion houses and bring along an artist to sketch the clothing. She would then give a critical analysis of the styles. Her writing was not influenced by advertisers.

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Yet, not every newspaper backed up fashion editors when advertisers wanted to influence editorial content. Boston fashion editor Marian Christy was faced with such push back after she wrote a pair of critical columns. One article concerned the incoherence of skin-tight jeans worn with strappy high-heeled evening shoes, “a coarse look that had emanated from the Paris runways,” she wrote. Yet, she said it reminded her of the “blatantly come-hither look that European prostitutes use to advertise themselves. I theorized, in that column, that it was not meant to be taken literally.” She also wrote a critical column about designer Oscar de la Renta’s redesign of Boy Scouts’ uniforms. The columns made a pair of department store executives angry. “They didn’t want women to think twice about what Paris was telling them to wear because they were selling it in their ads,” she said. “Never speaking directly to me, the two retailers insisted to management that basic fashion editorials should revolve around two kinds of reports: what stores were carrying on their racks and features on designers making personal appearances in those stores. Both are the basic stuff of ads. Besides, the stores argued, I should be ‘selling’ fashion, not talking about its warts.” Her editorial positions were too much for the retailers, resulting in private meetings with newspaper management and her ouster. “The two retailers deemed I had gone too far,” she wrote in a memoir. “They put on serious pressure. There were two big executive meetings I never knew about, meetings at which my editorial approach was voted against, and my fashion career came to a close.”9

Fashion Criticism Criticism, of course, allowed a fashion editor’s opinion to be included in a way that women were rarely allowed in other areas. It did mean that controversy was common—even in relation to colors. In 1956, a Florida Women’s Press Club meeting featured a guest speaker who addressed the issue of fashion journalism and ethics—focusing on describing clothing colors. “Fashion writers take a great many liberties with color,” he said. For instance, it is common for colors to go in and out of style and for fashion journalists to comment on this. In the late 1940s, the key hues were black and navy—even for Easter outfits. Recommended hosiery shades included navy, gun metal, black, and gray. White hats were suggested, including one with a large, up-curved straw brim, trimmed with daisies.10 A few years later, shoes were described as having straps “of

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contrasting colors, such as buttercup yellow and pumpkin, deep purple with lavender and bright green with sea green.”11 By the mid 1950s, “jet black” was again popular: “late-day dresses and little cocktail hats glitter this fall with shiny pieces of jet. Trimming smart one-color costumes, the hard jet lends a textural contrast to the soft finish of black silk and satin.”12 However, it is journalistic practice to not include opinionated words. Journalism professors and news writing textbooks regularly discourage the use of adjectives and adverbs because they can be construed as being too subjective. When Hartford Courant Executive Editor Carl Lindstrom was invited to speak at the Florida Women’s Press Club meeting in 1956, he chided the women for using descriptions that could be easily misinterpreted. Their use of color descriptions was one example he criticized. For example, he noted that when Alice Roosevelt married Nicholas Longworth, her preference for a certain light blue caused it to be called “Alice blue.” Later, Mrs. Coolidge’s choice for a slightly different shade was called Coolidge blue. When the King of England gave up the throne for the American divorcee Wallace Simpson, the term Wallis blue was invented. “There is nothing in the descriptions to tell readers what shade of blue is under discussion,” he argued. “On the other hand, robin’s eggs have been the same shade of blue as far as mind of man recalls.”13 Furthermore, he was concerned that without context—pictures were usually in black and white—readers would not understand what was being described. He shared a newspaper story about a dress described as “deeply glowing grape spiced with pungent guava red.” He thought this to be confusing. He queried several women and most said they imagined a deep shade of purple. The reference to “grape” led them to think of a different shade. Instead, the color was more of a pastel and better described as “high tension pink.”14 He explained that woman’s page reporters faced a unique challenge compared to other sections of the newspaper. This is because their reporting goes beyond what is seen and heard. For example, he said flavor and scent description is “infinitely more difficult.” The often unusual names given to perfumes may be for mystery or erotic appeal—but it does not help a reader understand the scent. He concluded: “The woman’s page writer is particularly concerned, too, with the sense of feeling: the texture of clothing, furnishings, and decorations. Perhaps women do these things better than men.”15

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Fashion Advertising In the 1950s, the trade group of the American Press Institute issued a handbook on fashion reporting urging fashion journalists to not be influenced by newspaper advertisers. Numerous fashion editors made contributions to the book and emphasized the separation of advertising from editorial. The biggest concerns were large department stores or local boutiques that might attempt to influence favor. The organization’s handbook recommended the following policy: Publication of store credits and prices, even though of much assistance to the reader, thus temps both the advertiser and the paper’s own advertising department to harass the fashion editor. There can be no tie-up or backdoor liaison with the advertising department. There must be a clear-cut independence for the fashion editor to report what she believes to be newsworthy.16

Most newspapers had varying policies. For example, the Times-Picayune in New Orleans did not name stores but gave a general suggestion of the price range of the items it featured. Readers had to write or telephone to request specific information.17 While most news publications now have policies against accepting gifts, this was not always the case then. As women’s page editor Colleen “Koky” Dishon wrote, fashion writers covered these shows “with information shaped and handed out by those footing the bill.”18 It could be a complicated relationship, including fashion reporting on and advertising from department stores. No journalist wanted to feel pressure from an advertiser. As noted earlier, Marion Christy lost her job when newspaper management bowed to pressure. These businesses played a large role in fashion—so much so that local boutiques were overshadowed. Cloud noted in an interview: “For a while I was not allowed to feature small stores or boutiques because they didn’t advertise! I was always fighting this because that’s where fashion was moving forward.”19 George Gill, Louisville Courier-Journal managing editor, was the chairman of Associated Press Managing Editor’s first Professional Standards Committee in 1972. “We had established probably one of the first and by far the toughest newsroom policies on ethics,” he boasted. The committee surveyed 230 newspapers about their policies. These included not accepting any free gifts from advertisers. Gill assigned Carol Sutton, the women’s page editor at his newspaper, to cover three fashion shows in New York

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City to determine what freebies were available. While there, she accepted every free gift that she was offered. “It went against all my training, my convictions,” she said.20 Sutton brought all the items back and added up the value. The story featured a photo of the piles of the free items she had received, estimated to be worth about $250 for the time. All items were returned. She then detailed the numerous attempts to influence fashion writers and the potential dangers of the practice. Sutton wrote, “Professional ethics is a subject of as much concern to newspapermen as it is to lawyers and doctors and other professional persons.”21 Sutton traveled to the Associated Press Managing Editors’ annual meeting in Kansas City to present the report. Sutton continued to encourage high ethical standards at the national Penney-Missouri Awards workshop. She gave numerous speeches encouraging women’s page editors to separate themselves from the companies advertising in their sections.22 Policy examinations at individual newspapers followed and within a few years, new or strengthened newspaper codes were commonplace.23

Names of Stores The previously mentioned, industry book Fashion in Newspapers addressed the complicated relationship between journalists and stores that advertised in the fashion section during the 1950s. Until the 1930s, the New York Times got its fashion information from local stores. The newspaper gave no recognition for its sources and published only those clothing that store publicity directors were willing to release. One of the biggest concerns was that stores would quickly copy the styles of designers. “Style piracy was at its height and the manufacturers would release nothing,” according to fashion editor Virginia Pope. “In fact, the fashion reporter was often ejected from the manufacturers’ show room.”24 While a regional market, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was known for its fashion reporting beginning as early as 1920. In the early years, the newspaper used information from the Milwaukee store buyers. The Milwaukee Journal named designers but permitted no additional credits. Prices were not reported unless they were newsworthy—especially if the clothes were expensive.25 According to the Cleveland Press, until World War II, newspaper did not include store names or prices and required its readers to phone in for fashion information. The newspaper altered its policy and began

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publication of store names and prices during the war in an effort to reduce the workloads on an overburdened telephone system. The Cleveland Press fashion editor said the new policy created no problems with the stores and there had been no pressure from the advertising department on behalf of individual advertisers. She said: “More than that, there has been a favorable reaction from the readers. They feel they are being better served when they are saved the trouble of making a phone call just to find out where to buy a dress.”26 The Dallas Times Herald began using store names in stories during World War II because “it was a real service to help readers solve their clothes problems,” according to the fashion editor. The newspaper included prices only when it was news—such as high or low costs. The editor gave the example of when the fashion editor cited a line of American-­ made dresses that were styled by an established Paris designer, yet retailed for less than $25. On the other end, when a dress cost $3000, that was news and would be included. She disliked the phone-call system of providing readers with shopping information. She said these policies were similar to running movie reviews without naming the theaters and expecting the movie-goers to call the paper to learn where the films could be viewed.27 In the late 1940s, the Atlanta Journal had a policy that allowed naming the stores in the fashion pages if that was the only place a design could be obtained. The newspaper also used prices only if they were news. When the Journal and the Atlanta Constitution came under the same ownership, the fashion-reporting policies were unified. The joint policy prohibited mention of stores with two exceptions: coverage of a fashion show once a year for an advertising store and coverage of newsworthy exhibits in stores. Manufacturers’ names and the prices of garments were not mentioned unless they were important as news; however, designers’ names can be used in news stories.28

Controversial Fashion Fashion, of course, included covering controversy. One letter writer chastised Washington, D.C., fashion Eleni Epstein for a model wearing a bikini on the cover of her section. The reader wrote, “Fashion aside, the picture was indecent and in poor taste to be in such an obvious place.”29 In another letter, a reader attacked Epstein for a feature about women wearing furs. The reader wrote: “Animal skins belong on animals, not human beings. Aren’t you aware of the terrible suffering inflicted on animals to

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further the fur trade? You should be! Or are you as ignorant as you are cruel?”30 Epstein’s response to the letter writer was typical of her sometimes sarcastic style: Thank you for your interest and the trouble it took to sit down and write a note. I am always interested in various points of view. My reputation is neither that of being cruel or ignorant. You are entitled to your opinion, however. Thanks again. We like to hear from our readers.31

White House Fashion Show Ethics also extended to fashion editors being challenged by the ply of patriotism: American vs. international designers. This was never more evident when, for one day in the late 1960s, fashion took over the White House. It was 1968 and American fashion was coming into its own. Following World War II, both U.S. designers and fashion journalism were becoming increasingly significant exemplified most prominently by what is generally understood to be the only White House–hosted fashion show (though it is worth noting that at least one newspaper referenced in its women’s pages a 1948 fashion show at the White House.32) The 1968 Washington, D.C., show was several years before the well-­ known 1973 Battle of Versailles fashion show, which was later documented by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Robin Givhan.33 It was also just a few years before the fashion pages of American newspapers would change significantly. For decades, fashion coverage was found in the women’s pages of newspapers—the only place women were allowed to work at most publications. While these journalists were marginalized at their newspapers, they were well connected in the fashion community and, often, politically. After all, women’s pages editors and their staff were regular visitors to the White House and First Ladies. The women’s pages—which helped to define women’s news—would soon be coming to an end by the early 1970s. These sections were then replaced by lifestyle sections and several women journalists lost their positions. Yet in 1968, the Golden Era of the women’s pages was still riding high. In fact, three fashion editors from Washington, D.C., helped pick out the featured clothes for the fashion show: Eleni Epstein of the Washington Star,34 Nina Hyde of the Washington Post,35 and Dorothy LeSueur of the Washington Post.36 Famed fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert produced the show.37

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While some saw the topic of fashion as superficial, Johnson knew there was power in the business, and by 1968 she was ready to highlight clothing designed and made in America, noting in her opening remarks at the event that the American fashion industry was the fourth largest in the nation.38 An additional purpose of the show, according to her publicist, was to encourage “Americans to spend their money at home” and to make the United States “more attractive to foreign visitors.”39 The event was called “How to Discover America in Style.” Pittsburgh fashion editor Barbara Cloud wrote, “It was all about the red, white and blue and the importance of our American designers who were always playing second fiddle to Europeans as innovators.”40 With the U.S.  Marine Corp Band playing in an adjacent room, images of U.S. attractions such as Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty were flashed on a screen in the State Dining Room as twenty models strode across a special white-­carpeted runaway in the shape of a U.41 Adorned in “red, white, and blue daytime suits, coats and dresses,” the models—who had their fittings in the Lincoln bedroom—wore only American work.42 From the designers to the models, it also was an all-volunteer project with the White House even borrowing numerous items from the Washington Post for the show—including umbrella and suitcases.43 According to a newspaper article about the event, “America’s First Ladies have become steadily more fashion conscious over the past 15 years, and the public, far from objecting, shows every sign of liking them that way.”44 The audience was largely made up of the governors’ wives who had accompanied their spouses for a three-day conference.45 The models wore the clothes created by twenty-five American designers—many of whom attended the event. New designer Don Simonelli said, “Imagine sitting in the White House and watching my clothes on a runway. This is a great thing for American fashion.”46 The clothes were intended to be popular. A newspaper story noted: “Mrs. Johnson stressed that the clothes be wearable, not weird.”47 The White House event was covered in newspapers across the country—including a preview story.48 Newspaper coverage also included an Associated Press report.49 Those who attended the show received a silk scarf from popular Georgetown fashion designer Frankie Welch. She was known as one of the top scarf designers in the country at the time. Most of her scarves were based on 8-inch square modules and typically repeated four to eight times creating a rectangular scarf. She explained, “I design in the module, like Frank Lloyd Wright.”50 The scarves were available two weeks after the

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event and later sold at national parks.51 According to an Arizona fashion editor: “Frankie sees scarves as identification badges for individuals in a faceless society. The message is the thing in fashion.” Welch also created scarves for many politicians’ wives.52 According to the First Lady’s press secretary: “The scarves being presented to the Governors’ wives have been hand silk screened and hand painted especially for them by volunteers with experience in painting fabrics. When the call for volunteers went out from Welch, more than sixty people responded—ranging in age from a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl to an eighty-year-old grandfather.”53 The White House event was covered in newspapers across the country—including previews54 and an Associated Press wire story that ran in papers unable to send a reporter.55 However, dozens of fashion editors from papers across the country covered the event, including New  York editor Eugenia Sheppard and Dallas editor Karen Klinefelter. They, along with several newspaper and magazine editors, reported on the excitement of the event. For example, Cloud wrote: “The excitement of the whole afternoon was mixed with patriotic fervor. Nobody knows exactly why a fashion show has never been held in the White House before, but everyone felt this one was worth waiting for.”56 Peg Zwecker, fashion editor of the Chicago Daily News, wrote: “It is all part of the president’s program to encourage ‘staying home and travelling in America.’ And his wife believes that you might as well do it fashionably.”57 Furthermore, Harper’s Bazaar editor Nancy White wrote: “My work takes me into all of the United States. I spend almost as much time traveling in America as I do in my office in New York. Throughout the country, civic pride has never been as strong, as healthy, as productive and—if I might say so—as genuinely fashionable as it is right now.”58 Unfortunately, no other fashion shows have been held since at the White House. For all its pageantry and publicity, the event was hurt by the absence of some of America’s top designers, including Geoffrey Beene, Adele Simpson, and Oscar De La Renta, who found themselves unable to attend due to poor weather.59 The president himself declared just a few weeks later that he would not run for reelection, preventing the First Lady from staging an encore. Fashion editor Barbara Cloud wrote in 2006, as she looked back fondly on the 1968 event, that the timing has not been right since and certainly isn’t now. “I’m just day dreaming, and remembering what was, and what I’d like to see again,” she mused. “Someday, perhaps. It would be nice.”60

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Notes 1. Marian Frances Wolbers, Uncovering Fashion: Fashion Communications Across the Media (New York: Fairchild Books, 2009), 196. 2. Marian Frances Wolbers, Uncovering Fashion: Fashion Communications Across the Media (New York: Fairchild Books, 2009), 195. 3. Bernadine Morris, “Virginia Pope, 92, Fashion Editor Of The Times 22 Years, Is Dead,” New York Times, January 17, 1978. 4. Barbara Cloud, By-line: Pittsburgh’s Beloved Columnist Shares a Lifetime of Interviews and Observations (Tarentum, Penn: World Association Publishers, 2009). 5. Yvonne Petrie letter to Paul Myhre, February 7, 1964. Penney-Missouri Award Papers, National Women and Media Collection. 6. Nan Robertson, Girls in the Balcony (New York: Random House, 1992), 83. 7. Nan Robertson, Girls in the Balcony (New York: Random House, 1992), 84. 8. Robert Wells, The Milwaukee Journal (Milwaukee, Wisc.: Milwaukee Journal, 1981), 143. 9. Marian Christy, Invasions of Privacy (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1984), 23–24. 10. Dorothy O’Neill, “Easter Costumes Favor Black, Navy,” New York Times, April 7, 1947. 11. No byline, “Shoes Are Offered for All Occasions,” New York Times, April 13, 1951. 12. Dorothy Hawkins, “Jet Black,” New York Times, September 26, 1954. 13. Carl E.  Lindstrom, “Florida Women’s Press Club Address,” March 21, 1956, St. Augustine, Florida, 11. 14. Carl E.  Lindstrom, “Florida Women’s Press Club Address,” March 21, 1956, St. Augustine, Florida, 12. 15. Carl E.  Lindstrom, “Florida Women’s Press Club Address,” March 21, 1956, St. Augustine, Florida, 12. 16. Garrett D.  Byrnes, ed., Fashion Handbook, American Press Institute, 1951, 6. 17. Garrett D.  Byrnes, ed., Fashion Handbook, American Press Institute, 1951, 5. 18. Colleen “Koky” Dishon, “We’ve Come a Long Way  – Maybe,” Media Studies Journal, 95. 19. Email interview with Barbara Cloud, April 2, 2012. 20. University of Louisville. Oral History Project, July 21, 1982. Interview with Carol Sutton, CD #2, Part 1.

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21. Carol Sutton, “Of freebies and fashion shows, Louisville Courier-­Journal, November 16, 1972. 22. Carol Sutton letter, April 12, 1974. Penney-Missouri Papers, National Women and Media Collection. 23. Fifty and Feisty/APME: 1933–1983 (St. Paul, Minn.: The North Central Publishing Company, 1983), 46–47. 24. Virginia Pope, New  York Oral History, 1971, New  York Times Public Library, 5. 25. Garrett D.  Byrnes, ed., Fashion Handbook, American Press Institute, 1951, 5. 26. Garrett D.  Byrnes, ed., Fashion Handbook, American Press Institute, 1951, 5. 27. Garrett D.  Byrnes, ed., Fashion Handbook, American Press Institute, 1951, 5. 28. Garrett D.  Byrnes, ed., Fashion Handbook, American Press Institute, 1951, 5. 29. Eileen Stevans letter to Fashion Editor, February 23, 1979. Papers of Eleni Epstein, National Women and Media Collection. 30. Ida Miller to Fashion Editor, August 1, 1979. Papers of Eleni Epstein, National Women and Media Collection. 31. Eleni Epstein letter to Ida Miller, August 29, 1979. Papers of Eleni Epstein, National Women and Media Collection. 32. “The Gadabout,” El Paso Herald-Post, August 11, 1948. 33. Robin Givhan, The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History (New York: Flatiron Books, 2015). 34. Kimberly Wilmot Voss and Lance Speere, “Fashion as Washington Journalism History: Eleni Epstein and Her Three Decades at the Washington Star,” Media History Monographs, 2013–2014, 1–22. 35. Bernadine Morris, “Nina Hyde, 57, a Fashion Editor Who Became a Pacesetter, Is Dead,” New York Times, May 6, 1990. 36. “Dorothy Hawkins Becomes Fiancee,” New York Times, January 17, 1957. 37. Enid Nemy, “Eleanor Lambert, Empress of Fashion, Dies at 100,” New York Times, October 8, 2003. 38. Press release, “Remarks of Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson at Governors’ Wives Luncheon, the White House, Washington, DC, 2/29/1968”, “Mrs. Johnson  – Speeches,” Reference File, LBJ Presidential Library, https:// www.discoverlbj.org/item/ref-­ctjspeeches-­19680229. 39. Mary Strasburg, “See the USA—The Johnson Way,” New York Times, February 24, 1968, F1. 40. Barbara Cloud, “The First and Last White House Fashion Shows,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 26, 2006.

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41. Myra MacPherson, “Governors’ Wives ‘Discover America in Style’ at White House, New York Times, March 1, 1968, L42. 42. Myra MacPherson, “Governors’ Wives ‘Discover America in Style’ at White House, New York Times, March 1, 1968, L42.; Associated Press, “White House Fashion Show,” Lawrence (Kansas) Daily Journal-World, March 1, 1968. 43. “Loan Charge,” Washington Post, February 28, 1962. Papers of Lady Bird Johnson, LBJ Presidential Library, Austin, Texas. 44. Eugenia Sheppard, “White House Open Door to First Fashion Showing,” St. Petersburg Times, February 25, 1968. 45. Myra MacPherson, “Governors’ Wives ‘Discover America in Style’ at White House, New York Times, March 1, 1968, L42. 46. Barbara Cloud, “The First and Last White House Fashion Show,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 26, 2006. 47. Mary Strasburg, “See the USA  – The Johnson Way,” Washington Post, February 24, 1968. 48. “White House Fashion Show,” New York Times, February 22, 1968. 49. Nancy Bell, “All Fancy Clothes Shown at the White House,” Arizona Republic, July 3, 1968. Frances Lewine (Associated Press), “White House Fashion Show Held With LBJ,” Wichita Falls Times, March 1, 1968. 50. Ashley Callahan, “Frankie Welch: Americana Fashion Specialist,” Ornament, 2011, 26–31. 51. Frankie Welsh to Liz Carpenter, February 9, 1968. Papers of Lady Bird Johnson, LBJ Presidential Library, Austin, Texas. 52. Nancy Hall, “She’s Scarf Queen of Washington,” Arizona Republic, July 3, 1969. 53. Office of the Press Secretary to Mrs. Johnson, February 28, 1968. Papers of Lady Bird Johnson, LBJ Presidential Library, Austin, Texas. 54. “White House Fashion Show,” New York Times, February 22, 1968. 55. Nancy Bell, “All Fancy Clothes Shown at the White House,” Arizona Republic, July 3, 1968; Frances Lewine (Associated Press), “White House Fashion Show Held With LBJ,” Wichita Falls Times, March 1, 1968. 56. Barbara Cloud, By-Line (Word Association: 2009), 165. 57. Peg Zwecker, Chicago Daily News. Papers of Lady Bird Johnson, LBJ Presidential Library, Austin, Texas. 58. Nancy White, “Discover America: White House Remarks,” February 26, 1968. Papers of Lady Bird Johnson, LBJ Presidential Library, Austin, Texas. 59. Barbara Cloud, “The First and Last White House Fashion Show,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 26, 2006. 60. Barbara Cloud, “The First and Last White House Fashion Show,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 26, 2006.

CHAPTER 7

Fashion Journalism in the 1960s and 1970s, and the End of the Women’s Pages

There continued to be a regional reputation for fashion in the 1960s. During that decade, fashion editor Aileen Ryan convinced the Milwaukee-­ area apparel and textile makers to unveil their products in Milwaukee before the New York shows. As part of that drive, she helped to establish the Heritage Milwaukee event to promote local companies such as the Junior House (later JH Collectibles) and the Great Lakes Mink Association. The showings at the event attracted newspapers from across the country, including the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times. As many of two dozen fashion editors would make the trip to Milwaukee for the event—putting the city on the fashion map. According to public relations executive Lyn Skeen, Milwaukee’s fashion industry was larger than its brewing industry at the time: “Fashion was big business in our state.” And an article in the New York Times noted that Wisconsin ranked fourth nationally as a producer of women’s fashion apparel, behind California, New York, and Texas.1 Fashion shows of all kinds continued to be popular—in cities across the country. One observer said the events are rapidly overtaking those who created them: “Women are insatiable. They just cannot get enough of fashion shows. It is difficult to imagine how they could get more.”2 Cities with fashion design schools often had student shows open to the public. In 1965, the Fashion Institute of Technology featured leisure clothes created by student designers. They featured pants in various forms—bell bottoms, slacks with tunics, and leggings. “The first ovation was for fake © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. W. Voss, Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73624-8_7

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knickers attached to a long white knitted top.”3 A show featuring Pierre Cardin’s designs took place at Riker’s Island. The fashion editor reported that there was so much yelling that it sounded like the final seconds of a Super Bowl game. “Oh, that’s bad [translation: good] man!’ one of the 500 inmates kept screaming whenever a model pranced out on the auditorium stage in a fashion the inmate favored.”4

Men’s Clothes While most of the fashion coverage was aimed at women, there were some stories about men’s clothing. Several stories addressed the lack of hats and a growing casualness in dress during the 1960s. The New York Times reported, “The men’s fashion revolution, which started with the hair and the waistline, has finally hit the feet.”5 There were also stories about men’s clothing taking on a more unisex approach. One 1967 story by a fashion editor noted: Sociologists who have been observing the fashion war between the sexes should be busily taking note these days. Women have won most of the battles in the Hundred Years’ War about clothes, while men retreated into protective colors and styles. But, spearheaded by the European men’s designers, the male revolution may be complete this year. The American man seems tired of being buttoned into his good gray flannel suit and wants to strut his peacock instincts.6

Also that year, a fashion editor wrote about men who may begin wearing skirts and kilts—under a headline about hemlines. It was a parallel to the debate over women being allowed to wear pants. The story began with advice to men: They were encouraged to turn in their dull, drab everyday clothes and turn out in printed suits velvet ones, even skirts. At noon, Ken Scott, the American designer working in Milan who is known for his printed dresses, showed red velvet ones, mauve striped ones and bright yellow blazers with green pants. In the middle of her retrospective show of women’s styles at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Elizabeth Hawkes introduced pleated skirts for men. Call them kilts.7

Another gender clothing comparison was the trend of men going bare chested—as a response to women going braless. Two of the biggest

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American menswear designers, John Weitz and Bill Blass, debuted collections that included suit coats, sport jackets and velvet blazers meant to be worn over bare chests. “Men, you’d better make sure your chests are in good shape because you may soon be baring them in places where they’ve never been bared before. Nobody was saying whether it was a ‘Me, too’ reaction to all those mini-girls who have shed their bras.”8 By the mid-­1960s, gender neutral clothes were common. A fashion editor wrote: “As anyone with even a pinkie on fashion’s pulse these days can tell you, you need a program, to tell the boys from the girls. Trousers, once the Great Divide between the sexes, now scarcely offer a clue.”9 Further, male teenagers were growing their hair long: “In England, teenage boys and girls now sport hairdos exactly alike.”10 The change in gender-specific clothing roles was becoming more accepted by 1968. Fashion editors noted the “freedom” of clothes. They predicted that change would continue: We’re going to have an even more natural no-bra look in fashion before womanly clothes return. The hippies have given us a look of freedom and vast stretches of America have still never seen a hippie. The hair, the beads, the belts, the colors. It will all affect fashion generally.11

Proof of the impact was found in what designers introduced—at least to a degree. In 1969, a fashion editor asked, “Where have all the rich hippies gone?” She noted that the gypsy skirts and wild colors that were popular past, “are back in the closet or on the way to the thrift shop— where they’ll probably be bought by real hippies.” Instead, the little black dress was making a comeback. There were broad variations on the look— long or short, made of velvet, satin, or chiffon. The editor wrote: “It often has sleeves, but there are other devices to keep it out of mourning. Diving necklines, for instance, and touches of white or jeweling.”12

Fabric Changes Technology and trends led to several yearly stories about fabrics. A 1960 story focused on a French designer who was using American fabrics in his clothing.13 A 1964 story explained that some stores were featuring high-­ end sportswear in vinyl—including hats and bikinis.14 Two years later, a dress made from plastic was newsworthy. The fashion editor noted a

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plastic and metal dress created by Paco Rabanne. The writer questioned: “What does one wear under his shimmering circles and squares linked by metal rings? A slip, or better yet a body stocking.” “What happens when you sit down? You shouldn’t—they are for dancing,” said Rabanne.15 A year later, paper clothes were popular—including wedding dresses, bikinis, and underwear. It was predicted that paper shoes, hats, and jewelry were on the way. According to the writer: “What seemed a dim paper moon to fashion’s galaxy last year is steadily growing fuller and shining on unlikely places.”16 Aluminum was another interesting fashion fabric choice. One national story noted: “A shining example of the latest trend in women’s fashions is this all-aluminum disc outfit modeled a recent fashion show. It’s one of many glittering new fashions applications of the light-weight metal.”17

Shoes Shoes were a regular topic for stories. A 1955 story about shoes noted that the T-strap and the bias strap were current trends. The story included several photos with heels from mid-level to high.18 By 1961, the New York Times featured an article noting that heels were now lower. The lead began: “American women have reached dizzying heights in the last two decades, but now appears that they are coming down to earth. The days of the shoes with the pointed toe and soaring, sliver-thin heel are numbered.”19 Cuban heels were described as popular in 1965—for those who were “intrepidly chic.” They were sold at Henri Bendel. The owner said he would not permit a sling pump, a pointed toe or a needle heel, as that was not shoemaking.20 Also that year, Brigette Bardot’s film Viva Maria led to the fashion throwback of high-button shoes. It was a reminder of 1908— the period when the movie takes place. It also involved ankle-length skirts and high necklines rimmed in lace.21

Sweaters There were regular stories about sweaters. A 1964 story documented the history of the sweater: “Babies wear them, so do their grandmothers. College girls live in them, and fashionable women collect them like jewels. In spite of the handicap of an unattractive name, sweaters have become the modern woman’s way of life.” The story quoted Diana Vreeland, editor of

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Vogue magazine, who said of the sweater and skirt: “The 20th century’s unique contribution to fashion.” The story noted that the sweater was centuries old, but it was not until the 1920s that fashion leaders recognized it as something more than a garment to keep warm in. Its dictionary description is a garment to sweat in.22 During the 1930s, the British wore a Shetland sweater or cashmere cardigan and a matching pull-over, added grandmother’s strand of pearls, and started the “twin set” trend that became popular around the world. In 1935, a 15-year-old in a tight sweater was discovered by a movie scout sitting at a soda fountain. That teen—Lana Turner—quickly became famous as the “sweater girl” and a tight sweater was the fad until World War II.23 By the 1950s, one fashion editor profiled Sidney Gould, who was celebrating his twentieth-fifth anniversary as a sweater designer and manufacturer. He recalled that in the early days, sweater designs were simple—either cardigans and slipovers: “No matter what physical attributes the wearer might supply, the sweater retained its own boxy, utilitarian form.”24 But change was on its way with more variety in design and fabric—referred to as a sweater blouse: “A bit dressier because of their fabric, they present an exciting change in wool jersey, sleek matt jersey or an attractive crisp onion and silk blend.”25 By the 1960s, sweater styles had become tighter and more stylish. Sweaters were being described as glamorous with knitted belts that fell low on the hips: “Their style is reminiscent of Palm Beach, 1930, but their good looks are decidedly spring, 1967.”26 The fancier sweater look continued into the 1970s. Designer Bill Blass introduced a dark blue sweater with a floor-length yellow skirt. Oscar de la Renta showed cardigans over long and short satin dresses. A fashion editor wrote: “Not since Mainbocher decorated some cashmeres as an austerity measure during World War II has the lowly sweater, erstwhile chill chaser, achieved such status.”27

Underwear and Pantyhose As the conservative 1950s fashions were beginning to change in the 1960s, that also included undergarments. One 1963 fashion story noted: “After half a decade of modesty, the American woman may be ready to take the plunge. Bosom-baring necklines have been appearing in the spring collections shown on Seventh Avenue.” This was in comparison to previous fall fashions featuring tweedy, muffled, and booted styles presented in Paris. House of Christian Dior’s Marc Bohan showed three outfits that included

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décolletage for the evening. According to the writer: “One of them dropped lower than the New York stock market on May 28, 1962.”28 Two years later there was a story about padded bras. It was made from a fiber— kodel—developed by Eastman Kodak. It was described as “lightweight and fluffy, it does not become lumpy or mat down when the bra is washed in a machine.”29 In 1964, feminist icon and writer Gloria Steinem wrote a long article for the New York Times’ fashion section about stockings. (At the end of the piece was a note: “Steinem is a writer-about-town who knows all about textured stockings, but does not—repeat not—own a single pair.”) Her article noted that American women had become more interested in textured stockings rather than the natural-legged look of the past. “American women,” explained an advertising man happily, “have gone absolutely out of their minds from the knees down.” The trend rose at a time when there was a decline in the previously popular seamed stockings, the inexpensive “tube” process of creating pantyhose without seams and the new tendency of American women to go bare-legged in summer. The changes in the hosiery industry were significant. It was a big shift—by the end of 1964, American women spent $600 million on hosiery. This was a 10 percent increase over the previous year. Much of this was from textured stockings—which cost anywhere from $3 to $50.30 A few years later, dark stockings were popular: “The new darks aren’t even kissin’ cousins of anything seen in the past. They are merely reminiscent.”31 As hosiery was changing—the bras and even the wearing of bras were also evolving. A story about slips promised smooth lines under knitted fashions and meant “some women can go without bras.”32 Fashion designers were quick to respond and created lingerie including creating bras that did not point and slips that did not show. This included Emilio Pucci and Pauline Trigere who said that, “Women should be sexy, but not in the Jean Harlow type of way.”33 In 1966, with skirts getting shorter, the appropriate stockings were needed. It meant a change from the traditional use of garter belts with hosiery. The new stockings “extend up to her waist” and were known as the panty-stocking: “Virtually every manufacturer is introducing some version of the panty-stocking, that sheer relation of the dancer’s tights, which will begin appearing in the stores this month.”34 In 1968, the bra slip was being recommended as a significant undergarment. It was considered as a solution for those women who wanted to wear the trendy item but did not want to wear them the way designer Yves Saint Laurent advocated in Paris with nothing underneath the shirt: “She

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can try them without invoking her husband’s ire by putting them over a nude-colored bra slip.”35 See-through shirts continued to be shown the following year. For those women concerned about modesty, clothing manufacturers were building in underpinnings. The reporter wrote: The woman who is tempted to go bra-less, corset-less or even slip-less can sort of have her cake and eat it, too. If she’s not beanpole slim or washboard flat, she’ll jump at the chance to keep her curves under control and still feel contemporary, the reasoning goes.36

Women were going braless for reasons both fashionable and political. The reporter noted that one year prior, “women’s liberation leaders were burning their bras and many of their sympathizers walked proudly up and down Fifth Avenue.”37 It became a concern for bra companies. Michael Stein, president of the Bali Company, Inc., said that a “bosom consciousness” had hit America and was likely to have a long-term positive effect.38 In an advertisement in the fashion section was a Bali ad with the headline: “How to wear a bra and look like you’re not.” The company promised that its bras would “solve” specific figure problems a woman might have. The bra industry had a right to be concerned. A reporter wrote that the braless trend meant an “attack” on the $1 billion industry. In response, he wrote that the companies “developed ‘soft bras’ for women sympathetic to the ‘lib’ movement and created a variety of styles for the so-called ‘silent majority of women’ who still prefer comfort and support.”39 A 1970 fashion story included interviews with women who were continuing to go braless—along with photos of interviewees about going braless. The reporter noted: “Now, as anybody who has been out walking on a warm summer day can plainly see, the braless look has established a beachhead in Manhattan.”40 Even the all-American star Marlo Thomas of the popular television series That Girl stopped wearing a bra on her show. She said in an interview: “God created women to bounce, so be it. If I bounce, I am happy to be a girl.”41 The story concluded: Working girls are now going to their offices unfettered. Married women push baby carriages up Fifth Avenue in an au naturel style that was unthinkable a few years ago. Women’s liberationists, who view the bra as a threat to their freedom, demonstrate for their causes wearing nothing but themselves under their blouses.42

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Hair Trends Articles about specific hair trends were a common topic for fashion editors. (It should be noted that these stories were always about white people.) For example, in 1957, there was a call for a return to 1930s hairstyles along with photos of women with the short, curled hair.43 Later that same year, the curls were gone and straight hair was recommended—although hair was still short.44 The following year, there was a story about hairstyles that worked with hats—especially hair that had a center part, otherwise known as the “Jane Austen.”45 In 1965, short hairstyles with curls were back in fashion. The reporter referred it to a 1920s look.46 During the Youth Revolution of the 1960s, there was more reporting on the hairstyles of teens. Known as a status symbol was the “exaggerated hairdo.” The reporter wrote that while there were several variations in the popular hairdo, there was one thing that was constant: a high, puffed-up style. It was done by painstakingly teasing the hair. The process involved combing locks of hair backward until the hair stands up. It is then carefully patted into place without losing height. The reporter noted that it was a win for everyone: “Hairdressers welcome the new business, parents pay the bill and teen-agers revel in their new-found luxury.”47 Before long, youth-specific beauty salons popped up in cities across the country. They were described as places for young women to repair their own hairdos. It was intended to be an option other than their mother’s shops featuring “pink-curled women sitting under dryers looking at magazines through reading glasses.”48 The “big hair” look of the era meant an increase in women buying wigs and fake hair by the pound. New was the stretch wig, which was pulled on like a cap and could cover shorter hair or a growing-out hairdo. There were also a variety of falls, braids, and pieces to transform a woman into everything from a Russian empress to a silent-era movie star.49 By 1970, the short hairdos with curls was again in fashion.50 In the same way that fashion editors covered what the wives of political figures wore, who did their hair and makeup was also of interest. The vice president’s family had a New York hairdresser get them ready for the 1965 inauguration. It was predicted that the first lady—who had not revealed who would do her hair or makeup—would wear natural cosmetics but with a red tone. Johnson had not “subscribed to the pale mouth that has been the rage recently.”51

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Dress Codes Throughout the 1960s, as high school students across the country began to assert their independence, dress codes were up for debate. At one New York high school, female students were not allowed to wear pants. Two sophomores defied the rule and ended up spending the day in the principal’s office. According to the fashion story: “Laura and Lauren don’t look the suffragette type, they’re slender and fragile-looking in their sweaters and pants. But they are the heroines of a dust up that has clarified the standing of the pants-wearing girl in the New York high schools.”52 The ACLU filed a complaint against the school on behalf of the girls and won. “Don’t think it’s over,” said one unnamed female student. “The teachers still give you dirty looks and they say it’s not ladylike. They can’t stop us now, but they’re going to make things rough.”53 Principal George Shirley said he did not think pants were proper school attire for girls. “After all, offices don’t permit them. On cold days, they could wear them to school and then change to a skirt. But now my hands are tied.”54 Fashion editor Judy Lunn earned a Penney-Missouri Award for her articles about dress codes in Houston. The news hook for the story was based on a young boy with a “malformed head.” His parents wanted to allow their son to wear his hair a bit longer than the local school district would allow. It wound up in the court system and made national news. It led to a three-part series on dress codes. She began by looking at history and the restriction of Puritan dressing. “There’s nothing new about dress codes,” she wrote. Her story went on to address clothing and social class, historical dress, and social issues.55 Another story addressed the 5-year-old Houston boy and the school’s decision to punish the child for having longer hair. His parents explained that he had a “mal-formed” head and thus longer hair prevented him from looking different from other children. The case went to court: Billy Epperson v Pasadena School District. The American Civil Liberties Union represented the family, although the lawyer admitted that the organization had not won a case regarding dress codes in the federal district. “They maintain schools have the right to make those decisions,” he stated. However, the child was allowed back to school the following year when the court ruling came down in the summer.56 Reflecting on the series, she wrote “Personally, I’m a nut about historical clothes and the philosophy behind why people do and don’t wear certain kinds of clothes.” For that, she interviewed a source at the Victoria and Albert Museum—an expert

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on the history of the topic. At that time, she was getting phone calls with questions about whether women could wear pants to work.57

Skirts One of the biggest fashion debates of the 1960s was over the length of skirts. In 1966, miniskirts were becoming popular. The reporter noted, “The miniskirt, the most important British import since the Beatles, has created a furor both in the apparel industry and among men who have at least normal vision.”58 He explained that what made the miniskirt “remarkable” was its lack of length. Typically, the miniskirt stopped at four inches above the knee. He wrote, “The real effect of the miniskirt, outside of its impact on male viewers, is the excitement it has caused among consumers, and therefore it reaches both the retail and wholesale levels.”59 The counter to the miniskirt was the maxi-skirt—as skirt lengths went up and down. The midi-skirt (ending at the middle of the calf) was another response to the miniskirt. Some women said they would learn to make their own clothes to find the right length. Others planned to buy longer skirts and shorten them. The third group was trudging from store to store in their cities trying to find a midi-skirt: “It’s a difficult job, but not yet an impossible one. Even Gimbels basement has no dearth of cards advising customers to ‘Take a Long Midi Look.’”60 The reporter concluded: Maybe this time they can pull it off. Certainly, they are determined. Most of them don’t belong to any protest organizations, will not march in any parades and are not about to tear up their charge accounts.61

Not everyone was happy with the lengths of skirts getting longer. These people were against midi-skirts: “The American Society of Girl Watchers call the midi movement subversive and unAmerican, and urged its 5,000 members Thursday to join in an all-out war against the new calf-length skirt styles. In a formal resolution the group called it ‘visual pollution.’”62

Hats Hats were so common in the 1950s, that entire fashion shows were devoted to what was trending. In 1951, one designer presented her spring hat collection at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The fashion reporter described:

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“A brief bowler of shiny navy straw, romantic as a Godey Lady’s with its brim rolling at the sides and sashed with pale blue, sported a chignon cluster of roses at the back.”63 A few years later, hat designer Lilly Dache turned to feathers over flowers—focusing on femininity. While meeting with a fashion editor, “she held a long, black ostrich feather in her hand, and carefully curled the tips with a milliner’s feather knife that looks like a kitchen paring knife. ‘I haven’t had so many feathers around in fifteen years,’ she said.”64 Marjorie Paxson reported on the mid-1950s European fashion shows for her Houston newspaper: “The Italian milliners obviously have a way with the felt. Many cut-out models were shown, some open in the back of the head, others at the top.”65 Barbara Cloud’s coverage of men’s fashion in Pittsburgh also reflected changes in society. She covered hats when they were commonly worn up until their overall demise. Various sources have cited the early 1960s as the beginning of the end of men wearing hats, either claiming or crediting President John F.  Kennedy.66 In the 1970s, Cloud wrote about hats in Pittsburgh: “Can we safely say the millinery business will be brighter this fall as women once again reach for the new chapeau to brighten their own spirits? Well, we can safely say hats are certainly more so than they have been in recent seasons.”67 A time of fashion formality was ending for women and men.

Models Personality profiles of models were a common topic for fashion editors. One such story described two young American women who traveled to Europe to model. The fashion editor wrote that they were “realizing a schoolgirl dream—of sailing away to a foreign land, with stars in the eyes and practically no money in the purse, to find new adventure in the old world. There is less competition than in modeling in New York, and you have more prestige here as an American.”68 Another story examined the approach of the Jerry and Eileen Ford Modeling Agency—which interviewed more than 5000 would-be models and signed on about fifteen newcomers each year. Mr. Ford’s description of what he looks for in a face does not conform to popular beliefs. Sharp features photograph best. Ford watches for gaunt, rather bony faces with well-spaced eyes. A nose he finds to be often the most disappointing feature. Even a slight roundness at the tip is enough to render

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a face commercially unphotogenic; in other words, roundness is undesirable in face as in figure.69

Profiles of famous models were common in fashion sections. One example was Genevieve Waite, who was often described as the Twiggy of South Africa. In the article, she revealed that nudity was part of her job. “The new star feels she has to be professional, not prissy.”70 There was also stories about local models who worked the lunchtime fashion shows in department stores and dining rooms. A 1965 story covered the lunch shows: “The Phone Booth recently joined the burgeoning fashion-with-­ food circuit by deciding to offer its largely male lunch crowd a view of pretty girls in pretty clothes along with the stuffed tomato surprise.”71

Black Models and Fashion Shows One of the more well known of the local department store fashion shows was in 1969. Called “Basic Black,” the show was held at Bergdorf Goodman to benefit the Harlem Northside Children Center. The show featured black models wearing the designs of black fashion designers whose clothes were sold in the store.72 The Washington Post fashion editor wrote that “basic black has always been ‘in’ at Bergdorf Goodman. The 68-year-old Fifth Avenue firm tonight gave it some soul.”73 Black models began appearing in a few of New York’s most important fashion shows in the 1950s. Publicist Eleanor Lambert had been hiring them for a few years, usually for civic fashion shows like the annual March of Dimes fashion show or fashion films produced by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. New coverage noted that in 1959, two Black models appeared at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in the American ready-to-wear fashion show of the Fashion Group.”74 Black models were rare enough for a major fashion house in the 1960s that when Beverly Valdes was hired by designer Pauline Trigere it made headlines. Stories noted that Valdes was believed to be the first “Negro” to be hired as a house model for a high fashion New York City designer. She got the job by answering a model advertisement in the New York Times.75 After hiring Valdes as a model, Trigere received threats over race. One major customer in a Memphis store threatened not to buy any Trigere clothes because of Valdes. But the store came back, realizing Trigere was too good for business to reject.76

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Several models were “discovered” by newspaper fashion editors. One example was Billie Blair, a Black model, who began her career by working through local modeling agencies in Detroit, which largely booked models for the local auto shows. She credited her claim to fame to Marji Kunz, then fashion editor of the Detroit Free Press. With Kunz’s recommendation, Blair flew to New York in 1973. The trip was only supposed to last three days, but turned into two decades when Blair signed a contract with the Ford Models agency. During that time, Blair was well known for her work at the Battle at Versailles Fashion Show.

Fashion and Disability The interaction of fashion and disability was covered over the years. Often described as adaptive clothing, several designers looked at ways of helping those with disabilities. Designer Florence Eiseman’s A-line shapes were often seen as creating clothing that could be worn by someone in a wheelchair or wearing leg braces. In 1963, the Milwaukee Sentinel reported about designer Helen Cookman visiting Wisconsin to present their collaboration. At the time, polio was drawing attention to children with disabilities. The disease was on the rise, and since rehabilitation considered dressing oneself a sign of development, parents were seeking designs that encouraged their children to practice dressing. “Eiseman’s designs included large, simple shoulder buttons on dresses (which allowed them to easily slip on and off) and trousers with wider pant legs to accommodate braces.”77 The response to the line was overwhelming. Thousands of readers inquired about purchasing options, leading Cookman to create the Clothing Research and Development Foundation to encourage other designers to incorporate features of her designs into their own lines.78 Another story from the 1960s, noted that, “Teenagers and their mothers are often at odds on the issue of clothes, but maternal fashion myopia is often at its worst when the youngster has a physical handicap.” The story went on to note that while attending as a counselor at a camp for orthopedically handicapped children, a designer discovered “that parents were sending the kids to camp with wonderful new clothes that were impossible to put on.”79 In a series of articles that Eleni Epstein wrote in the 1970s, she addressed disability and fashion. She wrote about clothing for those in wheelchairs or using crutches. She received numerous letters after the series ran. One reader wrote, “The series of articles not only contributed to changing

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public attitudes toward the handicapped but also provided a very useful service to handicapped people by discussing the design principles.” Another wrote, “I thank you for the great visibility you have given to fashions for the handicapped.” Her attention to people with disabilities may have been due to her own battles throughout her adulthood with scleroderma, a vascular disease that would eventually take her life.

Fashion and Politics Politics and fashion were often intertwined. Often, coverage was what politicians or their wives were wearing. For example, First Lady Mamie Eisenhower was predicted to raise the stature of the fashion industry. Associated Press fashion editor Dorothy Roe noted: “For everyday wear, Mrs. Eisenhower has a preference for feminine lines, fitted bodices and flattering necklines. She is a petite size 12, looks younger than her 56 years, and has been described as that rare phenomenon, a grandmother who looks wonderful in a strapless dress.”80 In another story, designer Mollie Parnis refused to reveal what the First Lady would wear to her husband’s inauguration. Parnis would only say that Eisenhower “hates skimpy skirts.” The fashion reporter further noted, “There was some discussion among reporters as to the future First Lady’s size, the Republicans usually pegging it as 12 while the Democrats insisted she was a 14.”81 In 1960, Epstein wrote a lengthy article about the role of the White House in American fashion. The article followed a poll of fashion personalities that the Star conducted about the role of the First Lady and her influence on clothing. The results were that it was a responsibility of the president’s wife to promote fashion. Epstein wrote about the potential First Ladies: “The young sophisticate Jackie Kennedy who loves to buy elegant French clothes as well as those ‘Made in America.’ Neiman-Marcus fashion devotee Mrs. Lyndon Johnson? The quietly chic and always well-­ groomed Mrs. Richard Nixon.”82 In another story, she was quoted on her opinion of Lady Bird Johnson: “Mrs. Johnson has always been well dressed but her taste has become surer. She is not a flamboyant dresser, but since her husband became vice president, she has become more interested in clothes.”83 Of course, the most significant fashion trends set by politicians’ wives centered around Jacqueline Kennedy. She had only been the wife of a presidential nominee for five days when she stepped on to the family yacht. She was “wearing an orange pullover sweater, shocking pink Capri and a

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bouffant hairdo that gamboled merrily in the breeze, even those newsmen present who could not tell shocking pink from Windsor Rose knew they were witnessing something of possibly vast political consequence.”84 Another reporter wrote that her clothing choices were regularly documented and her choices were quickly copied. “The brunette queen of the New Frontier became the Pied Piper of fashion for the masses as well as the darling of Seventh Avenue.”85 When Kennedy hiked her skirts above the knee, so did cautious housewives over age 30. The fashion press, which opens a First Lady’s closet doors to the public, views her choice of costume for a lawn reception with the solemnity that others reserve for such issues as the National Purpose—and can, indeed, manage to make the two sound synonymous. Further, millions of women throughout the country consider it their constitutional right to know what she wears, where she bought it and whether or not it was a bargain—it seldom is.86

By 1972, there was still reporting about the clothing of potential presidential spouses—although the goal was to fit in rather than stand out. One story began, “Fashion, the wives of the Presidential contenders would like the voters to believe, is a rather unfashionable topic in 1972.” The writer explained that the women seemed to be inspired by what was called “the Pat Nixon cloth coat syndrome.” Rather than the usually worn fur coat, most were left at home. “The skirt lengths are neither too midi or too mini,” she wrote. “The dresses smack of Paris, Illinois, rather than Paris, France.” Muriel Humphrey said that wearing pantsuits meant she was not so tired after a day of campaigning. “I think pantsuits are one reason I am not so tired at the end of the day,” she said. “I don’t have to worry about what’s holding up my stockings, and about what’s showing when I’m swinging in and out of a car.”87 There was some reporting about the president’s attire. According to one Marilyn Bender story in the New York Times: “Richard Nixon is faithful to the classic, Brooks-type raincoat with set-in sleeves. He dislikes hats so much that he is going bare-headed to his Inauguration.” Bender criticized the president for his lack of updating his clothing while his wife’s wardrobe evolved. “The new First Lady has become noticeably prettier, more stylish and richer-looking during the turbulent decade,” she wrote. “But her husband is still wearing the same dark, three-button, natural shoulder suit in which he confronted John F.  Kennedy.” Furthermore,

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Nixon’s look was overly formal. She complained, “He is almost never seen without a tie even in Key Biscayne, where he has vacationed for 18 years.”88

End of the Women’s Pages Women’s liberation leaders wanted newspapers to eliminate the women’s pages and put news about women on the front pages. It was an interesting theory but it did not work in practice. Instead, much of the news about women was eliminated. Some women’s page editors wanted to save their sections and raise the standards of the sections. Ultimately, these sections became lifestyle or feature sections. It also meant the loss of many fashion editors’ jobs. According to one women’s page editor: “The trend away from women’s sections toward modern living was a lot like the French revolution. It was destined by history to take place, it eliminated much that was bad, it cleared the way for a new day, BUT … too many heads were lopped off as the movement went too far.”89 A few fashion editors were remembered in later years. Eleni Epstein continued to be involved in the fashion industry after her newspaper, the Washington Star, folded. Several years later, the Fashion Group established an annual $2500 scholarship to be given in Epstein’s name. A photo of Epstein appears in the Fashion Group International’s records under “Prominent Individuals.”90 She was occasionally quoted in newspaper articles about fashion.91 On the speaking circuit, she gave a talk on her personal reminiscences about Christian Dior.92 In 1990, she was one of the honorees at the anniversary of the Shoreham Hotel whose heyday was during World War II and the 1950s.93 She and her husband had regularly dined there. Annually, the Council of Fashion Designers of America presents the Eugenia Sheppard Award to honor a fashion journalist; it began in 1987 and it continues to this day. As fashion historian Kate Nelson Best wrote, “By focusing on the people who made and wore the clothes, Sheppard brought a broader human interest to fashion journalism and expanded its editorial appeal.”94 When Sheppard died, artist Andy Warhol wrote in his diary of Sheppard, “She invented fashion and gossip together.”95 The French government’s Ministry of Culture presented Marylou Luther with the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. Luther and famed New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham both received the award at the event. They had been friends and worked together professionally since the late 1950s.96 The award recognizes “eminent artists and

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writers, and people who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France throughout the world.” During this changing time, a spotlight was put on fashion due to the women’s liberation movement. The event that Aileen  Ryan had helped foster, the Heritage Milwaukee, addressed the intersection of feminism and fashion during a talk at its 1970 event. The reporter covering the event quoted one of the speakers as saying, “Whether consciously or not, feminists are helping to shape the world of fashion with their emphasis on individualism and freedom of choice.”97 It is a message that Ryan likely would have embraced. In 1981, Ryan was nominated for membership in the Milwaukee Press Club Hall of Fame. Ryan, however, rejected the honor. As a woman, she was not allowed to be a member of the club during her career. It took numerous protests and a threatened lawsuit before women were allowed as members for the first time in 1971. Ryan did agree in 1987 to once again be nominated and this time became a member of the Hall of Fame. She was recognized for broadening the scope of women’s page content.98

Battle of Versailles Just as the women’s pages were being eliminated in American newspapers, one of the most significant American fashion shows occurred in France. The Battle of Versailles Fashion Show was held on November 28, 1973, in the Palace of Versailles as a fundraiser for its restoration. The event was established by famed fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert and Versailles curator Gerald Van der Kemp. Pulitzer Prize winner for fashion criticism Robin Givhan wrote a book about the historic fashion show: They were a group of friends, rivals, and total strangers who had been brought together to represent the American fashion industry. They were competing egos. They were disorganized. For four months leading up to this Wednesday night, there had been tears, screaming matches, backbiting, and demands to just “shut up.”99

The show featured French designers, including Pierre Cardin, Christian Dior, and Hubert de Givenchy against American designers, including Oscar de la Renta, Stephen Burrows, and Anne Klein.100 More than 700 people attended the show. Guests included Princess Grace, Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, and Joséphine Baker. Each designer submitted eight designs

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for the show’s consideration. The elite Parisian designers considered their competition as simply sportswear designers. The American designers dressed eleven African American models, a change from the practice of typically using white models. The Americans won the battle, which stunned the primarily French audience. “It was the robbery of all time,” Sheppard wrote of the show.101 American designers and models had officially made their mark—more than two decades after they truly entered the international fashion scene. As Givhan wrote: Fashion was once a kind of cultural currency with profound value. It commanded respect. Models could uplift a race. The economics of fashion resonated from Seventh Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue. Creativity in the atelier evoked national pride. Aesthetics spoke eloquently of freedom: sexual, gender, political.102

Notes 1. Judy Klemesrud, “Milwaukee: Famous for Beer, Bratwurst  – and Fashion,” New York Times, May 28, 1968. 2. Martha Weinman, “No Biz Like Fashion Show Biz,” New York Times, November 15, 1959. 3. Bernadine Morris, “Fashion Institute Students Bring Out Their Ideas,” New York Times, December 17, 1965. 4. Judy Klemesrud, “… While on Rikers Island, a Fashion Show Thrills the Inmates,” New York Times, July 20, 1971. 5. Marylin Bender, “Fashion Takes Shine to Men’s Shoes,” New York Times, November 9, 1967. 6. Angela Taylor, “Men Launch an Offensive in Fashion War Between the Sexes,” New York Times, October 30, 1967. 7. “Now Men, Too, Can Agonize Over Their Hemlines,” New York Times, April 6, 1967. 8. Judy Klemesrud, “New Look for Men: Lots of Bare Chest,” New York Times, September 24, 1969. 9. Grace Glueck, “Now His Is Hers,” New York Times, September 20, 1964. 10. Grace Glueck, “Now His Is Hers,” New York Times, September 20, 1964. 11. Enid Nemy, “A Free Spirit Battles Puritanism Despite Chill,” New York Times, January 17, 1968. 12. Angela Taylor, “High Hem or Low, Sleeved or Not, Just so Long as It’s Black,” New York Times, November 27, 1969.

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13. Phyllis Levin, “Couturier Is Inspired By Fabrics From U.S.,” New York Times, Feb. 26, 1960. 14. “Stores Offering High-Fashion Sportswear in Vinyl,” New York Times, April 28, 1964. 15. Angela Taylor, “The Dress for Dancing – Not Sitting,” New York Times, March 29, 1966. 16. Angela Taylor, “Paper Expands Its Domain: Wedding Dresses, Shoes and Bikinis,” New York Times, March 8, 1967. 17. “Fashioned of Aluminum,” Free-lance Star (Fredericksburg, VA), August 4, 1967. 18. Dorothy Hawkins, “Barefoot Chic,” New York Times, May 29, 1955. 19. Marylin Bender, “Women Lose Lofty Stature,” New York Times, October 23, 1961. 20. Marylin Bender, “Avant-grade Days ‘Si!’ to Cuban heels,” New York Times, May 8, 1965. 21. Bernadine Morris, “‘Maria’ Puts Spirit of ’08 In Fashion,” New York Times, December 9, 1965. 22. Angela Taylor, “Fashions in Sweaters Have Varied Since the 1920s,” New York Times, October 26, 1964. 23. Angela Taylor, “Fashions in Sweaters Have Varied Since the 1920s,” New York Times, October 26, 1964. 24. Agnes Ash, “Sweaters Are Atop the Fashion Scene for Fall,” New York Times, July 23, 1957. 25. Dorothy O’Neill, “Fashions: Blouses Reflect Current Style Trends,” New York Times, October 14, 1952. 26. Patricia Peterson, “Sweater Girls,” New York Times, January 8, 1967. 27. Bernadine Morris, “The Sweater: Continuing Along the Glory Road,” New York Times, May 16, 1972. 28. Marylin Bender, “Decolletage Is Becoming Fashionable,” New York Times, November 15, 1963. 29. “Kodel Fiber Gaining As Padding in Bras,” New York Times, June 15, 1964. 30. Gloria Steinem, “‘Crazy Legs,’ Or, The Biography of Fashion,” New York Times, November 8, 1964. 31. Enid Nemy, “Sheathed in Dark Stockings Are the Trend-Settings Legs,” New York Times, October 13, 1967. 32. Bernadine Morris, “Women experiencing Weightlessness on Earth,” New York Times, May 3, 1965. 33. Bernadine Morris, “Lingerie That Doesn’t Look Like Underwear,” New York Times, December 13, 1966. 34. Bernadine Morris, “The Shorter of the Hemline, The Longer the Stocking,” New York Times, May 9, 1966.

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35. Bernadine Morris, “New Status for an Old Idea,” New York Times, May 30, 1968. 36. Bernadine Morris, “Helping Keep the Curves Under Control,” New York Times, March 31, 1969. 37. Isadore Barmash, “Bra Industry Reacts to Women’s Lib,” New York Times, September 13, 1970. 38. Isadore Barmash, “Bra Industry Reacts to Women’s Lib,” New York Times, September 13, 1970. 39. Isadore Barmash, “Bra Industry Reacts to Women’s Lib,” New York Times, September 13, 1970. 40. Judy Klemesrud, “Braless Look: 2 Years Ago a Daring Fad, but Now It’s a Trend,” New York Times, August 5, 1970. 41. Judy Klemesrud, “Braless Look: 2 Years Ago a Daring Fad, but Now It’s a Trend,” New York Times, August 5, 1970. 42. Judy Klemesrud, “Braless Look: 2 Years Ago a Daring Fad, but Now It’s a Trend,” New York Times, August 5, 1970. 43. Dorothy Hawkins, “Headlines  – Of the Thirties,” New York Times, January 6, 1957. 44. Agnes Ash, “Curls Guillotined in Revolution; Stylist Creates Straight Coiffure,” New York Times, September 30, 1957. 45. Agnes Ash, “Milliner Creates Hairdos at His New Beauty Salon,” New York Times, September 9, 1958. 46. Angela Taylor, “Casual Curls Are Headed for Revival This Summer,” New York Times, February 13, 1965. 47. Mary Burt Baldwin, “Teenage Girls Show Preference For Bouffant,” New York Times, February 24, 1962. 48. Angela Taylor, “For the Young Women Who Repair Own Hairdos,” New York Times, October 29, 1968. 49. Angela Taylor, “For Hairdos That Never Let You Down – Wigs,” New York Times, January 15, 1968. 50. Shirley Davis, “Pretty Hairdo is Your Best Accessory,” Quad City Times, July 2, 1970. 51. Angela Taylor, “Mrs. Humphrey’s Coiffure to be Done by New Yorker,” New York Times, January 13, 1965. 52. Angela Taylor, “Girls in Pants Aren’t Sent to the Principal’s Office Any More,” New York Times, January 8, 1969. 53. Angela Taylor, “Girls in Pants Aren’t Sent to the Principal’s Office Any More,” New York Times, January 8, 1969. 54. Angela Taylor, “Girls in Pants Aren’t Sent to the Principal’s Office Any More,” New York Times, January 8, 1969. 55. Judy Lunn, “Dressing by Codes,” Houston Post, May 1, 1974.

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56. Judy Lunn, “Even Though School Years Are Coming to an End, Dress Code Controversies Continue,” Houston Post, May 8, 1974. 57. Judy Lunn, “Local Incident Revives Interest in Dress Codes in Houston Area,” Penney Press, March 1975, 5. 58. Isadore Barmash, “Miniskirts Are Raising Some Retailing Eyebrows,” New York Times, December 4, 1966. Barmash was a male business reporter who specialized in retail stores. 59. Isadore Barmash, “Miniskirts Are Raising Some Retailing Eyebrows,” New York Times, December 4, 1966. 60. Bernadine Morris, “… Unless, Like Everyone Else, You’re Insecure …” New York Times, September 25, 1970. 61. Bernadine Morris, “… Unless, Like Everyone Else, You’re Insecure …” New York Times, September 25, 1970. 62. “Knee Watchers Say Midi ‘UnAmerican’” Dallas Morning News, March 27, 1970. 63. Dorothy O’Neill, “Milliner Adapts Pointed Balinese Crown for Pillboxes, Cloches, Bretons and Caps,” New York Times, January 25, 1951. 64. Dorothy Hawkins, “Birds of a Feather Land the Plumage to Autumn Hats,” New York Times, June 13, 1956. 65. Marjorie Paxson, “Italian milliners Know Their Way Around Felt,” Houston Chronicle, July 29, 1955. 66. “Was JFK Responsible for American Disavow of the Hat,” Huffington Post, May 25, 2011. 67. Barbara Cloud, “Hats in the Picture for Autumn Styles,” Pittsburgh Press, August 11, 1970. 68. Phyllis Levin, “A Pair of American Girls Describe Life and Work as Models in Paris,” New York Times, July 9, 1956. 69. Elizabeth Harrison, “Noted Model Agent Always Seeks Bony Faces With Well-Spaced Eyes,” New York Times, January 5, 1956. 70. Angela Taylor, “She Sees Nudity as Just Part of the Job,” New York Times, November 20, 1968. 71. Lisa Hammel, “A Bikini Fashion Show Is Served With the Businessman’s Lunch,” New York Times, November 29, 1965. 72. Rikki Byrd, “On the ‘Black Designer,’” The Fashion Studies Journal, September 30, 2016, 2. 73. Margaret Cremmins, “Designed With Soul,” Washington Post, May 21, 1969. 74. Marylin Bender, “Fashion Designer Hires Negro Model,” New York Times, June 23, 1962. 75. Marylin Bender, “Fashion Designer Hires Negro Model,” New York Times, June 23, 1962.

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76. Valli Herman-Cohen, “Pauline Trigere, 93; Fashion Designer Bridged Cultures,” Los Angeles Times, February 15, 2002. 77. Vivian Kawatzky, “Functional Fashions Designed Without Tears,” Milwaukee Sentinel, October 14, 1963. 78. Meta Blackwell, “New Functional Styles Solve Physical Problems,” San Bernardino Sun, April 19, 1964. 79. Marylin Bender, “Clothing Woes of Disabled Child Found Easily Solved,” New York Times, April 25, 1964. 80. Dorothy Roe, “New First Lady May Set Spring Fashion Styles,” Spokane Daily Chronicle, November 21, 1952. 81. Annie Lee Singletary, The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press (North Carolina, 1981), 16. 82. Eleni Epstein, “Is the White House a Fashion Display Case?” Washington Star, 1960. Papers of Eleni Epstein, National Women and Media Collection. 83. Betty Barrett, “She’s Everybody’s Lady Bird,” Hartford Courant, December 1, 1963. 84. Martha Weinman, “First Ladies  – in Fashion, Too?” New York Times, September 11, 1960. 85. Marylin Bender, “The Fashion Decade: As Hems Rose, Barriers Fell,” New York Times, December 9, 1969. 86. Martha Weinman, “First Ladies  – in Fashion, Too?” New York Times, September 11, 1960. 87. Judy Klemesrud, “As a Campaign issue, Fashion Is Out of Style,” New York Times, April 4, 1972. 88. Marylin Bender, “Nixon’s Fashion Image  – Middle-of-the-Road Corporate Type,” New York Times, January 10, 1969. 89. Marie Saulsbury, Associated Press Managing Editors, 1975, 26. Papers of Marie Anderson, Box 2. National Women and Media Collection. 90. The Fashion Group International Records, 1930–1997. Humanities and Social Sciences Library, New York Public Library. 91. Bernadine Morris, “An AIDS Benefit In The Capital Focuses on Fashion,” New York Times, November 14, 1986. 92. Nina Hyde, “Fashion Notes,” Washington Post, September 20, 1987. 93. Chuck Conconi, “Personalities,” Washington Post, March 12, 1990. 94. Kate Nelson Best, The History of Fashion Journalism (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 146. 95. Pat Hackett, ed. The Andy Warhol Diaries (New York: Warner Brothers, 1989), 614. 96. Kim Crow, “French Government Honors Fashion Writer Marylou Luther,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 14, 2008, 2. 97. Mary Whitt, “Fashion and Feminism Come Together at Heritage-­ Milwaukee,” Post-Crescent (Appleton, Wisc.), April 19, 1970.

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98. Russ Austin, “Reasons for my choices for the Milwaukee Press Club Hall of Fame,” 1981. Milwaukee Press Club, University of Wisconsin-­ Milwaukee Archives, box 2, folder 23. 99. Robin Givhan, Battle of Versailles (New York: Flatiron Books, 2015), 6. 100. Raquel Laneri, “How New York Fashion Week became the spectacle it is today,” New York Post, September 7, 2017. 101. Robin Givhan, Battle of Versailles (New York: Flatiron Books, 2015), 219. 102. Robin Givhan, Battle of Versailles (New York: Flatiron Books, 2015), 263.

Appendix: Brief Biographies of Newspaper Fashion Editors

In the post-World War II years, there was at least one fashion editor at every American metropolitan newspaper. Newspapers in New  York City and Washington, D.C., often had several women who covered fashion. Below are short descriptions of fashion editors based on stories from their newspapers and a few oral histories. When known, marital status and children are included. It is hoped that this is the beginning of the scholarship about who these women were and what they achieved.

Nadeane Walker Anderson Nadeane Walker Anderson was a fashion reporter for the Associated Press. She was born in 1921 on the family farm, near Canton, Texas, the second youngest child of nine. She earned her degree from North Texas State and went to work as a reporter for the Fort Worth Star Telegram. In 1945, after writing a story on the Women’s Air Corps, she enlisted and applied to work overseas. She was assigned to a post in England where she survived the bombing. As a reporter for Stars and Stripes, she worked in France and Germany after the war, meeting the love of her life, Godfrey Anderson, an English war correspondent for the Associated Press. They married in Frankfurt in 1946 and lived in Germany, Belgium, and Sweden before settling in France and starting their family. In Paris she worked as a fashion editor covering the shows in Paris, Milan, and London. In 1961 the family moved to England where she wrote celebrity interviews. In © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. W. Voss, Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73624-8

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1970 she brought the family to the United States where she worked for the Dallas Times Herald as an investigative reporter.

Marylin Bender Marylin Bender was a fashion editor and later business editor at the New York Times. She graduated from Smith College in 1944 and earned a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1947—although she never practiced. Bender started her journalism career after school covering the crime beat for the New York Journal American in the early 1950s. Later, she joined the New York Times where she worked for 32 years, covering fashion and later business. She was the first woman editor of the New York Times business section.. She wrote several books, including The Beautiful People in 1967. Bender was named to the New  York Women in Communication’s Matrix Hall of Fame in 1972 and received the Smith College Medal in 1978. She married and had a child.

Mary Alice Bookhart Mary Alice Bookhart was from Little Rock, Arkansas. Her first job was as a reporter at the Pine Bluff Graphic. In 1942 she joined The Clarion-­ Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi) where she worked as the women’s page editor and the fashion editor. She was a president of the Jackson Symphony League and a supporter of the arts. She was married and had two children. She retired in 1977.

Marian Christy Fashion editor Marian Christy (later a celebrity interviewer) attended Boston University. She soon started writing about fashion for Women’sWear Daily. She moved on to the Boston Globe and became fashion editor in 1965. She won several Penney-Missouri Awards for her fashion coverage. This is how she described going to the Award ceremony: “The late Professor Paul Myhre told me that I had set new standards of fashion journalism by making daring and dazzling comments on social pretentions and he said, ‘trailed fashion first behind me like gold confetti.’ It was heady stuff.” Her first Globe assignment in Europe became prize-winning pieces from couture salons in Paris, Rome, Madrid, and Dublin. She later traveled to Tehran to cover the then-Empress of Iran, an international

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fashion figure. When she wrote a fashion story, she took it further than simply describing the style and focused on history and sociology. For example, writing about the mini skirt, Christy asked, “Why—what inspired the mini-skirt? What is the philosophy behind it?” Following an early retirement from the Globe after 26 years in 1991, Christy became a contributor to the New York Times Syndicate.

Barbara Cloud Barbara Cloud was the longtime fashion editor at the Pittsburgh Press. Born in 1930, Cloud graduated from Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, in 1951. She majored in speech and drama. Her first newspaper job was at the Uniontown Evening Standard newspaper in 1951 as a personals column writer where she spent five years. In her early years at her first newspaper job, she asked “not to be trained” as a journalist because it was a temporary position; she was more interested in being an actress. She wrote about weddings and club notices. Cloud had no typing skills or journalism experience when she arrived in her new city in April 1957—wearing the typical hat and gloves of the time—to apply for a reporting job with the Pittsburgh Press. She spent more than three decades at the newspaper, with most of those years spent covering the fashion industry. In July 1966, Cloud married but marriage did not last long. She found herself a pregnant divorcee, which was somewhat scandalous for the time. In 1971, she became a single mother at age 41. A pioneer for a working mother in the newsroom, she found a way to continue her career. She spent fifteen years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and retired in 2008.

Richard Cobb Richard Cobb was the only male newspaper fashion editor mentioned in media articles. A prior police reporter, he was both the women’s page editor and fashion editor at the Virginia-Pilot newspaper. He appeared on the television game show, “What’s My Line?” in 1958. (The panel could not guess his job.) An article noted that he was the “lone wolf” out of 206 women fashion editors at the New  York Dress Institute’s fall show. He filed two stories a day and described bell skirts and empire silhouettes from the fashion shows. In the few articles about him, reporters mentioned his masculine height and build.

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Mattie Smith Colin Mattie Smith was the fashion editor at the Chicago Defender. She was born in Chicago and was a graduate of Chicago Public Schools. She studied journalism at Roosevelt and Northwestern Universities. “She was the kind of person that understood the importance of being well-informed, so journalism was a natural fit,” said her cousin Anne Fredd. In 1950, Colin was hired by the Chicago Defender, largely considered to be the nation’s most influential black weekly newspaper, with more than two-thirds of its readership outside of Chicago. Colin was best known for reporting from a Chicago train station in 1955 on the return of Emmett Till’s body. Colin captured the anguish of Till’s mother as her young, Black son, slain in Mississippi after allegedly whistling at a white woman, was returned to Chicago.

Madeliene Corey Madeliene Corey was a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Initially, she planned to be a painter but switched her major to education. She taught at Hope High School for only one day before resigning: “I hated it,” she said. She was hired as a feature writer at the Providence Journal-Bulletin in 1933. She said: “I sold myself. I could writer features and illustrate them.” This led to a decorating column and then the fashion beat. She could be funny and blunt in her responses to fashion questions. At one point, she told badly dressed readers that they could continue to wear their clothes as long as they did not mind looking like overstuffed chairs. She retired in 1980. The newspaper threw her a celebration at the Biltmore Plaza Hotel—to a large crowd including the mayor. At the end of the evening, she responded: “Tonight, I love you all. In 24 hours I’ll be fond of you. By next week, I’ll hate your guts.” She had married and had a son.

Eleni Epstein Washington Starfashion editor Eleni Epstein was one of the most noticeable Washington, D.C., voices in translating fashion news in the post-­ World War II era. Epstein found fashion to have a unique role in Washington society. After all, as she pointed out, it was her city’s unique

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social events that required the high couture clothing that she wrote about. It was a world that Epstein circulated within and would share with her readers as someone who could rarely afford many of the fashions she wrote about. Yet, she also wrote about the fashions of working women. She encouraged her readers to shop in Washington and would be insulted when she learned they instead had gone to New York City for their clothes. She won numerous reporting awards including the first Penney-Missouri Award for fashion journalism. Her papers are available in the National Women & Media Collection.

Fay Hammond Fay Hammond was a fashion editor of the Los Angeles Times for more than two decades. She retired in 1969. A native of California, Hammond came to the Times in 1940, became a fashion writer and then became fashion editor in 1943. She was among the few fashion writers traveling to European capitals for showings after World War II and had been honored by the French and Italian governments for her contributions to fashion journalism. She appeared on local radio and TV stations as a fashion authority. She had a daughter.

Nora Hampton Nora Hampton was the longtime fashion editor of the Oakland Tribune. Hampton began her career as a reporter in Texas and later worked for United Press International. She then did publicity work for presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. She created a new fashion section in 1960. In her job, she traveled through Europe and had an exclusive interview with Wallis Simpson, the woman for whom King Edward VIII gave up his thrown. In 1969, her flight from Oakland to New York was hijacked to Cuba. Ever a reporter, she went through the hijacker’s carry-on luggage and discovered his identity. She waited until she had given the scoop to her newspaper before she spoke to the FBI. She was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her first-hand account of the airline hijacking. In 1967, the City of Oakland deemed it Nora Hampton Day. She was married to John Hampton, a retired Marine who in the late 1940s helped launch the Marines’ famous “Toys for Tots” program.

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Dorothy Hawkins/Dorothy Le Sueur Dorothy Hawkins joined the New York Times in 1952 as an assistant to the New York Times Fashion Editor Virginia Pope. A native of Dallas, Texas, she started at Southern Methodist University and eventually earned fine arts and home economics degrees at Texas State College for Women. She then worked at Mademoiselle magazine and as an Atlanta, Georgia, department store copyrighter and illustrator. She spent a year in Paris before starting at the newspaper. She married Larry Le Sueur, a correspondent for CBS News, in 1957, and changed her byline. She worked as a fashion editor at the Washington Post from 1965 to 1972. They had a daughter.

Graydon Heartsill A Dallas native, Graydon Heartsill was the fashion editor at the Dallas Times Herald. She earned a journalism degree from Southern Methodist University where she served as a campus correspondent for the Dallas Dispatch. After graduating in 1928, she began work at the Dallas Times Herald where she remained for decades. In 1943, she covered the first national press week of the New York Dress Institute and became the newspaper’s fashion editor. She reported on the Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Miami fashion markets. She twice covered the European fashion shows. She won a Penney-Missouri Award in 1963 for fashion reporting.

Freddye Scarborough Henderson Freddye Scarborough Henderson was born in Louisiana in 1917 and earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics from Southern University and a degree in fashion merchandising from New York University in 1950. From 1944 to 1950 Henderson owned a dress shop in Atlanta. In 1950 Henderson became a fashion editor for the Associated Negro Press and wrote a fashion column that ran in many American Black newspapers. She married Jacob R. Henderson in Georgia in 1941. Later, Henderson and her husband created the Henderson Travel Service located in Atlanta. They worked with civil rights leaders such as Andrew Young and Martin Luther King, Jr., to arrange travel for African Americans.

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Mary Brandel Hopkins Mary Brandel Hopkins was a fashion editor at the Madison Capital News in Wisconsin. She earned a journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1927. After graduation, she began her career as the society editor at the Capital Times. She soon earned a master’s degree and became the women’s page editor. She and her husband founded the Hopkins Agricultural Chemical Company of Madison in 1949. She remained at the Capital Times until her retirement in 1976. She married and had two children.

Nina Hyde Nina Hyde was a fashion editor at two Washington, D.C., newspapers. She was born in New York and graduated from Smith College. She was one of only two women accepted at the time to New York University’s Law School. Instead, she dropped out to work for the advertising agency McCann-Erickson and the Maidenform Brassiere Company. Later she became the corset and brassiere editor at industry publication Women’sWear Daily. In 1961, after marrying Lloyd Hyde, a real estate developer, she moved to Washington where she wrote the column “Hyde & Chic” for the Washington Daily News. After that newspaper folded, she joined the Washington Post in 1972. Hyde received the Eugenia Sheppard Award for outstanding fashion reporting by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and she was made a Chevalier des Artes et Lettres in Paris. She died at age 57 after a long bout with breast cancer. Prior to her death, she had raised nearly $2 million for Georgetown University Medical Center, which established the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research.

Marji Kunz Detroit fashion editor Marji Kunz graduated from Wayne State University and worked at both Glamour and Mademoiselle magazines before joining the Detroit Free Press in 1964. Ultimately she worked as a fashion editor for both of the city’s newspapers. Kunz died of complications from pneumonia in 1979 at age 40. Her death was covered in the New York Times. Wayne State University gives out a scholarship in her name for students majoring in fashion. She was married.

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Vivian Kwatzsky Vivian Kwatzsky was the fashion editor at the Milwaukee Sentinel. She was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1929. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Mount Mary College and taught for two years. She began working at the Milwaukee Sentinel where she eventually headed a one-­ woman fashion department in 1964. She covered the semiannual New York fashion shows and those in California, as well as the European shows. She produced three special fashion sections each year. She won a Penney-­ Missouri Award for her fashion reporting. In her biography for the award, she wrote: “Miss Kawatzky has no hobbies aside from reading and brooding. She is as yet unmarried, but is firmly convinced that the race is not necessarily to the swiftly inclined.”

Judy Lunn Judy Lunn was the fashion editor of the Houston Post. Fashion was part of her family’s history. Her grandfather was a furrier. Her aunt was a lingerie designer who created a trousseau for Elizabeth Taylor when she married Eddie Fisher and a maternity gown for Lucille Ball. Lunn won her first writing award at age 9 for a story on fire prevention. And while she had a knack for writing, it was fashion that caught her interest. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design to study fashion design. In college she met her husband, Robert, and they relocated to Houston in 1968. She took time off to be a stay-at-home mother for her two daughters, Linda and Susan. It was her daughter Linda who led to the post of fashion writer. In hopes of earning some change, she knocked on a neighbor’s door with an offer to recite the Pledge of Allegiance for a quarter. That neighbor was the fashion editor of the Houston Post, Lynn Van Deusen. She asked to meet the mother of the smart child and her fashion journalism career began in 1971. Lunn developed the “Fashion Today” section for the Post and won many national fashion prizes with that section, including a Penney-Missouri Award. In 1992, she received the first George A. Hough III Award for Overall Superiority in Reporting on the Apparel Industry, a lifetime achievement award. Lunn’s sudden death came from a reaction to a common insect bite in 2003.

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Marylou Luther Marylou Luther majored in journalism at the University of Nebraska-­ Lincoln. After graduation, she worked for the Lincoln Journal, “where I wrote about weddings, engagements and moved my editor’s car every two hours so she wouldn’t get a ticket.” She moved on to the Des Moines Register and was assigned the style beat. She replied: “I don’t know a thing about fashion.” Her editor responded: “You’ll learn.” She did. She later became the Chicago Tribune fashion editor before joining the Los Angeles Times as fashion and beauty editor in 1969. Since 1985, she has been fashion editor for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. At one point, her weekly fashion column, “Clothesline,” was read by more than 30 million people weekly. Luther interviewed numerous significant designers during the more than two decades she covered fashion shows. Those interactions could be a challenge. “When you cover a beat, the danger is in getting too friendly with the people you cover,” she said. Luther said her journalism was not “criticism” in the typical sense. When writing about fashion, she said, “I try to tell the news and put it into perspective.” She writes for her readers, rather than the designers she covers. Still, designer Todd Oldham said about Luther, “She can make fashion writing interesting to a truck driver.” She later became the creative director of Fashion Group International, editor of the International Fashion Syndicate and was a CFDA Award winner.

Drue Lytle Drue Lytle was the women’s page editor and fashion editor at the Honolulu Advertiser. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Druzella Goodwin earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1926. She worked for more than two years for the State Department in Washington, D.C. She then earned her master’s degree in English from Occidental College, known as Oxy, a small liberal arts college in Los Angeles, in 1937. Lytle’s thesis was “A Study of the Plays of Rachel Crothers.” Her first husband was John Terry, a correspondent for the Chicago Daily News. The couple moved to Hawaii in 1938 where he worked for the Honolulu Advertiser. He was killed in 1944 while covering the invasion of the Philippines. Later, she married journalist Hugh Lytle in April 1947, who was then night managing editor of the Honolulu

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Advertiser. He was the journalist whose teletype message provided the Associated Press and the world with the first account of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Bobbi McCallum Bobbi McCallum, a Cornell University graduate, was a women’s page journalist and fashion writer at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the 1960s. Often, she told stories about fashion. In 1968, McCallum won the top national reporting award from the Penney-Missouri Award competition. Her five-part series about young pregnant women, “Unwed Mothers-The Price They Pay,” examined the lives of women facing significant social stigma. She told stories of young women whose voices often went unheard. Her work demonstrated what was happening at newspapers across the country in the 1960s-women’s pages were changing. Later, the P-I assigned McCallum her own column “Eye-to-Eye.” She died at age 25.

Bernadine Morris Bernadine Taub was born on June 10, 1925, in Harlem, New York. The longtime New York Times fashion editor graduated from Hunter College in the Bronx in 1945 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She married Jesse Morris, a locomotive salesman. While working at Millinery Research, a fashion weekly, she earned a master’s degree in English from New York University. More than 4000 bylines later, she retired as the newspaper’s chief fashion writer in 1995 after advancing fashion coverage to a stand-­ alone “Styles of The Times” section. Several of her articles also appeared on the newspaper’s front page.

Eleanor Nangle Eleanor Nangle covered fashion and beauty for the Chicago Tribune. She was an employee of the newspaper for 45 years, working for the Tribune from 1926 until 1971. During that time, she became an authority on fashion, predicting future trends. Nangle, who was born in Chicago, went to work for the Tribune at age 20 as secretary to the then beauty editor, Antoinette Donnelly. A short time later she began her writing and reporting career by covering beauty and charm contests sponsored by the newspaper. In 1934 Nangle started “Thru the Looking Glass,” a beauty column

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that ran through the 1960s. For a time, Nangle also had a 15-minute, three-times-a-week radio program of the same name on WGN in which she discussed beauty and fashion.

Marjorie Paxson Marjorie Paxson was the women’s page editor of the Houston Chronicle who also covered fashion. She was able to cover hard news for a wire service during World War II before being forced back into the women’s pages during peacetime. While in Houston, she was able to cover fashion shows in Europe. By the time she retired from journalism more than five decades later, she had helped redefine women’s news, been one of the first female U.S. newspaper publishers, and established the National Women and Media Collection (NWMC). She also was editor of Xilonen, the daily newspaper published for the United Nations World Conference for International Women’s Year held in Mexico City in 1975; played a significant part of the 1976 governmental report To Form a More Perfect Union; and was elected president of Theta Sigma Phi (now known as the Association for Women in Communications) in 1963.

Betty Peach Betty Peach-Tschirgi was the longtime San Diego fashion reporter. Peach was on the staff of the Evening Tribune from 1948 to 1982, covering the San Diego Zoo, New York fashion shows, and national presidential conventions, beginning with Eisenhower in 1952. She was born in 1916 in Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Oklahoma. She worked for the Oklahoma City Times (covering Al Capone’s daughter’s wedding in Palm Beach in the 1930s) and the Daily Oklahoman, before marrying her city editor, Gene Peach, and moving to San Diego, where he had been hired as an editor and film critic. During World War II, she served with the American Red Cross in New Guinea, meeting Charles Lindbergh, whom she later interviewed. At age 51, after the death of her husband, she began flying lessons at Gibbs Flying Service at Montgomery Field and went on to earn a commercial pilot’s license. In the 1980s, she married Robert D. Tschirgi, a vice chancellor of UC-San Diego. In 1969, Peach became the first woman admitted to the all-male journalism fraternity, Sigma Delta Chi. She credited her longevity to five

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scoops of coffee ice cream a day and kept six half-gallons in her freezer at all times. A month before her death, a heart doctor suggested she have minor surgery to replace her Pacemaker with a smaller model guaranteed to last 10–12 years. “I’m not sure I want to live to be 110 or 112,” she responded. “How long do you want to live?” he asked. Without hesitation, she said: “I want to live long enough to see that Donald Trump does not get in the White House.”

Yvonne Petrie Yvonne Petrie was the longtime fashion editor at the Detroit News. She started at the newspaper in 1953 and began covering fashion the next year. A native of Indiana, she attended the University of Chicago and Indiana University. She won a Penney-Missouri Award for fashion reporting in 1964 and gave a speech at the workshop. She regularly covered the New York City, California, Honolulu, and European fashion shows. She was married with a child.

Virginia Pope Virginia Pope was born in Chicago in 1885. Her father died when she was 5 years old, and she and her mother toured Europe, where she became fluent in French, German, and Italian. They returned to Chicago when she was 20. During World War I, she left again to join the Red Cross. She was the fashion editor of the New York Times from 1933 to 1955. In 1942, she created the fashion show “Fashions of the Times.” She staged the event each fall for the next few years that served as a showcase for American designers. In 1952, the show was transformed into a fashion supplement with the same name for the newspapers. She joined the Times in 1925 and became fashion editor eight years later. She was known for encouraging the young fashion industry in New York City. Pope served as president of the New  York Newspaperwomen’s Club and received the Neiman Marcus Award in 1948 for outstanding contribution to the fashion field. Pope owned hundreds of hats and almost never wore the same dress and accessories two days running. She said: “I’m drunkard about hats. I cannot bear to throw one away.”

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Sally Raleigh Sally Raleigh was the women’s page editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the 1960s and 1970s. While some people did not describe her as a feminist, her actions demonstrated her role as women’s rights leader. She oversaw a significant series about the Equal Rights Amendment and encouraged her reporters to cover progressive social issues, including lesbian mothers and women’s reproductive health. Along with progressive news, she covered fashion news and mentored Bobbi McCallum.

Vida Roberts Vida Roberts, the fashion editor at the Baltimore Sun, wore black clothes to work every day. Another piece of fashion advice was to have at hand a leopard-skin creation of some type because “every three years, it pops up again.” According to her obituary, she was a woman of striking features with silver hair and Lauren Bacall-like voice, Roberts wrote with wit and grace. The former Vida Misiunas was born in Lithuania and emigrated to Germany when she was 2. In 1949, the family settled in West Baltimore. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in 1965. In 1966, she began her journalism career at the Baltimore News American. She edited and designed pages and eventually became fashion editor. She later joined the Evening Sun as fashion editor. Roberts had a theory that despite the glitzy creations of New York and European couturiers, most fashion originated from the young and the streets. Her wardrobe tended toward black, navy, and beige clothes. She preferred being comfortable in sweatpants and a T-shirt at home. She did not wear earrings, preferring bangles and rings. She died at age 56.

Aileen Ryan Aileen Ryan, fashion editor at the Milwaukee Journal, was a three-time Penney-Missouri Award winner. Ryan attended Marquette University in 1919—a year before the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed giving women the right to vote. Ryan dropped out of college after two years when she was offered a job at the Milwaukee Journal following a summer spent working on the section’s weekly children’s page—a common segment of women’s pages during this period.

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During her first summer of work in 1921, Ryan attended a meeting to hear the Journal editor say he was happy to have females on the staff because “women have cleaned up newspaper offices.” Ryan later recalled the statement made her feel as though she had been hired to use a mop. Ryan retired from the newspaper in 1967 and joined the faculty at Mount Mary College, where she had been instrumental in establishing its fashion studies program. She taught fashion trends and fashion writing for five years. She also served on the college’s board of directors from 1968 to 1974. The university later established an honorary chair of fashion position in her name.

Maggie Savoy Margaret Case Savoy was a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles. She worked at the women’s pages of newspapers in Arizona and Southern California, including at the Arizona Republic where she often covered fashion. She won several Penney-Missouri Awards and spoke at the award workshops about updating women’s page content. In an article for the American Society of Newspaper Editors, she took editors to task for not fully explaining the issues central to the women’s movement. She challenged male editors to catch on to the issues. She asked them, “Do you duck the responsibility of helping your women’s editor achieve excellence for her 51 percent of your readership? Or do you just listen to one, two or a dozen irate society women and sign, ‘Don’t rock the boat.’” When the feminist organization KNOW, Inc. issued a list of “Reporters You Can Trust,” Savoy’s name was on the list. She married three times and had one child.

Eugenia Sheppard Eugenia Sheppard was born near Columbus, Ohio. (Throughout her life, she refused to reveal her age.) She attended the Columbus School for Girls and later graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1921. She said of the experience, “It’s either for students or athletes and I wasn’t either.” An active Junior League member, she married Samuel Black and they had a son, Sheppard Black. The couple later divorced. She began her journalism career as a society editor at the Columbus Dispatch. She married the newspaper’s publisher, Preston Wolfe. The couple later divorced. In 1937, Sheppard left Columbus for New  York where she began writing for

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Women’sWear Daily. She left her son behind in Ohio with her mother. In 1929, Sheppard became women’s feature editor at the New York Herald Tribune and oversaw the ninth-floor department consisting of fashion, food, furnishings, and beauty. Sheppard started working at the New York Herald Tribune as assistant editor of the women’s pages and largely covered home furnishings in 1938. She married fellow Herald Tribune journalist Walter Millis two years later. They lived in the famous Dakota apartment building on Manhattan’s West Side. By 1947, she became the Tribune’s fashion editor. In her new role, she combined fashion reporting with New York gossip. As the New York Times wrote: “Miss Sheppard is an aggressive reporter who works in the moribund tradition of The Front Page. Nothing escapes her narrowed blue eyes.” She married several times and had a child.

Annie Lee Singletary Annie Lee Singletary was the fashion editor at the Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel. She was born in 1910 and lived in Winston-Salem all her life. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina-­ Greensboro and did graduate work in journalism and language at Columbia University and the University of Innsbruck in Austria. She taught in local schools for several years. For 37 years she was a member of the Sentinel staff and combined Journal-Sentinel staff, doing a regular book column and covering women’s news, fashion, and travel. The Winston-Salem Woman’s Club established a journalism scholarship in her honor; she was winner of a Penney-Missouri Award and was a regular winner in North Carolina Presswomen’s annual awards. Her first column to appear in the Journal and Sentinel was called “Poison Ivy.” She wrote it once a week.

Mary Stanyan Mary Stanyan was the fashion editor of the San Francisco Examiner—a Hearst newspaper. Initially she covered hard news—going to Afghanistan after World War II to report on postwar recovery. Her editor said: “She never missed a deadline. She was a consummate professional who had contacts in every fashion house.” She often hosted designers at her San Francisco home and spent part of the year in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She

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was married to a cameraman for a local television station, who often took photos when she covered fashion shows.

Lotys Benning Stewart Lotys Benning Stewart earned a bachelor’s degree from Butler University. Her first significant interview came on a trip to New Orleans, where she spent an afternoon with syndicated advice columnist Dorothy Dix. After earning her undergraduate and graduate degrees, she became the publicity director for the Indianapolis Home Show and then state director of information for the New Deal program National Youth Administration. In addition to her column, Stewart hosted a radio program “Ladies Listen,” which featured fashion news and Indianapolis women. As fashion reporting grew in coverage in the post-World War II period, Stewart covered the semiannual New  York fashion shows. By the time she died at age 55, Stewart had written thousands of articles and had become well known nationwide as a pioneer in the field of fashion. She was married with a child.

Gretchen Weber Gretchen Weber was the fashion editor and fashion illustrator at the Denver Post. She was born in Boulder in 1901. She was educated at the University of Colorado, the Parsons School of Design, and the Minneapolis School of Fine and Applied Arts. Weber joined the Post in 1931. In July 1958, Weber was among the two hundred newspaper women in New York City scouting out couture collections for her fall 1958 fashion report. She retired in 1969. Weber married attorney Hal Johnson in 1977 and moved to Oklahoma.

Jo Werne Josephine Werne was a women’s page reporter at the Miami Herald who sometimes covered fashion. She grew up on a 40-acre Ohio farm, the second of six children. After graduating from Kent State University in 1962, Werne spent a year traveling in South America on a Knight Newspapers scholarship. Heading home, she stopped at the Miami Herald and applied for a job. Werne combined her hobby with her work and it led to the 1972 Penney-Missouri Award for fashion writing. Her award came after her

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search for inexpensive fabrics. In researching, she discovered a booming polyester knitting industry in Miami. The work resulted in the article: “Polyester: A New $70 Million Business.” In it, she described what polyester is and how it was made. She visited the fabric mills and interviewed the workers. A Penney-Missouri judge, a senior editor at Time, wrote of her “reporting colorfully on the sociology of the Cuban work forces. The result is a very human dimension.”

Mildred Whitaker Mildred Whitaker was the fashion editor of the San Antonio newspaper since 1954. In that role, she oversaw the News’ Glamour Clinic. In 1954 and 1956, she received first place in the women’s division of the Texas Associated Press competition for Glamour Clinic stories. She began her newspaper career at the Texas City Sun. She later became a reporter at the Houston Press—eventually becoming the women’s page editor. She earned a Matrix Headliner Award winner. She was inducted to the San Antonio Women Hall of Fame in 1986.

Peg Zwecker Peg Zwecker was a longtime fashion editor at the Chicago Daily News and then the Chicago Sun Times. She hired Lois Wille as her assistant; Wille went on to win two Pulitzer Prizes. Zwecker is known for discovering the designer Halston. She graduated from the University of Illinois in 1932 and five years later went to work as the assistant food editor for the Chicago Herald Examiner. She joined the Chicago Times in 1938 as food editor, becoming fashion editor in 1941. When the Chicago Sun purchased the Times, creating the Sun-Times, Zwecker became fashion editor of the combined papers. She took a break after her son was born in 1950 but later returned to work as fashion editor of the Chicago Daily News, where she remained as fashion editor and columnist until the paper folded in 1978. During her time at the Daily News, she established the Chicago Daily News Fashion Award, in which a fashion design graduate from the School of the Art Institute would be sent for a year to work with designers. She was also the fashion contributor to WFLD-TV in the late 1960s and was a frequent guest on various talk shows. Zwecker earned numerous accolades during her career, including being inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame.

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Other Fashion Editors There were a few fashion editors whose names appeared in stories but whose histories cannot be documented. For example, Judy Pennebaker of the Nashville Tennessean, Ruth Quint of the New Haven Register, and Thelma Machael of the Indianapolis News all wrote about fashion for their newspapers, but nothing could be found that was written about them.

Selected References

Books and Journal Articles Agins, Teri. 1999. The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business. New York: William Morrow and Company. Amerian, Stephanie M. 2016. The Fashion Gap: The Cold War Politics of American and Soviet Fashion, 1945–1959. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing 8: 65–82. Bender, Marylin. 1967. The Beautiful People. New York: Coward-McCann, Inc. Best, Kate Nelson. 2017. The History of Fashion Journalism. Bloomsbury. Blass, Bill. 2002. Bare Blass. New York: Harper Collins. Blaugrund, Annette. 2011. Dispensing Beauty in New York and Beyond, 161–173. Charleston, SC: History Press. Boardman, Michelle. 1998. Shoulder to Shoulder: Women’s Patriotic Scarves of World War II. Dress 25: 4–10. Buckland, Sandra Stansbery, and Gwendolyn S.  O’Neal. 2013. ‘We Publish Fashions Because They Are News’: The New York Times 1940 Through 1945. Dress 25: 33–41. Byrnes, Garrett D., ed. 1951. Fashion Handbook. New  York: American Press Institute/Columbia University Press. Christy, Marian. 1984. Invasions of Privacy. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing. Cloud, Barbara. 2009. By-line: Pittsburgh’s Beloved Columnist Shares a Lifetime of Interviews and Observations. Tarentum, PA: World Association Publishers. Delano, Page Dougherty. 2000, Spring. Making Up for War: Sexuality and Citizenship. Feminist Studies, 33–68. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. W. Voss, Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73624-8

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SELECTED REFERENCES

Fashion, Retailing and a Bygone Era: Inside Women’s Wear Daily. 2005. Washington, DC. Givhan, Robin. 2015. Battle of Versailles. New York: Flatiron Books. Granata, Francesca. 2018. Fashioning Cultural Criticism: An Inquiry into Fashion Criticism and Its Delay in Legitimization. Fashion Theory 23: 1–18. ———, ed. 2021. Fashion Criticism: An Anthology. London: Bloomsbury. Greenwald, Marilyn. 1999. A Woman of the Times. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. Hackett, Lisa J., and Denise N.  Rall. 2018. The Size of the Problem with the Problem of Sizing. Clothing Cultures 264. Hartley, John. 2004. ‘About a Girl’: Fashion Photography as Photojournalism. Journalism 5: 458–479. Kluger, Richard. 1986. The Life and Death of the New  York Herald Tribune. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Konig, Anna. 2015. Glossy Words: An Analysis of Fashion Writing in British Vogue. Fashion Theory 10: 205–224. Lake, Stephanie Day. ‘Early’ Bonnie Cashin, Before Bonnie Cashin Designs, Inc. Studies in the Decorative Arts 8 (Fall–Winter): 108–124. Miller, Sandra, and Peter McNeil. 2017a. Fashion Journalism: History, Theory and Practice. Bloomsbury. ———. 2017b. Fashion Journalism: History, Theory and Practice. Bloomsbury. Mills, Kay. 1990. A Place in the News: From the Women’s Pages to the Front Pages. New York: Columbia University Press. Powell, Margaret E. 2012. The Life and Work of Ann Lowe: Rediscovering ‘Society’s Best Kept Secret, Master’s Thesis, Smithsonian Associates and the Corcoran College of Art + Design. Richardson, Lou, and Genevieve Callahan. 1949. How to Write for Homemakers. Ames, IA: Iowa State College Press. Robertson, Nan. 1992. Girls in the Balcony. New York: Random House. Roe, Dorothy. 1961. The Trouble with Women is Men. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Singletary, Annie Lee. 1981. The Flip Side of Fashion: 30 Years of Dress & Press. Winston-Salem, NC: Hunter Pub. Co. Sterlacci, Francesca, and Joanne Arbuckle. 2009. The A to Z of the Fashion Industry. New York: Scarecrow Press. Swanson, Kristen K., and Judith C.  Everett. 2008a. Writing for the Fashion Business. New York: Fairchild Books. ———. 2008b. Writing for the Fashion Business. New York: Fairchild Books. Voss, Kimberly Wilmot. 2004, Summer. Aileen Ryan: The First Project Runway. Milwaukee History: The Magazine of the Milwaukee Historical Society, 43–50. ———. 2015. Newspaper Fashion Journalism: The Province of Savvy Women Covering A Powerful Industry. Media Report to Women 43: 6–11.

  SELECTED REFERENCES 

163

Voss, Kimberly Wilmot, and Lance Speere. 2013–2014. Fashion as Washington Journalism History: Eleni Epstein and Her Three Decades at the Washington Star. Media History Monographs 16: 3. Wirth, Eileen. 2013. From Society Page to Front Page: Nebraska Women in Journalism. Nebraska: Bison Books. Wolbers, Marian Frances. 2009. Uncovering Fashion: Fashion Communications Across the Media. New York: Fairchild Books.

Selected Fashion Newspaper Articles Ash, Agnes. 1958, July 15. 200 Visitors Getting Set for a Fashion Marathon. New York Times. Baldwin, Mary Burt. 1962, February 24. Teenage Girls Show Preference For Bouffant. New York Times. Cloud, Barbara. 2006, March 26. The First and Last White House Fashion Show. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Eleanor Nangle: Was Tribune Fashion Expert. 1986, November 8. Chicago Tribune. Gray, Jacquelyn. 1995, March 31. Journal Got a Quick Start on Fashion. Milwaukee Journal. Hammond, Fay. 1951, October 28. Deadline Dolls Make Headlines on Hemlines. Los Angeles Times. Hampton, Nora. 1965, January 5. Guess Where Your New Hemline Is? Oakland Tribune. Hawkins, Dorothy. 1957, January 6. Headlines – Of the Thirties. New York Times. Heartsill, Grayson. 1963, August 6. Kookie Look Now Assumes Sportive Air. Dallas Times Herald. Klemesrud, Judy. 1968, May 28. Milwaukee: Famous for Beer, Bratwurst – And Fashion. New York Times. ———. 1969, September 24. New Look for Men: Lots of Bare Chest. New York Times. ———. 1970, August 5. Braless Look: 2 Years Ago a Daring Fad, But Now It’s a Trend. New York Times. ———. 1971, July 20. … While on Rikers Island, a Fashion Show Thrills the Inmates. New York Times. Kunz, Marji. 1969, April 17. Fashion Leaders Toast an Opening. Detroit Free Press. Levin, Phyllis. 1960, February 26. Couturier Is Inspired By Fabrics From U.S. New York Times. Lunn, Judy. 1974a, May 1. Dressing by Codes. Houston Post. ———. 1974b, May 8. Even Though School Years Are Coming to an End, Dress Code Controversies Continue. Houston Post.

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Selected References

McCallum, Bobbi. 1968a, June 27. Talent and Teens Bring Boutiques. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. ———. 1968b, August 8. Mad Hatter’s Moment. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Milburn, Betty. 1961, September 30. What We Wish For …What We Wear … Both Are in Cele Peterson Show. Tucson Daily Citizen. Morris, Bernadine. 1965a, December 16. The World’s Best-Dressed Women: Who? New York Times. ———. 1965b, December 17. Fashion Institute Students Bring Out Their Ideas. New York Times. ———. 1978, January 17. Virginia Pope, 92, Fashion Editor of the Times 22 Years, Is Dead. New York Times. ———. 1990, May 6. Nina Hyde, 57, a Fashion Editor Who Became a Pacesetter, Is Dead. New York Times. Nemy, Enid. 1968, January 17. A Free Spirit Battles Puritanism Despite Chill. New York Times. ———. 2003, October 8. Eleanor Lambert, Empress of Fashion, Dies at 100. New York Times. Paxson, Marjorie. 1955a, July 29. Italian Milliners Know Their Way Around Felt. Houston Chronicle. ———. 1955b, August 5. A Conservative Dior Retains Magic Touch. Houston Chronicle. Petrie, Yvonne. 1966, May 8. The Fashion Spy. Detroit News. Rasmussen, Fred. 1998, June 10. Vida Roberts, 56, Sun Fashion Editor Who Began Career at News American in 1966. Baltimore Sun. Rodgers, Ann. 2012, September 16. Barbara Cloud/Fashion Editor Exuded Beauty Inside, Out. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Savoy, Maggie. 1961, October 22. Fashion Is Expression. Arizona Republic. Sheppard, Eugenia. 1968, February 25. White House Open Door to First Fashion Showing. St. Petersburg Times. Stewart, Lotys Benning. 1952, January 6. pring Fashion Preview. Indianapolis Star. Sutton, Carol. 1972, November 16. Of Freebies and Fashion Shows. Louisville Courier-Journal. Taylor, Angela. 1965, February 13. Casual Curls Are Headed for Revival This Summer. New York Times. ———. 1966, March 29. The Dress for Dancing – Not Sitting. New York Times. ———. 1967, October 30. Men Launch an Offensive in Fashion War Between the Sexes. New York Times. ———. 1968, January 15. For Hairdos That Never Let You Down – Wigs. New York Times. ———. 1969a, November 27. High Hem Or Low, Sleeved Or Not, Just So Long as It’s Black. New York Times.

  Selected References 

165

———. 1969b, January 8. Girls in Pants Aren’t Sent to the Principal’s Office Any More. New York Times. Weinman, Martha. 1959, November 15. No Biz Like Fashion Show Biz. New York Times. Whitaker, Mildred. 1960, May 22. Smart Fashions for the Woman of ‘Fifty Plus’. San Antonio Express and News. Woestendiek, Jo. 1981, June 11. Book Grows from Decades Covering Fashion. Winston-Salem (N.C.) Sentinel.

Index

A Advertising, vii, viii, 8, 20, 56, 62, 63, 70, 71, 74, 105–114, 124 American Press Institute, 23, 109 B Battle of Versailles, 75, 112, 135–136 Bender, Marylin, xi, 133, 144 Bernadine Morris, 69 Best-dressed lists, 61, 66, 74, 75, 87 Bloomer, Amelia, 2, 7, 27 Bras, viii, 45, 121, 124, 125 C Chanel, Coco, 6, 18, 89 Christy, Marian, 17 Cloud, Barbara, xi, 24, 51, 92, 93, 106, 109, 113, 114, 129, 145 Collins, Gail, 5, 9 Colors, 25, 26, 34, 35, 45, 46, 63, 64, 77, 85, 96, 99, 107, 108, 120, 121 Corset, 45, 50, 69, 70, 149 Cosmetics companies, 8

D Department stores, xii, 17, 20, 26, 29, 30, 34, 43, 45, 48, 53, 68, 76, 77, 86, 91–93, 95, 106, 107, 109, 130, 148 Designers, vii, viii, x, 2, 4, 5, 7, 15–18, 20–22, 24, 25, 27, 29, 32–35, 41–50, 52–54, 61–79, 86–89, 91, 92, 94, 96–100, 105–107, 110–114, 119–121, 123, 124, 128–132, 135, 136, 150, 151, 154, 157, 159 Dietrich, Marlene, 3 Dior, 2, 4, 21, 41, 45, 51, 56, 89, 98, 123, 134, 135 Disability, 131–132 Dorothy Hawkins/Le Sueur, 63, 148 Dress codes, viii, 9, 127–128 E Earhart, Amelia, 3 Epstein, Eleni, ix–xi, 15, 22, 42, 70–72, 87, 111, 112, 131, 132, 134, 146–147 Ethics, 46, 105–114

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. W. Voss, Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73624-8

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INDEX

F Fabrics, viii, 19, 24, 25, 29, 30, 42, 47, 51–52, 67, 92, 114, 121–129, 159 Fashion calendar, 75–76 Fashion Group International, x, 74, 88, 134, 151 Fashion publicist, 34, 61, 62, 66, 74, 79, 112, 135 Fashion shows, viii, ix, xi, xii, 7, 17, 19–22, 28, 33–35, 41–56, 62–66, 68, 71–79, 85–100, 105–114, 119, 122, 128–131, 135, 145, 148, 150, 151, 153, 154, 158 Finley, Ruth, 75–76 Freddye Scarborough Henderson, 72–73, 148 G Gender, viii, x, 1, 3, 6, 9, 15, 23, 65, 120, 121, 136 H Hats, viii, ix, 15, 18, 67, 72, 77, 91, 92, 96, 107, 108, 120–122, 126, 128–129, 133, 154 Hawkins/Le Sueur, Dorothy, 51 Henderson, Freddye Scarborough, 21 Hepburn, Katherine, 3 Hosiery, 107, 124 Hyde, Nina, 16, 18, 24, 31, 44, 112, 149 J Jo Werne, 158–159 K Kelly, Grace, 43 Kennedy, Jacqueline, 44

L Lambert, Eleanor, 34, 49, 61, 62, 66, 74–75, 112, 130, 135 Lauder, Estee, 22 Lauren, Ralph, 24, 92 M Marian Christy, vii, ix, 73, 107, 144–145 McCallum, Bobbi, 46, 95, 96, 99, 152, 155 Men’s wear Daily, vii, 65, 66, 69, 70, 88, 144, 149, 157 Mizrahi, Isaac, 97 Models, xii, 3, 15, 17, 27, 51, 53–56, 76, 77, 92, 95, 111, 113, 120, 129–131, 136, 154 Moore, Mary Tyler, 3 N Nangle, Eleanor, 30, 61, 94, 152 P Pants, pantsuits, viii, 1–11, 20, 23, 27, 43, 48, 53, 76, 78, 94, 95, 97, 119, 120, 127, 128, 131, 133 Paxson, Marjorie, x, 17, 25, 51, 89, 153 Penney-Missouri Awards, ix, x, 28, 32, 33, 73, 86, 89–91, 95, 98, 110, 127, 144, 147, 148, 150, 152, 154–158 Politics, 7, 15, 47, 56, 114, 132–134 Pope, Virginia, 15, 20, 41, 45 R Roberts, Vida, 19, 155 Ryan, Aileen, x, 17, 19, 25, 34, 35, 42, 43, 85, 89, 90, 106, 119, 135, 155–156

 INDEX 

S Seneca Falls, 2 Sewing, 19, 23, 29, 63, 97 Sheppard, Eugenia, vii, ix, 15, 19, 30, 31, 47, 61, 65–68, 78, 134, 136, 149, 156–157 Singletary, Annie Lee, ix, xi, 20, 33, 34, 48, 49, 86, 87, 98, 157 Sizes, 22, 27, 52–54, 87, 132 Skirts, viii, 2–7, 15, 20, 33, 43–45, 47, 49, 51, 64, 65, 77, 88–90, 97–99, 120–124, 127, 128, 133, 145 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 2 Steinem, Gloria, 124 Sutton, Carol, 109, 110 T Taylor, Elizabeth, 43 Thomas, Helen, 9 Thomas, Marlo, 125 Trigere, Pauline, 5, 6, 45, 93, 124, 130

169

V Virginia Pope, ix, xi, 29, 62, 63, 68–69, 105, 110, 148, 154 W Weddings, 43–44, 52, 54, 55, 67, 70, 95, 122, 145, 151, 153 Werne, Jo, 19 White House, 9 White House Fashion Show, ix, xi, 22, 75, 105–114 Women’s pages, vii, ix, 10, 11, 15–17, 19, 20, 23–25, 27, 30–32, 35, 56, 62, 63, 68, 71, 72, 85, 89, 93, 96, 106, 109, 110, 112, 119–136, 144, 145, 149, 151–153, 155–159 Women’s Strike for Equality, 10 World War II, viii, xii, 2, 11, 15–35, 41, 42, 45, 51, 68, 71, 89, 91, 110–112, 123, 134, 147, 153, 157 Y Youth, viii, 63, 126, 158