Always in with the in-crowd: Vogue and the cultural politics of gender, place, class and taste

Tincknell, Estella

Abstract

The venerable fashion magazine Vogue has always associated itself with the interests of the ruling class, through the cultural and symbolic capital exhibited by the diffused aesthetic of its fashion spreads and through its unabashed attachment to the (white) scions of aristocracy as employees and the haute monde of celebrity culture as interviewees. Vogue is both cutting edge and deeply conservative in its articulation of fashion discourse, and the intersections of gender, class, race, taste, power and publicity are constantly reimagined and remediated to sustain its prestigious position as the world’s leading fashion magazine with a strong pedigree. It is adept at responding to new inflections of power, at adapting to ‘new times’ and at transforming itself for new audiences while retaining its core loyalties. In this chapter I explore the relationship between Vogue, gender, race and class power in relation to the magazine’s recent historic appointment of a black male editor and the scandal that this provoked around its track record of privileging whiteness. Drawing on
Pierre Bourdieu’s (1993a, 1993b) ideas, I consider the case in relation to the history of the magazine in the UK and to fashion as a site in which tensions around identity, culture and power are articulated and, ultimately, exposed.

• Online Publication Date: Oct 1, 2020
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jun 22, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 2, 2023
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Pages: 200-214
• Book Title: Women's Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1940s-2000s
• Chapter Number: 11
• ISBN: 9781474469982
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6050731
• Publisher URL: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-women-039-s-periodicals-and-print-culture-in-britain-1940s-2000s-hb.html
• Contract Date: Oct 1, 2019