Magazines and Retail
How clothes reach people. Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, the fashion photograph, the department store and the boutique, catalogues, fast fashion and the online resale market.
Part of Fashion
11 moments in this segment.
- - Sears Catalog. 1894. Sears, Roebuck mails its first general catalog. Brought factory-made clothes to rural America by mail. By 1900, 1100 pages, 600,000 items. The first mass-market democratisation of fashion.
- - Erté + Harper's Bazaar. 1913. Romain de Tirtoff ("Erté") begins illustrating for Harper's Bazaar. His Art Deco line, sinuous, jewel-encrusted, defined the visual language of 1910s-30s fashion illustration before photography fully replaced drawing.
- - Helmut Newton - White Women. 1975. Helmut Newton's "White Women" book, explicit, glossy, narrative-driven. Reshaped fashion photography from product-shot to mini-cinema. His Le Smoking photograph (also 1975) became one of the most iconic fashion images of the century.
- - Zara Opens. 1975. Amancio Ortega opens the first Zara in La Coruña. Two-week design-to-shop turnaround. Defined fast fashion of the 1990s-2010s. By 2024 Inditex (parent) is the world's largest fashion retailer.
- - McQueen's Death. February 11, 2010. Alexander McQueen found dead in his London apartment at 40, ten days after his mother's death. The single most-mourned designer death of the 21st century. Sarah Burton takes over the house; designs Kate Middleton's 2011 wedding dress.
- - September Issue 2012 - 916 Pages. September 2012. American Vogue September issue: 916 pages, the heaviest single magazine issue ever published. The peak of the print-magazine model right before its decline. Subject of R.J. Cutler's 2009 documentary "The September Issue."
- - Kering Rebrand. 2013. François-Henri Pinault rebrands PPR as Kering, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Boucheron. The clean two-house structure (Kering + LVMH) that defines 2010s+ luxury industry.
- - Balenciaga Controversy. November 2022. Balenciaga BDSM-teddy holiday campaign + court-document campaign. Mass cancellation campaign; Kim Kardashian and Bella Hadid distance themselves. The most-damaging luxury brand controversy of the decade; brand recovers by mid-2024.
- - Bernard Arnault Acquires LVMH. 1987. Bernard Arnault gains control of LVMH; consolidates Moët, Hennessy, Louis Vuitton, plus accumulating Dior, Givenchy, Loewe, Fendi, Tiffany. The most consequential business deal in modern luxury; Arnault becomes the world's richest person 2023.
- - TikTok Eats the Trend Cycle. 2022-2024. TikTok aesthetics ("coquette," "blokette," "tomato girl," "mob wife," "indie sleaze revival") rotate every 4-8 weeks. The trend-cycle compresses from seasonal to monthly. The first generation of fashion consumers who can't name 5 designers but can name 50 aesthetics.
- - Quiet Luxury Discourse. 2023. The Succession-era "quiet luxury" / "stealth wealth" / "old money" discourse: Loro Piana, The Row, Brunello Cucinelli. Maximalist Gucci out; cashmere-and-loafers in. Defined the post-pandemic luxury aesthetic correction.
