This article looks at the rise of Vanity Fair, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and House & Garden - recognizing them as highly unique publications for their time. Special attention is paid to publisher Condé Nast and his meteoric rise during the early 20th Century.
"Vogue and Harper's Bazaar dominate the "class field", which does not mean at all that they, with the other class magazines, have a monopoly of readers with intelligence, culture or manners. It means that advertisers and advertising agencies are convinced that the people who buy them have, on the average, more money... The class magazines exude an aura of wealth and their circulations, therefore, are limited. They cater to the fit though few and they do this with slick paper, excellent illustrations and a sycophantic reverence for Society - at thirty-five to fifty cents a copy."
