Velvet, Silk, and Other Ecstasies: Exploring Affective Encounters with Clothes in Early Issues of Vogue

Despite the fact that U.S. Vogue’s history has captured the interest of both academics and the general public, the first decade of this now iconic periodical (from 1892 to 1902) remains virtually untouched in critical discussions. Preferring to skip ahead to Condé Nast’s buy-out in 1909, current scholarship often dismisses this era of the magazine, typically dedicating a short sentence or two towards the period before moving on to more recent trends. This oversight is unfortunate since Vogue’s early iterations contained regular features that utilized fashion as a means of cultivating an affective relationship with those who encounter the magazine. Addresing this gap, I explore how the pages of Vogue projected a playful yet potent interaction between fashion, tactile sensation, and depictions of modern femininity that relied upon the kindling of desire to introduce subversive ideas about attaining agency over one’s own body, an especially pressing issue during the era of the New Woman.