Cover Story: The Smart Set’s Clever Packaging, 1908–1923

An analysis of The Smart Set’s cover designs, with a focus on the years 1908 to 1923, reveals the extent to which the cover was responsible for conveying the magazine’s attitude of cleverness. Three iconographic trends prevailed during this period. The changes in the cover program are related to The Smart Set’s publishing history and conditions, its ties to other magazines in its publishing “family,” and its relationship to advertising imagery. The cover trends point to an ongoing experiment in packaging intended to align the magazine in readers’ eyes with an evolving attitude of cleverness.