Carmel Snow | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Carmel White August 21, 1887 Dalkey, Ireland |
| Died | May 7, 1961 (aged 73) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Magazine editor |
| Employer(s) | Vogue, Harper's Bazaar |
Carmel Snow (born Carmel White; 21 August 1887 – 7 May 1961) was the editor-in-chief of the American edition of Harper's Bazaar from 1934 to 1958; and the chair of the magazine's editorial board.[1][2][3] She was famously quoted as saying, "Elegance is good taste, plus a dash of daring".[4]
She was born in St Justin's, Dalkey, Dublin, Ireland to Peter White, a merchant tailor, and Annie Meyne.[5] After her father's death from pneumonia on April 7, 1893,[1] she and her mother Annie moved to America.[1] Her mother eventually became a noted dressmaker for wealthy New York socialites.[1]
In 1903, Carmel attended school at a convent in Brussels; the Soeurs de Sainte-Marie is where she mastered her understanding of French.[4]
In 1921 she was introduced to Vogue editor Edna Woolman Chase by Anne Rittenhouse, for whom she had done a favor;[6] Condé Nast subsequently offered her the job of assistant fashion editor.[1]
In 1926 she was appointed as fashion editor at Vogue.[1][7] Also in 1926, she married George Palen Snow, while wearing a gown of cream white satin trimmed with seed pearls and old Burano lace that had been in her family for many years.[1][8] She later had three daughters; it was rumored that one of them had schizophrenia, but this diagnosis has not been confirmed.[1][9]
In 1929 her brother Tom White became general manager of the Hearst publishing organization.[1] Though Carmel had promised Condé Nast she would not take a job there, she ultimately did take a job at Harper's Bazaar.[1] In 1932 Carmel became the fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar. She famously described her goal at Harper's Bazaar as creating a magazine for "well-dressed women with well-dressed minds".[4]
She discovered Martin Munkacsi, and in 1933 and persuaded him to photograph the Harper's Bazaar December edition's 'Palm Beach' bathing suit editorial.[1] For this editorial, he had the model Lucille Brokaw run toward the camera while he photographed, which was the first instance of a fashion model being photographed in motion.[1][4]
She became editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar in 1934.[1]
She hired her art director Alexey Brodovitch on the basis of a 1934 exhibition of his work in graphic design at the Art Directors Club of New York.[4] She described his exhibit as a revelation, mentioning "pages that bled beautifully, cropped photographs, typography and design that were bold and interesting".[4] She found her fashion editor, Diana Vreeland, after noticing her dancing across a crowded room.[4][10]
In 1947 she exclaimed, "It's such a new look!", thus coining that phrase in regard to Christian Dior's 1947 collection.[11][12]
Snow died in 1961, while she was working with her long-time collaborator Mary Louis Aswell on her memoir, The World of Carmel Snow.[1][13] The book was published posthumously.[4]
As to why Carmel's reputation faded, while Vreeland's did not, photographer Richard Avedon (quoted in a 2005 biography[14] of Carmel by Penelope Rowlands) said: "She was older, right? and she died before stardom was the thing."[4]
In 2020, Snow was one of a number of famous Irish people featured on stamps by An Post.[15]
