After reading chapter 1 of ‘Fashion Media: Past and Present’, it seems to me that Sanda Miller believes the emergence of the “fashion magazine” to have begun in 18^th century France and it heavily depended on art as a driver for success. She talks about the period of enlightenment, particularly in France, which allowed for the expression of opinion without judgement, which then gave individuals the ability to have a ‘taste’ in contrast to the “‘dark’ middle ages” [1]. This allowed for early fashion plates that “were also representations of ‘real life’”. [2- Source 2] showing a link to the arts, and the ‘first’ women’s fashion magazine to be published by Le Brun Tossa until 1793 due to the French revolution.

Miller then questions whether it was a magazine at all due to fact it had “coincided with the French Revolution” [3] which could imply that the combination of art and fashion was and is still equally a blessing and a curse as it proved how much the magazines relied on the industry to bring its status up. It could also suggest that with their being such an abundance of opinions, that is what caused tensions to rise in the lead up to the revolution itself.

However, after a period of reflection on what Miller described as “the bloodiest revolution in European history” [4], the 20^th century saw another rise in the fashion magazine industry, particularly in 1912 with Henri Bidou’s Gazette du bon ton. It’s clear he felt that art needed to collaborate with fashion again, but he “was not prepared to leave anything to chance or indeed to the couturiers.” [5] supporting the idea Miller believes art is what makes or breaks the fashion industry as from then onwards Europe had been influenced by France to create similar zine’s.

Many other people do agree with Miller in that France was where ‘Fashion’ began and this can be seen in in ‘Fashion Brands’ where “Everything began in Paris. – From the days when the couturier Worth designed dresses for Empress Eugénie”. [7- source 3]. However, France couldn’t have been the only country to produce these types of zines? I found an article that suggested this as “The women’s magazine as we know it—a lavishly illustrated celebration of consumption and beauty aimed at a popular audience—emerged in England in the 1870s.” [6- Source 2]. Although this is just an article I found on the internet, it’s clear there is an ambivalence towards what a fashion magazine is and how it is identified and this could explain why Miller questioned Le Brun Tossa. Furthermore, the fact other countries had prints with similar content does suggest that France wasn’t the birth place, but rather it could have been the first depending on what critics considered to be fashion, as can be seen in the discussion about etymology in source 4.

Overall, I agree with Miller that although being separate identities, art and fashion do go in hand-in-hand but I don’t agree totally that France was the birth place of fashion media. I rather believe that depending on how you see and interpret the word fashion itself, will determine where fashion media started, for it can mean so many things as whilst not all art is fashion, all fashion is art.

Bibliography

[1-]Szalay, J (July 2016) What Was the Enlightenment? https://www.livescience.com/55327-the-enlightenment.html Accessed: 23/11/2017

[2- source 1] Bartlett, D. Cole, S And Rocamora, A. (2013- reprinted 2016) Fashion Media: Past and Present. London, NY, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Page 17 Line 14- 15.

[3] Bartlett, D. Cole, S And Rocamora, A. (2013- reprinted 2016) Fashion Media: Past and Present. London, NY, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Page 18  Line 17

[4] Bartlett, D. Cole, S And Rocamora, A. (2013- reprinted 2016) Fashion Media: Past and Present. London, NY, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Page Line 17 25- 26

[5] Bartlett, D. Cole, S And Rocamora, A. (2013- reprinted 2016) Fashion Media: Past and Present. London, NY, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Page 19 Line 30

[6- Source 2] Gershon, L (December 2015) The Birth of Fashion Magazines https://daily.jstor.org/birth-fashion-magazines/ Accessed: 24/11/2017

[7- source 3] Tungate, M. (2015) Fashion Brands: Branding style from Armani to Zara- third edition. First Published in Great Britain & the US by Kogan Page Limited. Chapter 1 page 5

[Source 4] Barnard, M. (2002) Fashion as Communication. 2^nd edition.  London, Routledge. Chapter 1. conclusion.