From the Archives: College Fashion in Vogue

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception 


by Laird Borrelli-Persson

Vogue is headed back to school: http://bit.ly/17dzO91

As American as apple pie is the archetypal shiny-haired, long-limbed, sweater-and-tweed-skirted coed. And it was to her that Vogue for 28 years—from 1932 to 1960—dedicated its August issues. These magazines were addressed to young women who were smart in brains and looks, and who were in on the fact that “that campus chic is marked by being uniform in the fundamentals and discovering inspired incidentals.”

Here, selected from the college issues in the Vogue Archive, a slideshow of looks that make the grade.

Featuring covers, advertisements, articles, photographs, and illustrations in their original context, the Vogue Archive offers a glimpse of the magazine’s unparalleled record of fashion, social, and cultural ideas.

Vogue.com registered users have access to a selection of editor-chosen issues from the Vogue Archive. Vogue magazine subscribers have access to a selection of 36 issues, including the very first issue of the magazine, from 1892. To access the Vogue Archive, go to voguearchive.com and use the Archive Login in the upper-right-hand corner.