Glossy - by Nina-Sophia Miralles (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

'Dame Anna Wintour might be one of the best-known and most successful journalists on the planet. But it wasn't always like that. When she started out on Vogue she was often so miserable she had to phone her husband for help. This is just one of countless fascinating titbits in this zippy story of dizzying fortune, out-of this-world fashion, ingenuity, passion, sex and power.

And, this being fashion, some intense bitchiness too. Started as a gossip magazine for snobbish New Yorkers in 1892, Vogue is now one of the most recognisable brands in the world. Spanning London, New York and Paris, this is a high-speed, fun read full of fascinating though not always likeable people.' Daily Mail

Glossy is a story of more than a magazine. It is a story of passion and power, dizzying fortune and out-of-this-world fashion, of ingenuity and opportunism, frivolity and malice. This is the definitive story of Vogue.

Vogue magazine started, like so many great things do, in the spare room of someone's house. But unlike other such makeshift projects that flare up then fizzle away, Vogue burnt itself onto our cultural consciousness.

Today, 128 years later, Vogue spans 22 countries, has an international print readership upwards of 12 million and nets over 67 million monthly online users. Uncontested market leader for a century, it is one of the most recognisable brands in the world and a multi-million dollar money-making machine. It is not just a fashion magazine, it is the establishment. But what - and more importantly who - made Vogue such an enduring success?

Glossy will answer this question and more by tracing the previously untold history of the magazine, from its inception as a New York gossip rag, to the sleek, corporate behemoth we know now. This will be a biography of Vogue in every sense of the word, taking the reader through three centuries, two world wars, plunging failures and blinding successes, as it charts the story of the magazine and those who ran it.

Review Quotes

Dame Anna Wintour might be one of the best-known and most successful journalists on the planet. But it wasn't always like that. When she started out on Vogue she was often so miserable she had to phone her husband for help. This is just one of countless fascinating titbits in this zippy story of dizzying fortune, out-of this-world fashion, ingenuity, passion, sex and power.

And, this being fashion, some intense bitchiness too. Started as a gossip magazine for snobbish New Yorkers in 1892, Vogue is now one of the most recognisable brands in the world. Spanning London, New York and Paris, this is a high-speed, fun read full of fascinating though not always likeable people.

--Daily Mail

Glossy: The Inside Story of Vogue, a new book by Nina-Sophia Miralles, is at least as much about the women, and occasional man, who have been the faces of the most potent fashion magazine brand as the actual publication. Rightly so--The Times

VOGUE THE LAST WORD IN PUBLISHING GLOSSINESS
If ever a magazine understood the special relationship between women and shiny paper, it is Vogue. Launched as "a dignified authentic journal of society, fashion and the ceremonial side of life," its pages have drawn the curious to its privileged glow since 1892. Whether they come to gawp at the hilarious prices or are genuinely seeking clues as to handbag silhouettes for autumn/winter, Vogue is fashion. So after 130 years a history is overdue, and Glossy tells a jaunty story of elite relationships, acute business acumen and some alluringly strange individuals. The great magazine entrepreneur Condé Nast saw its potential when he bought the title in 1909 and aimed it squarely at a market no one had spotted: extremely rich women. The creation of a luxuriant home for advertisers by using the finest editorial ingredients became the Condé Nast brand, and Vogue was its flagship. Nast, with his forensic socialising, is deserving of a book on his own, but the real stars are the outré terrors who have plotted their way into the editor's chair. GLOSSY by NINA-SOPHIA MIRALLES, a vivacious and gossipy history of Vogue sees it less as a magazine, more as a school of philosophy, based on hauteur, social exclusivity, impeccable taste, and editors whose ideas at times verged on the lunatic.

--Strong Words Magazine

An enthralling history.--Daily Mail

Fashion never seemed more relevant than in this engrossing and unputdownable history of the Queen of them all...the story of Vogue's war years in France is extraordinary . . . wonderful--Miranda Seymour

Full of stories.... Miralles has an eye for the telling detail.--Irish Times

Nina-Sophia Miralles' Glossy takes readers on an in-depth voyage through the history and workings of Vogue, from the brand's establishment to the people who made it such a success. Branded "the definitive story of Vogue", the insightful retrospective details the 129-year-old publication's triumphs and tribulations, from its humble New York beginnings to its international influence today.--Country and Town House

Riveting--The Arts Desk

About the Author

Nina-Sophia Miralles is an award-winning London-based writer and editor specialising in the arts, history and lifestyle.
In 2015 she launched Londnr, a culture magazine that was born online and has since expanded to a print edition and a literary salon.

She has also written for HARRODS Magazine and The Paris Review.

Glossy: The Inside Story of Vogue is her first book.
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