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Reporting from: https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/vintage-vision/about/vogel-nast

Vogel & Nast

Gazette du Bon Genre frontispiece
Gazette du Bon Genre title page

Condé Nast had purchased VOGUE in 1909 and transformed it from a Manhattan society newspaper into a sharply focused style magazine. Nast fell in love with the beauty and quality of Gazette du Bon Ton - aspects he wished to infuse into VOGUE.

With the outbreak of war and Gazette du Bon Ton's four-year publishing hiatus Nast brought many of the French artists into his fold, first putting Georges Lepape on the cover of VOGUE in 1916. From there the Parisians held a place of importance until photography replaced illustration on VOGUE's cover in 1932, with Benito becoming head illustrator for the magazine in 1920.

1920 also saw Nast publishing Gazette du Bon Ton for the U.S. market, though the name had to be changed to Gazette du Bon Genre over a trademark challenge from the Bon Ton clothing stores. Two years later Vogel sold his interest in du Bon Ton to Nast, and when they finally shuttered the Gazette in 1925 Vogel settled in to a new office at VOGUE Paris.

Vogel and Nast remained lifelong friends as well as business partners; during WWII Vogel kept an office-in-exile at the Condé Nast Co. New York headquarters, bringing both his joie de vivre and vast experience to the American magazines.