Carmel Snow

Carmel Snow, born Carmel White (1887 – 1961) was the editor-in-chief of the American edition of Harper's Bazaar from 1934 to 1958; she also served as the chair of that magazine's editorial board. She is famously quoted as saying 'elegance is good taste, plus a dash of daring'.

Snow changed the course of American culture by launching the careers of some of today's greatest figures in fashion and the arts. A former fashion editor at American Vogue (in the 1920s), she was editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar (from 1934 to 1958). She famously described her goal at the latter publication as creating a magazine for "well-dressed women with well-dressed minds." Her influence at both magazines went way beyond fashion: she brought cutting-edge art, fiction, photography, and reporting into the American home.

She was named after Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Born in Dublin, she and her mother moved to Chicago, then New York when Carmel was a child. Her father Peter White caught pneumonia and died on April 7, 1893, before this move. Her mother Annie eventually became a noted dressmaker for rich New York socialites.

In 1903 Carmel attended school at a convent in Brussels; the Soeurs de Sainte- Marie is where she mastered her understanding of French.

In 1921 Carmel was offered the job of assistant fashion editor at Vogue by Condé Nast. In 1926 she was appointed as fashion editor at Vogue.

Also in 1926 she married George Palen Snow; she wore a gown of cream white satin trimmed with seed pearls and old Burano lace that had been in her family for many years. She had three daughters; it was suggested that one of her children was rumored to have suffered from schizophrenia, this diagnosis has not confirmed.

In 1929 her brother Tom White became general manager of the Hearst publishing organization. Though Carmel had promised Condé Nast she would not take a job there, she did take a job at Harper's Bazaar. She famously described her goal at Harper's Bazaar as creating a magazine for "well-dressed women with well-dressed minds".

She discovered Martin Munkacsi, and in 1933 persuaded him to photograph the December edition’s ‘Palm Beach’ bathing suit editorial. For this editorial, he had the model run toward the camera while he photographed, which was the first instance of a fashion model being photographed in motion.

Carmel became editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar in 1934.

Snow was particularly gifted at discovering new talent, as well as fostering new avenues of exploration among previously-established artists. In the 1920s, she worked closely with Edward Steichen, already a world-famous photographer, helping him to apply his talents to fashion photography, which he did to great effect, well into the 1930s.

In 1932, she hired Martin Munkacsi, the great Hungarian photojournalist, to take his first fashion shots; she brought him and model Lucille Brokaw to a cold, windy, autumnal beach and, in the course of an afternoon, Munkacsi created history, by coming up with the first fashion photographs shot outdoors and in motion -- a reovlutionary act.

Snow hired her famous 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. His exhibition as a revelation, describing "pages that bled beautifully, cropped photographs, typography and design that were bold and interesting". and found her fashion editor, Diana Vreeland, after noticing her, with her estimable chic, dancing across a crowded room.

Together, the trio of Snow, Brodovitch, and Vreeland turned Harper's Bazaar into the most admired magazine of the last century. The now-household-names whose careers Snow encouraged include: Andy Warhol, Maeve Brennan, Truman Capote, Jean Cocteau, Cecil Beaton, Christian Dior, Cristobal Balenciaga, Carson McCullers, Kenneth Tynan, and numerous others.

In 1947 she exclaimed, "It's such a New Look!", thus coining that phrase in regard to Christian Dior's 1947 collection. (Although many have cited this story over the years, it has never quite been confirmed.)

Carmel was working on her memoir, The World of Carmel Snow, with her longtime collaborator, Mary Louis Aswell, when she died in 1961. The book was published postumously.

As to why Carmel Snow's reputation faded, while Vreeland went on to become a legend, photographer Richard Avedon (quoted in A Dash of Daring: Carmel Snow and Her Life in Fashion, Art, and Letters," a well-received biography <ref https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/03/20/a-dash-of-daring> by Penelope Rowlands that was published in 2005) said: "She was older, right? and she died before stardom was the thing."

He added that: "Carmel Snow taught me everything I know." Many others, and particularly photographers, also credited her with helping them to hone their craft. Henri Cartier-Bresson, with whom she worked closely, beginning in the 1930s, described her as "magic." And when the great Hungarian photographer known as Brassai heard of Snow's retirement, he was said to have abandoned photography for good.