The so-desirable fashionable woman

This thesis purposefully examined the development of the societal role of women portrayed in US Vogue issues from 1945 to 2015. Vogue is known for its decades-long influence and authority within the fashion world. Interestingly, Vogue was founded as a society tabloid written by the elite of New York for the elite class. Using a feminist and deconstructive approach, this research investigates how Vogue constructs ideas of femininity within these elitist realms using both textual content and fashion images. Firstly exploring this notion using theory, it becomes apparent that Vogue functions within the fashion language system as a textbook. It aims to explain and educate its readers on all that is trendy, desirable and popular. The theory also reveals that it has underlying ideologies of how women should behave, perform and dress. This has strong ties with the elitist social sphere and the expectations this brings forth. The theoretical framework ultimately presents three central research topics: fashion arenas, embodied femininity, and leisurely life. A qualitative mixed method approach of discourse and semiotic analyses was taken amongst the sample of 16 US Vogue issues selected across seven decades. In total 162 fashion-related articles were taken from these issues, forming the research units. The process of coding and analysing the findings presents four overarching themes: the fashion party, the fashion textbook, desirability & enchantment, and the double/triple life. In short, these themes present that Vogue seems to function as a potential fashion party, driven by Vogue as its leader who sets ideologies on femininity. To share these ideologies amongst its members/readers, it turns its issues into what Vogue calls fashion textbooks. Using almost fantasy-like strategies, it evokes a strong sense of desirability for readers to become the ideal woman Vogue constructs. This ideal woman often lives a double or even triple life of being a kept, working and mothering woman. However, the notion of reader agency and reception might contest Vogue as all-powerful. The findings show an evolving representation of womanhood. She develops from a traditional woman to a more assertive, sexual and working woman. How Vogue represents her is embedded in a sense of duality and controversy; it blends tradition, domesticity and reality with independence, feminism and fantasy. The discussion does reveal that this reoccurring dualism could reflect Vogue balancing the so-desired woman between the ideal and the real. The essence remains that the so- desired woman Vogue constructs should be the embodiment of a status symbol - she is portrayed as aligned with elite ideals. She is portrayed to do this with ease, grace, fashion and restraint. In conclusion, this research reveals that Vogue functions as an educator and shaper of femininity. It fosters and sustains classed ideologies and gendered hierarchies underlying the shifting trends, whilst strategically allowing room for reader agency and interpretation. This broadens both the academic and societal conversation of fashion media, femininity and gendered hierarchies.