In 1913, Condé Montrose Nast purchased a men's fashion magazine called Dress and immediately renamed it Vanity Fair, a title borrowed from a fictional town in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress where every item sold was a lie and every person was chasing empty desires. Nast's decision to adopt this name was not merely an act of literary homage but a strategic gamble to position his new publication as the arbiter of modern excess and social climbing. The magazine quickly found its footing in the roaring twenties, reaching a circulation of 90,000 copies at its peak, a number that seemed substantial for the era. However, the Great Depression of the 1930s brought the original iteration to a crashing halt, and by December 1935, Nast announced that Vanity Fair would be folded into Vogue, its sister publication, to survive the economic collapse. The original Vanity Fair ceased to exist as a separate entity, its name and legacy dormant for nearly five decades until the company decided to resurrect it in the early 1980s. This revival would transform the magazine from a forgotten casualty of the Depression into a global powerhouse of culture, politics, and celebrity, proving that the name Vanity Fair carried a weight that could survive even the darkest economic times.
The Editors Who Shaped The Voice
The modern era of Vanity Fair began in June 1981 when the Condé Nast company, owned by S.I. Newhouse, announced plans to revive the title, with the first issue released on the 21st of February 1983, bearing a March cover date. Richard Locke, formerly of The New York Times Book Review, served as the inaugural editor of the new magazine, but his tenure was short-lived, lasting only three issues before Leo Lerman, a veteran features editor of Vogue, took the helm. The magazine's true cultural identity began to crystallize under Tina Brown, who edited the publication from 1984 to 1992, followed by Graydon Carter, who led the magazine from 1992 to 2017, and Radhika Jones, who served from 2017 to 2025. Each editor left an indelible mark on the magazine's direction, with Jones previously serving as the director of The New York Times book section before taking the reins at Vanity Fair. In June 2025, Mark Guiducci, formerly the creative editorial director of Vogue, succeeded Jones as editor-in-chief following her resignation, continuing a lineage of leadership that has kept the magazine at the forefront of American journalism. The magazine's employees unionized in 2022, a significant moment that highlighted the changing dynamics of the media industry and the growing power of its workforce. These editors did not just manage a magazine; they curated a cultural conversation that spanned decades, influencing everything from political discourse to the way celebrities presented themselves to the public.The Stories That Changed History
Vanity Fair has a long history of publishing stories that have altered the course of history, from its 1996 exposé on the tobacco industry titled The Man Who Knew Too Much by journalist Marie Brenner to its 2005 revelation of Mark Felt as the Watergate whistleblower Deep Throat. The 1996 article, which detailed the tobacco industry's internal knowledge of the dangers of smoking, was adapted into a 1999 film starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe called The Insider, bringing the magazine's investigative journalism to a wider audience. The identification of Mark Felt as Deep Throat in the May 2005 issue was a pivotal moment that confirmed decades of speculation and provided closure to one of the most significant political scandals in American history. The magazine also features candid interviews with celebrities, including a monthly Proust Questionnaire, which has become a staple of the publication. In the 21st century, notable interviews include Teri Hatcher, who revealed that she was sexually abused as a child, and Jennifer Aniston, who gave her first interview following her divorce from Brad Pitt. The magazine's reach extends beyond entertainment, as seen in its 2015 update to an article by NBC News correspondent Richard Engel about his 2012 kidnapping in Syria, where the magazine acknowledged that Engel had misidentified his captors. In 2019, former contributing editor Vicky Ward claimed that her 2003 profile of Jeffrey Epstein had included on-the-record accounts of Annie and Maria Farmer, who filed the earliest known criminal complaints about Epstein, but that these accounts were later stricken from Ward's article after Bill Clinton pressured the magazine's editor Graydon Carter. These stories demonstrate the magazine's commitment to uncovering the truth, even when it means challenging powerful figures and revisiting its own past.The Photographs That Sparked Controversy
Vanity Fair's influence extends beyond the pages of its magazine to the red carpet and the after-parties that define Hollywood culture. The first Vanity Fair Oscar Party took place in 1994, a successor to a similar invitation-only event annually held by the late agent Irving Paul Lazar. During its first years, the magazine's Oscar party was co-hosted by producer Steve Tisch at Morton's in West Hollywood, and editor Graydon Carter kept the invitation list small, at around 120 for dinner. In 2008, in sympathy with a Writers Guild of America strike, Vanity Fair canceled its annual party, and between 2009 and 2013, the party was held at Sunset Tower. The 2014 edition took place in a temporary, 12,000-square-foot glass-walled structure at 8680 Sunset Boulevard, and the magazine makes a limited number of invitations available each year for charity. In 2021, Vanity Fair canceled its annual party due to the COVID-19 pandemic, marking a significant shift in the magazine's approach to its events. In recent years, Vanity Fair and Bloomberg have hosted an after-party at the French ambassador's residence in Washington, D.C. following the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, further expanding the magazine's reach into political circles. These events have become as much a part of the magazine's identity as its articles, with the Oscar party becoming a symbol of Hollywood's excess and the magazine's ability to bring together the most powerful figures in the entertainment industry.In 1913, Condé Montrose Nast purchased a men's fashion magazine called Dress and immediately renamed it Vanity Fair, a title borrowed from a fictional town in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress where every item sold was a lie and every person was chasing empty desires. Nast's decision to adopt this name was not merely an act of literary homage but a strategic gamble to position his new publication as the arbiter of modern excess and social climbing. The magazine quickly found its footing in the roaring twenties, reaching a circulation of 90,000 copies at its peak, a number that seemed substantial for the era. However, the Great Depression of the 1930s brought the original iteration to a crashing halt, and by December 1935, Nast announced that Vanity Fair would be folded into Vogue, its sister publication, to survive the economic collapse. The original Vanity Fair ceased to exist as a separate entity, its name and legacy dormant for nearly five decades until the company decided to resurrect it in the early 1980s. This revival would transform the magazine from a forgotten casualty of the Depression into a global powerhouse of culture, politics, and celebrity, proving that the name Vanity Fair carried a weight that could survive even the darkest economic times.
The Editors Who Shaped The Voice
The modern era of Vanity Fair began in June 1981 when the Condé Nast company, owned by S.I. Newhouse, announced plans to revive the title, with the first issue released on the 21st of February 1983, bearing a March cover date. Richard Locke, formerly of The New York Times Book Review, served as the inaugural editor of the new magazine, but his tenure was short-lived, lasting only three issues before Leo Lerman, a veteran features editor of Vogue, took the helm. The magazine's true cultural identity began to crystallize under Tina Brown, who edited the publication from 1984 to 1992, followed by Graydon Carter, who led the magazine from 1992 to 2017, and Radhika Jones, who served from 2017 to 2025. Each editor left an indelible mark on the magazine's direction, with Jones previously serving as the director of The New York Times book section before taking the reins at Vanity Fair. In June 2025, Mark Guiducci, formerly the creative editorial director of Vogue, succeeded Jones as editor-in-chief following her resignation, continuing a lineage of leadership that has kept the magazine at the forefront of American journalism. The magazine's employees unionized in 2022, a significant moment that highlighted the changing dynamics of the media industry and the growing power of its workforce. These editors did not just manage a magazine; they curated a cultural conversation that spanned decades, influencing everything from political discourse to the way celebrities presented themselves to the public.
The Stories That Changed History
Vanity Fair has a long history of publishing stories that have altered the course of history, from its 1996 exposé on the tobacco industry titled The Man Who Knew Too Much by journalist Marie Brenner to its 2005 revelation of Mark Felt as the Watergate whistleblower Deep Throat. The 1996 article, which detailed the tobacco industry's internal knowledge of the dangers of smoking, was adapted into a 1999 film starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe called The Insider, bringing the magazine's investigative journalism to a wider audience. The identification of Mark Felt as Deep Throat in the May 2005 issue was a pivotal moment that confirmed decades of speculation and provided closure to one of the most significant political scandals in American history. The magazine also features candid interviews with celebrities, including a monthly Proust Questionnaire, which has become a staple of the publication. In the 21st century, notable interviews include Teri Hatcher, who revealed that she was sexually abused as a child, and Jennifer Aniston, who gave her first interview following her divorce from Brad Pitt. The magazine's reach extends beyond entertainment, as seen in its 2015 update to an article by NBC News correspondent Richard Engel about his 2012 kidnapping in Syria, where the magazine acknowledged that Engel had misidentified his captors. In 2019, former contributing editor Vicky Ward claimed that her 2003 profile of Jeffrey Epstein had included on-the-record accounts of Annie and Maria Farmer, who filed the earliest known criminal complaints about Epstein, but that these accounts were later stricken from Ward's article after Bill Clinton pressured the magazine's editor Graydon Carter. These stories demonstrate the magazine's commitment to uncovering the truth, even when it means challenging powerful figures and revisiting its own past.
The Photographs That Sparked Controversy
Vanity Fair's influence extends beyond the pages of its magazine to the red carpet and the after-parties that define Hollywood culture. The first Vanity Fair Oscar Party took place in 1994, a successor to a similar invitation-only event annually held by the late agent Irving Paul Lazar. During its first years, the magazine's Oscar party was co-hosted by producer Steve Tisch at Morton's in West Hollywood, and editor Graydon Carter kept the invitation list small, at around 120 for dinner. In 2008, in sympathy with a Writers Guild of America strike, Vanity Fair canceled its annual party, and between 2009 and 2013, the party was held at Sunset Tower. The 2014 edition took place in a temporary, 12,000-square-foot glass-walled structure at 8680 Sunset Boulevard, and the magazine makes a limited number of invitations available each year for charity. In 2021, Vanity Fair canceled its annual party due to the COVID-19 pandemic, marking a significant shift in the magazine's approach to its events. In recent years, Vanity Fair and Bloomberg have hosted an after-party at the French ambassador's residence in Washington, D.C. following the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, further expanding the magazine's reach into political circles. These events have become as much a part of the magazine's identity as its articles, with the Oscar party becoming a symbol of Hollywood's excess and the magazine's ability to bring together the most powerful figures in the entertainment industry.