At Conde Nast, Some Things Never Change
The rather curious blog A Dress A Day directs our attention to a snippet from a 1960 magazine article by Gay Talese, "Vogueland":
But it is usually quite simple to tell the two staffs [of Vogue and Glamour, in the same office building] apart because the jeunes filles at Glamour, in addition to possessing a high quota of noses that Vogue might dismiss as "eager, retrouss ," are also given to wearing shirtdresses, college-girl circle pins, smiling in the elevator, and saying, "Hi." A Vogue lady once described the Glamour staff as "those peppy, Hi people."
One day a few years ago a wide-eyed, newly hired Vogue secretary went bouncing into an editor's office with a package, and said "Hi" — at which the editor is supposed to have cringed, and finally snapped, "We don't say that around here!"
... Vogue has to be careful. The upcomer might use the word cute instead of panache; she might talk about giving a party instead of a dinner; or describe a suede coat 'for weekending with the station-wagon set' rather than 'for your country home.' Or talk of going to a jewelry store instead of a bijouterie. Most maladroit of all, she might talk in terms of a best buy rather than an investment, or a coup. Or refer to a ballgown as — one shudders to think of it — a formal.
Or maybe things do change: Would a Glamour girl today dare smile in a 4 Times Square elevator?
