CUT THE RIBBON, GRACE MIRABELLA

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Editorial Staff

Not true that normal gets you nowhere. Grace Mirabella served as editor in chief at Vogue between 1971 and 1988 after the reign of Diana Vreeland. The magazine was not going well at that time , her predecessor was misfire and loosing appeal and years were changing, budgets were reduced. Opulence was out of fashion, the country was living a recession, women were hitting the streets to protest against Vietnam or for feminist causes. Women’s “dream” fashion magazine needed to follow up its readers and Mirabella was simply the right person. Born from parents of Italian descent, father was a gambler addict while mother was a feminist, Mirabella entered Conde Nast in 1950.  At that time, Vogue headquarters were not a democratic nor equal place, it was  a crawl for unpaid wealthy girls only but  as a young assistant coming from a lower class, Mirabella cut off for her strong and witty attitude and made a career adopting the less is more philosophy: she were convinced that people were tired of “fashion” and needed clothes. For that reason, she is responsible for creating the image of a generation of women called “business women” as she saw fashion as a way to show evidence that a woman can rise in power. There weren’t so many ribbons in what Mirabella was featuring in Vogue during those years as editor in chief, but if you pay attention to what she did during her short period there , you will see she cut many, literally. And still, in a way, she is what fashion needed in those time and maybe needs now. As the pendulum come and goes, sometimes it’s better to be grounded. And that’s where the genius of Mirabella was.