Confessions of a (Broke) Fashionista: Throwback Thursday Mademoiselle Magazine..

Mademoiselle was a women's magazine first published in 1935 by Street and Smith and later acquired by Conde' Nast Publications. Mademoiselle described itself as the ‘quality magazine for smart young women’, but it was much more than that. By 1953 the circulation stood at more than 500,000 and Mademoiselle had developed a reputation for publishing the work of significant literary figures including Albert Camus, Truman Capote, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and Dylan Thomas.

The August 1961 "college issue" of Mademoiselle included a photo of UCLA senior class president Willette Murphy, who did not realize she was making history as the first African-American model to appear in a mainstream fashion magazine. In the sixties, Mademoiselle magazine was geared “to the smart young woman”. They categorically stated in their editorials that despite their young, maidenly name they were not geared to young teenagers. The majority of their readers may have been in college, in a job, some may have been married. Mademoiselle was interested in reaching mature college freshmen and up, who were being exposed to the greatest literature, facing the greatest moral problems coping with all the complexities of the 1960s. Mademoiselle continued to be a top shelf magazine throughout the eighties and nineties featuring the top models on their covers and in the pages of their editorial sections. On October 1, 2001 Conde' Nast announced that Mademoiselle was closing. The November 2001 was the final issue and ended an era.

Mademoislle Through The Years