Dorothy Todd (1883–1966) was a British magazine editor.[1]
During her time as editor of British Vogue from 1922 to 1926, Todd altered the magazine's interest and content from fashion to a broader inclusion of modernist literature and art.[2] Unlike her predecessor, Elspeth Champcommunal, who focused on fashion, travel, and trends, Todd included works by modernists such as Wyndam Lewis, Gertrude Stein, Clive Bell, Virginia Woolf, and Aldous Huxley.[3] Much of "the failure of [her] Vogue to sustain itself within the specific context of Condé Nast's corporate structure and the general context of British culture in the 1920s" [4][5] can probably be attributed to its progressive nature and "significant subcultural context" [4] Todd was fired from Vogue by Condé Nast in 1926 for taking the magazine in a direction he did not approve of. When Todd tried to sue for breach of contract she was told that her "private sins" would be exposed if she did so, which may have referred to her lesbianism but may also have referred to her illegitimate daughter, Helen.[6] In 1982, Madge Garland reflected that the firing and blackmail was rooted in homophobia, writing: "in the days when homosexuality was a criminal offence he [Condé Nast] was not above using the direct threat of disclosure to avoid paying up for a broken contract."[7]
Affectionately known as 'Dody',[4] Todd was born in 1883, and during her time as editor, lived in Chelsea, London with her lover and British Vogue's fashion editor, Madge Garland. Their friend Freddie Ashton produced a ballet in 1926 entitled A Tragedy of Fashion, featuring two characters designed to parallel Todd and Garland.[8]
- ^ Beaton, Cecil (2004). Beaton in the Sixties: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, 1965-1969. Vol. 2. Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 30 note 3. ISBN 9781400042975.
- ^ Pentelow, Orla (28 December 2017). "Vogue Editors Through The Years". British Vogue. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
- ^ Fisher, Alice (14 March 2014). "The 10 best Vogue moments". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
- ^ a b c Reed, Christopher (2006). "A Vogue That Dare Not Speak its Name: Sexual Subculture During the Editorship of Dorothy Todd, 1922–26". Fashion Theory. 10 (1–2). Informa UK Limited: 39–72. doi:10.2752/136270406778050996. ISSN 1362-704X. S2CID 193363060.
- ^ Conekin, Becky (2006). Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture (in Estonian). Oxford: Berg. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-84520-275-0.
- ^ Cohen, Lisa (2012). All We Know: Three Lives. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 263–264. ISBN 978-0-374-53448-6.
- ^ Cohen, Lisa (2012). All We Know: Three Lives. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 266. ISBN 978-0-374-53448-6.
- ^ Pender, Anne (2007). "'Modernist Madonnas': Dorothy Todd, Madge Garland and Virginia Woolf". Women's History Review. 16 (4). Informa UK Limited: 519–533. doi:10.1080/09612020701445867. ISSN 0961-2025. S2CID 143762499.