Fashion Bible (Women's Wear Daily nickname)

Many publications have been called the “fashion bible” or the “bible of fashion” or the “bible of the fashion world.” Godey’s Lady’ Book has been called the"fashion bible” of the 19th century.

Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) began in 1910 and has often been given the “fashion bible” moniker. “Women’s Wear Daily, the Bible of fashion” was cited in 1938; “‘behind-the-scenes’ bible of the fashion world” was also used in 1938. “Women’s Wear Daily, the ‘buyers’ Bible’” was cited in 1952. “American woman’s fashion bible” was used in 1965 and “New York ‘fashion bible’” was used in 1968.

Other publications—Vogue magazine in particular—have also been called a “fashion bible.”

Wikipedia: Women’s Wear Daily
Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) is a fashion-industry trade journal sometimes called “the bible of fashion.” WWD delivers information and intelligence on changing trends and breaking news in the fashion, beauty and retail industries with a readership composed largely of retailers, designers, manufacturers, marketers, financiers, media executives, advertising agencies, socialites and trend makers. It is the flagship journal of Fairchild Publications, Inc.

Google Books
How the Fashion World Works:
Fit Yourself for a Fashion Future
By Margaretta Stevenson
New York, NY: Harper & Brothers
1938
Pg. 4:
Also, of course, we all know that the Women’s Wear Daily, the Bible of fashion, gets news first and puts it in usable form.

28 March 1938, San Diego (CA) Union, “Modern Dress” by Mary Hampton, pg. 6, col. 7:
Her husband is “king pin” of Women’s Wear Daily on the Pacific coast. And that publication is the “behind-the-scenes” bible of the fashion world!

8 November 1938, Greensboro (NC) Record, “Tea Time Topics” by Nell Craig, pg. 5, col. 1:
On the other hand, Alice Burrows, of the editorial staff of Vogue, the fashion Bible with Greensboro women, who lectured here last week at Woman’s college, declared emphatically that hair is up and up to stay.

7 September 1939, Iowa City (IA) Press-Citizen, pg. 3, col. 4 ad:
You’ll find that STRUB’S is headquarters for the smartest of fashions you see pictured in MADEMOISELLE—the college girls’ fashion bible.

Google News Archive
3 January 1942, San Jose (CA) Evening News, “Fashion Mirror” by Mary Hampton, pg. 10, col. 3:
In a signed front page article of the December 16 issue of “Women’s Wear” (the bible of the fashion world) she writes, “Carry On” is the slogan of the women’s fashion trades, ...

Google News Archive
26 June 1947, Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, “Inverted Triangle Is Latest Fashion Silhouette,” pg. 13, col. 5:
NEW YORK, June 25.—Impending changes in women’s fashions are the most revolutionary in twenty years, says Miss Ruth Jacobs who edits the “bible” of the American garment industry, “Women’s Wear Daily.”

Google News Archive
21 November 1952, Spokane (WA) Daily Chronicle, “New First Lady May Set Spring Fashion Styles” by Dorothy Roe (Associated Press women’s Editor), pg. 11, col. 1:
Women’s Wear Daily, the “buyers’ Bible,” predicts a rosy future for the fashion business as a result of “a first lady who is also a real influence in the fashion world.”

Google Books
Current Biography
New York, NY: H.W. Wilson Company
1954
Pg. 89:
She (Betsy Talbot Blackwell of Mademoiselle—ed.) has been editor in chief of the magazine that is “a fashion bible to the co-ed and white collar girl” since 1937 and under her editorship the magazine has developed a social consciousness as well as a fashion awareness.

5 August 1956, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Shopping the Town” with Jane Davis, pt. 5, pg. 12, col. 8 ad:
Women who make their own clothes, women who have their clothes made AND women who buy everything ready-made all look forward to these Vogue Fashion Shows because Vogue remains the Fashion Bible for smart women everywhere.

Google Books
Problems in Marketing
Edited by Malcolm P. McNair
New York, NY: McGraw-Hil
1957
Pg. 226:
“Dior Stuns Audience with Skirts Six Inches Shorter” ran the headline in Women’s Wear Daily, the “bible” of fashion in the United States.

27 November 1965, Albuquerque (NM) Tribune, “The Princess’ Clothes” (editorial), pg. A4, col. 1:
That’s what Women’s Wear Daily, the American woman’s fashion bible said on the eve of the Princess’ departure.

21 July 1968, Seattle (WA) Times, “Droll Look at World of High Fashion Is Featured,” TV sec, pg. 9, col. 2:
Whicker discusses fashion and its relevance with such leading designers as Gerard Picard and Pierre Balmain; members of the fashion press, who include John Fairchild, publisher of the New York “fashion bible,” Women’s Wear Daily; ...

Google Books
25 March 1971, Jet magazine, pg. 42, col. 2:
“HotPants were named by Women’s Wear Daily, (bible of the fashion world),” says Miss Smaltz, “but Knockout-Shorts is a name born of the Black experience.”

Google Books
The Media Works
By Joan Valdes and Jeanne Crow
New York, NY: Cebco Pflaum
1973
Pg. 147:
How do fashions get started? Women’s Wear Daily, the “bible” of the fashion world, may come out with a new “look” for women—a change in the hem lines or a new hair style.

Google Books
World of Fashion:
People, Places, Resources
BY Eleanor Lambert
New York, NY: R.R. Bowker Co.
1976
Pg. 323:
Godey’s Lady’s Book was the fashion bible to millions of American women for most of the 19th century.

Google News Archive
30 March 1982, Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT), “Diversity adds spice to fashion scene” by Rose Mary Pedersen Budge, pg. C3, col. 1:
As merchandising editor for Vogue, the magazine generally recognized as the “bible” of the fashion industry, it’s her responsibility to work closely with retail stores across the country, ...

Google News Archive
1 May 1986, The Blade (Toledo, OH), “Fashion Magazines Find Large Women,” pg. 26, col. 4:
For the first time in its 94-year history, Vogue magazine, the fashion bible, has acknowledged what women have known all along: Not all of us looks like Jamie Lee Curtis.

Google Books
Boucheron:
Four Generations of a World-Renowned Jeweler
BY Gilles Néret
New York, NY: Rizzoli
1988
Pg. 159:
Once again Vogue, still the bible of fashion, discussed the ‘significance of trivia’.

Google News Archive
& November 1988, The Ledger (Lakeland, FL), “Vogue relaxes its look” by Geraldine Frabikant (The New York Times), pg. 2C, col. 2:
Vogue still has a unique niche as the fashion bible; its dominance in advertising pages reflects the fact that major fashion advertisers think they must be in Vogue to reach the consumer and the retailer deciding what to carry.

Google Books
Aretha Franklin:
The Queen of Soul
By Mark Bego
London: Robert Hale
1989
Pg. 257:
Her fashion dilemma frustrates her so much that she recently made a public plea in the fashion bible Women ‘s Wear Daily, addressed to Calvin Klein.

Google Books
Irish America
Volume 5
1989
Pg. 158:
Henry White has been exporting to the U.S. for over 30 years, while Clair de Lune, recently featured in the fashion bible, Women’s Wear Daily, has been in business for little more than a year.

Google Books
Newsweek
Volume 120
1992
Pg. 64:
After focus groups found Elle “too boppy” and Vogue “the Bible” of fashion, she decided to create her own “New Testament.”

Google Books
Queer in America:
Sex, the Media, and the Closets of Power
By Michelangelo Signorile
New York, NY: Random House
1993
Pg. 73:
The ladies’ fashion bible, W, put us on the “In” list, saying that OutWeek was a “must-read” because of its blend of “culture, politics and vicious gossip.”

Google Books
Women’s Magazines:
The First 300 Years
By Brian Braithwaite
London: Owen
1995
Pg. 129:
Elle in France had always been the darling of the fashion editors all over the world, a style catalyst and almost a trendy fashion bible.
Pg. 137:
From America came W, a British version of the famous Fairchild New York fashion bible—the arbiter of Fifth and Seventh Avenues.

Google Books
The Power of Beauty
By Nancy Friday
New York, NY: Harper-Collins
1996
Pg. 292:
Today’s mail brings the latest W, the fashion bible, in which Cary Grant, Kim Novak, Grace Kelly, and Sophia Loren are featured in a section titled “Before the Brat Pack, before the Jet Set, there were the Beautiful People…in the Fifties.

New York (NY) Times
THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Breaking Fashion News With a Provocative Edge
By CATHY HORYN
Published: August 20, 1999
When John Fairchild was sent to Paris in 1955 to run the European offices of his family’s newspaper company, which included Women’s Wear Daily, he found that his reporters were seated in the last row at the twice-a-year couture shows. Why not front and center? To the titans of French chic, Women’s Wear Daily was little more than a trade rag devoted to ladies suits and corsets.

Mr. Fairchild changed all that. Asked yesterday what he did to improve his seating—and raise the stature of his trade publication so that in time it became known as ‘‘the Bible of fashion’’—Mr. Fairchild laughed and said, ‘‘I got mad.’‘

Google Books
Madonna:
Blonde Ambition
By Mark Bego
New York, NY: Cooper Square Press
2000
Pg. 98:
In the November 1984 issue of the monthly fashion bible Harper’s Bazaar, Madonna was depicted in a four-page spread on hot new jewelry accessories.

Google Books
Labyrinth of Desire:
Women, Passion, and Romantic Obsession
By Rosemary Sullivan
Washington, DC: Counterpoint
2002
Pg. 45:
She read the fashion bible Marie Claire to improve her gaucheness — slimming those too fat hips with drapery.

New York (NY) Times
MEDIA; Women’s Wear Daily Setting Its Sights on the Luxury Market
By LIA MILLER
Published: March 14, 2005
Women’s Wear Daily has long been the bible of the fashion industry. Now W.W.D. will attempt to follow that industry’s climb into the luxury goods market with a new high-end magazine called WWDScoop.

Facebook
Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) - The Fashion Bible!
February 16, 2009 at 9:11am
Women’s Wear Daily - Fashion, by definition, changes constantly. People enjoy the diversity that changing fashion can apparently provide, seeing the constant change as a way to satisfy their desire to experience new and interesting things. So how do you keep up with updates of the latest trends? One way would be to repeatedly visit Vogue, Elle or Harper’s BAZAAR. Another, much easier way would be to visit a one-stop-shop source such as WWD.com. WWD is dedicated to providing a balance of timely, credible business news and key women’s fashion trends to a dedicated readership.

Facebook
Stella and Dot by Hilleri Keely, Independent Stylist
July 27, 2011 ·
Read what WWD, the bible of the fashion world, has to say about our handbags launching next month!

OCLC WorldCat record
Veni, Vidi, Vogue: Modebibel, Marke und Statussymbol : eine (un)endliche Geschichte des Erfolgs = Veni, Vidi, Vogue:Fashion Bible, brand and status symbol : an endless story of success
Author: Anne Schulze; Andreas Wrobel-Leipold; Ines Thomas
Publisher: [S.l. : s.n.], 2013.
Dissertation: Mittweida, Hochschule Mittweida, Fakultät Medien, Bachelorarbeit, 2013.
Edition/Format: Thesis/dissertation : Thesis/dissertation : German

Fashion Bible (Women’s Wear Daily nickname)