Carmel White Snow

Carmel White Snow was born on August 21, 1887, in Dalkey, County Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of Peter White and Annie May Foy White. She immigrated to the United States with her family and became one of the most influential magazine editors of the twentieth century.

Conde Nast

In 1921 she accepted a position as assistant fashion editor at Vogue offered by Condé Nast. She was appointed fashion editor in 1926, and that same year married George Palen Snow in a gown of cream white satin trimmed with seed pearls and old Burano lace from her family. They had three daughters.

In 1929 her brother, Tom White, became general manager of the Hearst publishing organization, and although she had promised Condé Nast she would not work there, she accepted a position with Harper's Bazaar. She rose quickly and by 1934 was appointed editor-in-chief, a post she held until 1958. She described her vision for Harper's Bazaar as a magazine for "well-dressed women with well-dressed minds."

Covers from Harper's Bazaar under the Carmel White Snow era.

She encouraged innovation, hiring the Hungarian-born photographer Martin Munkacsi in 1933 for a groundbreaking swimsuit editorial featuring Lucille Brokaw in motion, the first such fashion photographs ever published. She appointed Alexey Brodovitch as art director after seeing his bold exhibition in New York, and discovered fashion editor Diana Vreeland after observing her energy and style at a social gathering.

Christian Dior's first collection in 1947 was the hottest show in town

Carmel Snow became famous for her discerning eye and for coining the phrase "It's such a new look!" when she saw Christian Dior's 1947 collection, cementing the term "The New Look" in fashion history. She guided Harper's Bazaar into a new era of modern photography, daring typography, and avant-garde sensibility.

Carmel White Snow

After retiring in 1958 she returned to Ireland, spending three years at Rossyvera House in Clew Bay, County Mayo. The isolation and climate proved difficult and she came back to New York.

She died in her sleep on May 7, 1961, in Manhattan at the age of seventy-three. Her funeral at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York was so large that it had to be moved from the Lady Chapel into the main sanctuary.

She was buried in a red brocade Balenciaga suit at the Memorial Cemetery of Saint John's Church, Laurel Hollow, Nassau County, New York.