Earlier than Babe Paley was Babe Paley, Truman Capote’s favourite swan, she was Barbara Cushing Mortimer, editor at Vogue. She joined the journal in 1938 and labored by means of the warfare years, when American trend abided by strict pointers of Normal Limitation Order L-85 meant to protect supplies for the navy: hems and belts couldn’t exceed two inches in width, clothes may solely have one pocket, and decorative sleeves, hoods, in addition to scarves have been banned. She left the journal in 1947 upon her second marriage to CBS founder William Paley. But, she appeared commonly in our pages up till her demise in 1978. (In 1959, for instance, Vogue revealed a multi-page profile of Babe, titled “Mrs. William Paley, Extra Than Magnificence.”)

In April 1944, Vogue requested every of its trend editors to put in writing an essay describing their private fashion—in hopes that it could encourage American girls to search out their very own too. (“Folks usually ask us who selects the style proven in Vogue, so it occurred to us that our readers would possibly wish to see our trend editors within the form of garments they choose for themselves,” wrote the then-editor Edna Woolman Chase within the intro.) In hers, Babe declared that “custom is my style,” earlier than writing an ode to paint, lovely materials, and huge purses. (In a while, Babe would develop into identified for tying Hermes scarves to her purses.) She additionally preached the artwork of live-able and pure styling: “The look of being too intentionally dressed, with the whole lot cautiously matching, all the time bores me,” she wrote.

Beneath, learn Babe Paley’s 1944 essay, “I Like Custom,” in its entirety. –Elise Taylor

“I Like Custom”

By Barbara Cushing Mortimer

I like the standard craftsmanship of the Excessive Couture—the craftsmanship which quantities to artistry. I wish to see lovely materials—silk satins, sheer linens, paper- shantungs—fastidiously designed, labored, and proportioned. In garments, I look not just for line and motion, but additionally for delicate seams, fairly linings, integrity of element. I just like the arbitrary slimness of L-85 fashions—their narrowed, fundamental simplicity admits of an infinite richness of workmanship. 

The look of being too intentionally dressed, with the whole lot cautiously matching, all the time bores me. I just like the sudden shock of non-sequitur colour. Colour, in reality, is my weak point. I fall in love with a pale blue coat (though it spends its life on the cleaner’s). I just like the pansy blue of the paper-silk shantung swimsuit photographed on this web page. I like the fast purple of the Flower Present rose that blooms on my black-and-white checked cotton beret. I just like the giddy dinner hat, with its vivid sprawl of pink cabbage roses and inexperienced velvet leaves, sprinkled with pearl and paillette dewdrops. I like white—conventional flattery for the dark-haired. For dinner at residence, or on the home of buddies, I wish to put on diaphanous white.