Gentlemen's Disagreement

When the Sept. 1 issue of Vogue (circ. 345,358) went on sale last week, Editor Carmel Snow of the rival Harper's Bazaar (circ. 321,325) gasped in dismay. Leading off the magazine was a 17-page view of the new Paris fashions. It was a big beat, with photographs and sketches of dresses by such big names as Dior, Fath and Paquin. What horrified Editor Snow was not the new geometric look, but the fact that it was in Vogue at all. Harper's Bazaar had not carried the pictures; it had understood that the new styles were not to be released until Sept. 15. Editor Snow, who was in Paris, hotfooted down to the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, ruling body of the major French fashion houses, to find out what had happened.

The syndicate was even more annoyed and upset than Harper's Bazaar. It accused Vogue of breaking by three weeks a "gentlemen's agreement" on the fashion release date, indignantly described the action as "a moral abuse of confidence." What worried the French designers was the prospective loss of thousands of dollars' worth of business: they were afraid that U.S. designers would flood the U.S. market with copies before their originals could make the boat. At week's end, the syndicate had reportedly decided on a stern punishment: banning Editor Jessica Daves of the American edition of Vogue and her staffers from future Paris fashion showings indefinitely.

In Manhattan, Vogue's editors protested that they had reported the Paris fashions last year in the same Sept. 1 issue "with no protest" from the syndicate or the trade, and had no "official notice" of any change this year, had signed no new agreement. Added Vogue: "After 50 years of reporting French fashions, it is hardly likely that Vogue would now deliberately violate any promises given to the Couture."

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