Jessica Daves led American Vogue before Diana Vreeland became editor-in-chief.
Daves served as editor-in-chief from 1952 to 1962, following Edna Woolman Chase and preceding Vreeland. Her period at the magazine covered a major transition in postwar fashion, when couture, American ready-to-wear, and modern photography were reshaping fashion journalism.
Before Vogue, Daves worked in fashion publishing and helped establish a reputation for knowledgeable, disciplined editorial coverage. Her leadership is less widely remembered than the flamboyant tenures of Vreeland and Anna Wintour, but it formed an important bridge between them.
A common error is to place Vreeland immediately after Chase. Vreeland did not become editor-in-chief until 1963, after Daves’s decade-long editorship. Grace Coddington was a later creative director, while Carmel Snow was associated primarily with Harper’s Bazaar.