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Cars, corsets, and cigarettes occupied a prominent place in British and U.S. editions of Vogue in the interwar years. All three products were presented as quintessentially modern and possessing the capacity to modernize the women who used them. This article addresses the relationship between consumption and feminine modernity, showing how affluent British and North American women were encouraged to remake themselves as modern feminine subjects through the purchase of cars, corsets, and cigarettes. By scrutinizing representations of women's relationship to modern and modernizing goods, key constituents of interwar affluent feminine modernity are identified. While Britain, Canada, and the United States took distinctive routes through twentieth-century modernity, Vogue encouraged wealthy women to imagine and create forms of feminine modernity that transcended the specificities of place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The image of a cigarette in a woman's hand symbolizes independence, non-conformity and personal power, despite widespread awareness that smoking has serious health risks. Through a content analysis of North American and British editions of Vogue, we trace the representation of women smokers from the 1920s-1960s. Vogue located the cigarette within the culture of the feminine elite. We explore the place of cigarette smoking within the constellation of behaviours and appearances presented as desirable characteristics of elitism, through the themes of lifestyle, "the look," and feminine confidence. We chart these themes' transformations over time and national contexts.