Alison Settle, 1891-1980

In a career spanning from the early 1920s to the early 1970s, Alison Settle worked as a fashion journalist. She was a tireless champion of the interests of women, as well as campaigning for good quality, affordable design through her relationships with designers and manufacturers. Settle sought to improve design standards in all areas of manufacture and production, and contributed to the work of both the Council for Art & Industry and the Council of Industrial Design. She remained one of the best known fashion journalists in the country.

Settle was born in Kemp Town, Brighton, in 1891. She intended to read History at Oxford, and won a bursary to Somerville College, but was unable to attend because of lack of funds. Instead she attended a secretarial college and eventually moved into journalism. She wrote first for the 'Sunday Pictorial' and before the end of the 1920s had worked for 'Sunday Herald', 'Eve' and the 'Daily Mirror'.

In 1929 Settle was appointed editor of British ''Vogue'', a role she executed with great success, apart from a turbulent relationship with the ''Vogue'' Editor-in-Chief, Edna Woolman-Chase. She engaged many great writers of the day to contribute leading articles for the magazine, including Edith Sitwell, Vita Sackville West and Colette, while Marcel Boulestin wrote on cooking and Andre Simon on wine. Another particular success was a regular feature called ''Vogue''s Smart Fashions for Limited Incomes'.

In the late 1930s, Settle started work on her first book, 'The Clothesline', and began writing for the 'Star'. During the Second World War, she became a war correspondent for the 'Observer', although she was not permitted to go abroad until 1944, when she reported from several key moments in the conflict.

After the war, Settle began to write regularly for 'The Lady' and 'Homes and Gardens' and was a founder member of the Women's Press Club. She began to write for the 'Observer' on a range of subjects, not exclusively fashion: her column was entitled 'From a Woman's Viewpoint'. As the column's popularity increased, its name changed to 'From Alison Settle's Viewpoint', and in this space Settle investigated and campaigned on a broad range of subjects representing the concerns of women.

After a health scare in the 1960s, she was advised to cut down her work, and produced a beauty column for the 'Observer' instead of her previous column. In 1961 she was awarded an OBE for services to fashion journalism, the first woman to receive such a citation. In the early 1970s a serious accident forced Settle to retire, at which point she began working on a history of fashion, work which never came to fruition but which is amply represented in the archive.

From the guide to the Alison Settle Archive, 1891-1980, (University of Brighton Design Archives)