This Week's Reading: Le Petit Echo de la Mode 1950-52
Illustrated Fashion Magazine in French language
Order or ask about the magazines |
Le Petit Écho de la Mode is a French weekly women's magazine, founded in 1879 by Charles de Penanster, and discontinued in 1983.
The title was an almost immediate success, reaching a circulation of 300,000 in 1900 and over one and a half million copies a week by 1950, before disappearing. Called Le Petit Écho de la Mode from 1880 to 1955, then l'Écho de la Mode from 1955 to 1977 and Petit Écho de la Mode/Femmes d'Aujourd'hui from 1977 to 1983.
Le Petit Journal de la Mode was launched in 1878, with a circulation of 5,000 copies. A loss-making journal, it was taken over a year after its launch by Charles de Penanster, a young senator from Côtes-du-Nord, and his wife, née Claire Le Roux. It became Le Petit Écho de la Mode. Claire de Penanster became editor-in-chief under the pseudonym Baronne de Clessy. The paper defines itself as a weekly family newspaper, practical, mainly aimed at women, with an editorial line linked to social Catholicism, all with a very modest sales price.
In addition to fashion, which is featured on the front cover, daily life is covered through embroidery, cooking, education, good manners, and furnishing tips. At the time, following the defeat of Prussia in 1870 and the fall of the Second Empire the same year, France paid considerable war indemnities to Germany. In this time of crisis, desperate households found tips on how to improve their daily lives.