Beatrix Miller

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beatrix Miller

CBE
Born
Beatrix Molineux Miller

(1923-06-29)29 June 1923
Died21 February 2014(2014-02-21) (aged 90)
NationalityBritish
Other namesMiss Miller; Bea
Alma materUniversity of Paris
OccupationMagazine editor
TitleEditor of British Vogue
Term1964–1985
PredecessorAilsa Garland
SuccessorAnna Wintour
AwardsCommander of the Order of the British Empire (1986)

Beatrix Molineux Miller, CBE (29 June 1923 – 21 February 2014) was a British fashion and cultural magazine editor. She was editor of Queen from 1958 to 1964, and editor of British Vogue from 1964 to 1985.

Early life[]

Miller was born on 29 June 1923.[1] Her father was a doctor and her mother was a nurse; they had met on the Western Front during World War I.[2] She was brought up in Rudgwick, Sussex, England.[3] At the age of 15, she was evacuated to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where she lived with an uncle and aunt for the duration of World War II.[4] She was educated to the age of 17 by tutors and later studied for six months at the University of Paris.[1][3]

Career[]

Miller began her career as a secretary. After the war, she worked with MI6 in Germany,[3] and at the Nuremberg Trials.[2][5] She rarely spoke about those two years of her life.[2][4]

She began her journalistic career as a secretary for The Queen, a British society magazine.[1] She also wrote features for the magazine,[4] and ended her period there as features editor.[1] In 1956, she moved to New York City, where she joined the American edition of Vogue as a copywriter.[3] In 1958, The Queen was bought by Jocelyn Stevens and Miller was invited to return to the magazine as editor.[4] She changed the renamed Queen into a magazine for young women rather than one aimed at the older, traditional socialite.[1][2]

In 1964, she became editor of the British edition of Vogue.[1] Her final issue of the magazine was the largest ever at 470 pages.[2] Under her editorship, the magazine had become "the glossy bible to high-fashion".[1] She retired in 1984.[4] In 1966, she chose Donyale Luna for the March 1966 cover of British vogue, the first African-American to be on the cover of Vogue.[6]

Later life[]

After her retirement, Miller, Terence Conran and Jean Muir set up a think tank to serve as a link between the government and the fashion industry.[1] She also served as a member of the council of the Royal College of Art, a postgraduate institution in London specialising in art and design.[2]

In retirement she lived in a cottage in Wiltshire.[3] She had planned to write a memoir titled Life After a Fashion or Life to the Letter but never completed it.[3][4]

She died on 21 February 2014.[3]

Personal life[]

Miller never married nor had any children.[2] Any relationships she did have were kept secret.[4] She was known as Miss Miller by members of staff at Queen and Vogue, and as Bea by those close to her.[3]

Honours[]

In the 1985 New Year Honours, Miller was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of her service as editor of British Vogue.[7]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Beatrix Miller – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 23 February 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Beatrix Miller". The Times. 28 February 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Hamilton, Adrian (26 February 2014). "Beatrix Miller: 'Vogue' editor whose own talents, and her nurturing of others', helped set the tone for the Swinging Sixties". The Independent. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Buck, Joan Juliet (25 February 2014). "Beatrix Miller obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  5. ^ Devlin, Polly. "Remembering Beatrix Miller, Legendary Editor of British Vogue". Vogue. Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  6. ^ https://www.thecut.com/2013/07/first-black-supermodel-whom-history-forgot.html Accessed 18 April 2020.
  7. ^ "No. 50361". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1985. pp. 7–8.
Media offices
Preceded by
?
 Editor of Queen
1958–1964 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Editor of British Vogue
1964–1984 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from ""