Beatrix Miller
{{Short description|British fashion and cultural magazine editor}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Beatrix Miller
| honorific_suffix = CBE
| image =
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Beatrix Molineux Miller
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1923|6|29}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2014|2|21|1923|6|29}}
| death_place =
| death_cause =
| resting_place =
| resting_place_coordinates =
| nationality = British
| other_names = Miss Miller; Bea
| alma_mater = University of Paris
| occupation = Magazine editor
| title = Editor of British Vogue
| term = 1964–1985
| predecessor = Ailsa Garland
| successor = Anna Wintour
| awards = Commander 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.{{cite news|title=Beatrix Miller – obituary|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10656743/Beatrix-Miller-obituary.html|accessdate=28 February 2014|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=23 February 2014}} Her father was a doctor and her mother was a nurse; they had met on the Western Front during World War I.{{cite news|title=Beatrix Miller|url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/england/london-travel/beatrix-miller-g9036kss69k|access-date=28 February 2014|newspaper=The Times|date=28 February 2014}} She was brought up in Rudgwick, Sussex, England.{{cite news|last=Hamilton|first=Adrian|title=Beatrix Miller: 'Vogue' editor whose own talents, and her nurturing of others', helped set the tone for the Swinging Sixties|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/beatrix-miller-vogue-editor-whose-own-talents-and-her-nurturing-of-others-helped-set-the-tone-for-the-swinging-sixties-9152879.html|accessdate=28 February 2014|newspaper=The Independent|date=26 February 2014}} 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.{{cite news|last=Buck|first=Joan Juliet|title=Beatrix Miller obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/25/beatrix-miller|accessdate=28 February 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|date=25 February 2014}} She was educated to the age of 17 by tutors and later studied for six months at the University of Paris.
Career
Miller began her career as a secretary. After the war, she worked with MI6 in Germany, and at the Nuremberg Trials.{{cite web|last=Devlin|first=Polly|title=Remembering Beatrix Miller, Legendary Editor of British Vogue|url=http://www.vogue.com/culture/article/remembering-beatrix-miller-legendary-editor-of-british-vogue/#1|work=Vogue|accessdate=1 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140305225443/http://www.vogue.com/culture/article/remembering-beatrix-miller-legendary-editor-of-british-vogue/#1|archive-date=5 March 2014|url-status=dead}} She rarely spoke about those two years of her life.
She began her journalistic career as a secretary for The Queen, a British society magazine. She also wrote features for the magazine, and ended her period there as features editor. In 1956, she moved to New York City, where she joined the American edition of Vogue as a copywriter. In 1958, The Queen was bought by Jocelyn Stevens and Miller was invited to return to the magazine as editor. She changed the renamed Queen into a magazine for young women rather than one aimed at the older, traditional socialite.
In 1964, she became editor of the British edition of Vogue. Her final issue of the magazine was the largest ever at 470 pages. Under her editorship, the magazine had become "the glossy bible to high-fashion". She retired in 1984. 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.{{cite web |url=https://www.thecut.com/2013/07/first-black-supermodel-whom-history-forgot.html |title=The First Black Supermodel, Whom History Forgot |website=www.thecut.com |access-date=18 April 2020}}
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. 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.
In retirement she lived in a cottage in Wiltshire. She had planned to write a memoir titled Life After a Fashion or Life to the Letter but never completed it.
Personal life
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.{{London Gazette |issue=50361 |date=30 December 1985 |pages=7–8 |supp=y }}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-media}}
{{succession box|title=Editor of Queen|years=1958–1964|before=?|after=Dennis Hackett}}
{{succession box|title=Editor of British Vogue|years=1964–1984|before=Ailsa Garland|after=Anna Wintour}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Beatrix}}
Category:British magazine editors
Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Category:People associated with the Royal College of Art