{{Short description|British fashion journalist and editor (1891–1980)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}} {{Use British English|date=June 2019}} {{Infobox person |name = Alison Settle |image = Alison Settle, journalist and Guardian and Vogue writer and editor.jpg |caption = Settle in ''Vogue''. |birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1891|01|18}} |birth_place = Clapham, London |death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1980|9|24|1891|01|18}} |death_place = Worthing, West Sussex, England |occupation = Journalist and fashion editor |credits = }}

'''Alison Towers Settle''' née '''Alison Violet de Froideville Fuchs''' (18 January 1891 in Clapham,<ref>1891 England Census</ref> London – 14 September 1980 in Worthing, Sussex) was a British fashion journalist and editor. Settle's career in fashion journalism spanned over five decades, from the 1910s to the 1970s. She wrote for publications including ''The Observer'' and ''The Lady'', edited British ''Vogue'' from 1926 to 1935, and belonged to government bodies tasked with improving British design and taste. Alison Settle's archive is located at the University of Brighton Design Archives.<ref>[http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/collections/design-archives/archives/alison-settle University of Brighton Design Archives: Alison Settle Archive]</ref>

==Personal life== She was the second child of Margaret (Maggie) Campbell Munro and Georg Friedrich Gotthilf Fuchs de Froidville, Premier Lieutenant of the Landwehr and descendant of the Central European aristocratic family Monod de Froideville. Her older brother was the zoologist Harold Munro Fox. In 1914, she became engaged to the barrister Alfred Towers Settle, marrying him four years later in November 1918.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} Alfred died of tuberculosis in 1925, leaving Settle with their two young children Margaret and John. She never remarried.

For forty years, she lived in Steyning, Sussex. She died in Worthing in September 1980, at 89.<ref>'Mrs Alison Settle,' The Times (20 Sep 1980) 14</ref> Her ashes were interred with her husband's in Barrow-in-Furness. A memorial service was held at St Brides Church, Fleet St where Hardy Amies and David Astor led the tributes.

==Career== Settle started work on Fleet Street in 1916, writing her first columns for ''The Daily Mirror.'' She was soon writing the women's pages of ''The Sunday Pictorial'' under the pen-name Kiki. By the early 1920s she was also writing a column for ''Eve'' magazine on society gossip.

In 1926, Settle became editor of British ''Vogue'', working for Edna Woolman Chase, the American editor-in-chief of the three existing editions of ''Vogue'', staying in her position for the next 9 years.<ref>Ilaria Coser (2017): Alison Settle, Editor of British Vogue (1926–1935): Habitus and the Acquisition of Cultural, Social, and Symbolic Capital in the Private Diaries of Alison Settle, Fashion Theory, DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2017.1371982 [https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2017.1371982]</ref> Under her management, the magazine first employed Cecil Beaton and introduced features such as "Dressing on a Budget".

Settle left ''Vogue'' in 1935 under strained circumstances, spending the subsequent year writing the book ''Clothes Line'', published in 1937. In the same year she also became the fashion editor of ''The Observer'', retiring in 1960. A year after her retirement, she received the OBE for services to the journalism of fashion.<ref>The Times (10 June 1961) 10</ref> She was also a fashion columnist for ''The Lady'' for 27 years until 1972, which ended after Settle had a serious accident in Paris. Her book ''Fashion As A Career'' was published in 1963.

==References== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-media}} {{succession box|title=Editor of British ''Vogue''|years=1926&ndash;1935|before=Dorothy Todd|after=Elizabeth Penrose}} {{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Settle, Alison}} Category:1891 births Category:1980 deaths Category:English columnists Category:British women columnists Category:20th-century British women writers Category:English fashion journalists Category:Fashion editors Category:Writers from the London Borough of Lambeth Category:British women magazine editors Category:British Vogue Category:20th-century English people Category:People from Clapham Category:Member of the Women's Press Club, London Category:Vogue (magazine) editors Category:20th-century English women journalists Category:20th-century English journalists