These magazines may have been especially important to the home dressmaker or patron of the small dressmaking shop as aids to decisions about fabrics, trims, and accessories, as well as in the primary discussion of silhouette or style. Some publications, such as Elite Styles, Le Costume Royal, and Le Bon Ton were specifically aimed at professional dressmakers.(12) The Elite Styles Company even held fashion shows at its New York headquarters to acquaint out-of-town dressmakers with the latest models. The Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences in Scranton, Pennsylvania, published Inspiration, beginning in 1916, for its dressmaking students, and the Fashion Service, which illustrated for subscribers both Paris adaptations and patterns from American sources such as Pictorial Review, Butterick, Ladies' Home Journal, and McCall's.(13) Examples of some of the titles mentioned are found in the Tirocchi Archive.

Newspapers, of course, also had fashion information, usually in the "women's pages," which also carried reports on club activities and society doings. Sunday photogravure sections of the paper also included the latest in dress. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Providence Sunday Journal's fashion editor, Madeliene [sic] Corey, attended the Paris openings and later put together articles describing the new styles, illustrated with photos or sketches of models available locally. No Providence shops or dressmakers were mentioned in the text, although the Paris designers often were. Readers had to call or write for a list of local purveyors.(14) Vogue, during the same decades, also asked readers to send in for the names of shops where merchandise mentioned in features or sections such as "Seen in the Shops" or "Fashions for Limited Incomes" could be purchased.

The Providence Journal was not the only newspaper with a fashion editor, and some, such as Eugenia Sheppard of the New York Herald Tribune, wielded real power in the fashion industry. Syndicated columnists, most notably Tobé (Mrs. Tobé Coller Davis) were also extremely important in spreading a uniform fashion gospel throughout the nation. Edna Woolman Chase noted that in addition to her column, Tobé advised "more than a thousand stores on fashion trends, compiling, printing, and mailing weekly a fifty-page report telling her clients how and where to buy the clothes customers will shortly be demanding. Tobé didn't invent dirndl skirts, sweater blouses, slim pants, and years ago, Bramley dresses, but she foresaw their immense popularity and by advising the nation's stores accordingly made these clothes great fashion Fords..."(15)

Fashion critics noted that the relationship between fashion makers and fashion writers entailed a conflict of interest between journalistic integrity and advertising revenue. Designers, manufacturers, or retailers who advertised in a publication often expected favorable editorial treatment over those who bought little or no ad space, and advertising departments were often reluctant to offend an advertiser through editorial coverage of a competitor. Efforts to preserve advertising revenues often meant that local makers or retailers remained anonymous except to those few who wrote in for the information. Edna Woolman Chase detailed her efforts to keep Vogue's fashion features free from the tyranny of advertisers during this period. She explained to one manufacturer that in order to maintain the prestige of Vogue, the major attraction for advertisers, she could not use his product: "But how do you suppose we have won that prestige?...It is because we insist on quality in the merchandise we show...You may get into Vogue through the advertising pages, but to come in the editorial door you must give me material we can be proud to use." This assessment of the relationship between advertising and editorial space in the magazine was not always accepted by other observers, who claimed to see a direct correlation between the amount of advertising space a company paid for and the number of times its products were featured editorially.(16)