A ‘grande dame’ takes her leave

House & Garden, the magazine launched in 1901 and acquired by Conde Nast publications in 1911, was shut down Monday.

“It was the grande dame, all fantasy and not enough service,” says Samir Husni, chairman of the journalism department at the University of Mississippi. “It lost touch with its readers.”

It has now died twice. In 1993, Conde Nast purchased Architectural Digest, killing House & Garden -- renamed HG (see below) by Anna Wintour, who revived the title before moving to Vogue. Re-launched in 1996, House & Garden ran about $100 million in the red over the last decade, Women’s Wear Daily reported.

Last month’s lavish “House & Garden Design Happening” “must’ve been a huge flop,” Husni surmises. In its wake, the sudden defection of publisher Joe Lagani to Glam.com was the coup de grace. Two likely beneficiaries: Conde Nast’s magalog Domino and the Wintour-overseen Vogue Living.