Fashion & Flair!

Fashion & Flair!
A short list of new titles in fashion and costume, including some neat ephemera, and a complete run of Fleur Cowles’s Flair PLUS the Annual PLUS the extremely rare numbered pre-publication issue.
FEATURED: Richard Martin and Harold Koda, Diana Vreeland: Immoderate Style (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993). The ultimate Vreeland volume, a lipstick-red (what else?) portfolio of snips and snipes from her “friends”, in a leopard-print (what else?) slipcase. Gorgeously and appropriately designed by Stephen Gan, co-founder of Visionaire and creative director of, what else, Harper’s Bazaar, with cut-out initials restraining the 32-page essay by Martin and Koda, bound in glossy red wraps, and the collection of 36 tributes and other stuff, including her recipe for caviar pie, her photograph taken by The Best, and a memo to her staff which is a hoot—these are loose and nearly all single sheets, although a couple are four-panel, all on card. Published to coincide with an exhibition at the Costume Institute. Everything is in Fine condition: the loose cards, the bound essay, the portfolio, and the slipcase. There aren’t many of these around. $350.00.
Hommage à Joséphine Baker (Paris: Bobino, 1975). Souvenir program for Baker’s last engagement, a retrospective, including 25 photographs (black and white and color) from various stages of her career, and written/signed tributes from a wide variety of French and international names. Near-Fine in stiff wraps with slight wear to edges. $100.00.
Ellen Moers, The Dandy: Brummell to Beerbohm (London: Secker & Warburg, 1960; 1st edition). The standard work on men’s fashions in the 19th century, with chapters careening between England and France. 15 black and white plates, all drawings, as it should be. Scholarly, well-written, with good notes and index. Near-Fine hardcover binding with light wear in Very Good dust jacket with moderate shelf rubbing, slightly sunned spine covering, and a couple of short closed tears to the top edge and spine head. $35.00.
Costumes Parisiens: Journal des Dames et des Modes, Vol I 1912-1913, Vol II 1913-1914 (Milan: F. M. Ricci, 1980). Both volumes of this classic collection of fashion plates by such designer-/illustrators as Leon Bakst, Georges Barbier, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, Umberto Brunelleschi, Louis Bureau, H. Robert Dammy, Etienne Drian, Francisco Javier Gosé, Paul Iribe, Pierre Legrain, Charles Martin, Lucien Robert, Ismaël Mari Smith, Fernand Siméon, J. Renée Souef, Maurice Taquoy, and Armand Vallée. 184 color plates in all, showing predominantly women’s fashions, but including men, children, accessories, and decorative arts. Near-Fine in stiff wraps as issued with very light shelf rubbing. Sold as a set. $65.00.
Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung Jena, A Spectacle of Spectacles: Exhibition Catalogue (Leipzig: Edition Leipzig, 1988). 178-page catalogue, nearly all plates, with text by Joachim Töppler, Gerard L’E. Turner, and Clause Baumann (“Eyeglasses and Art”), plus an index of the items. It’s not all glasses, by the way; also included are graphic works, including work by Durer, van Leyden, Goltzius, Jacques Callot, and Rembrandt, among others. Fascinating combination of design, technology, and art. Fine hardcover binding in Fine dust jacket with a tiny ding to the spine tail, in a lightly sunned cardboard sleeve. $30.00.
Swords Into Ploughshares (Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute, 1995). Catalogue for an exhibition held September 7-November 27, 1995. Richard Martin and Harold Koda appear to have thought about the pea jacket, the safari suit, and camo when they decided to take this look at the influence of military uniform on everyday dress. The irony, as they point out, is that the original uses of embellishments on uniforms-epaulets were supposed to protect the shoulders-soon became mere decoration on them. 18 color plates and a clever use of foldouts. Fine condition in card as issued, in original shrink wrap. $40.00.
Bernadine Morris, Valentino (New York: Universe, 1996). One of the Universe of Fashion series, with a Foreword by Grace Mirabella. One must have everything already written about Valentino in this year of his Retirement and celebration. 80 pages, nearly all plates (color and black and white photographs and sketches). Fine hardcover binding in Very Good to near-Fine dust jacket lightly soiled from shelving. $20.00.
Martin, Richard and Harold Koda, Haute Couture (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute, 1995). 118-page catalogue for an exhibition held December 7, 1995-March 24, 1996, with text by Martin and Koda organized according to the history and techniques of haute couture. The color plates are fascinating, especially those showing the details of tailoring and sewing. Lots of recognizable dresses, including the Duchess of Windsor’s wedding gown. As new in stiff wraps as issued. $25.00.
Baron Emile de L’Empese, Die Kunst des Krawatten-bindens unterrichtet in Sechzehn Lektionen (Paris: Librarie Universelle, 1827; Bonn: Dieter Arenz, 1987). Otherwise, “The Art of Tying a Necktie in 16 lessons”. Facsimile of a most important document in the age of the Dandy, with wonderful color frontispiece from the original showing “M. Emile” with a perfect cravat. 136 pages of text in German, and then…four foldout plates from the original edition with line drawings showing the how-to in great detail. Small enough to fit into a modern pocket (if not an early 19th century one). In Fine condition in wraps with decorated covers. $45.00.
Agnes Brooks Young, Stage Costuming (New York: Macmillan, 1927; first edition). Young was the Costume Director of the Cleveland Playhouse, and has illustrated this text herself with line drawings. There are also four half-tones, including one of Ruth Page in “Dance of a Marionette” and another of Eva Le Gallienne in “La Locandiera”. Very Good in boards with tight spine, faded lettering to spine covering, and light wear. $15.00.
Issey Miyake by Irving Penn (Tokyo: Issey Miyake Design Studio, 1990; limited edition of 3000). A double treat: Miyake’s clothes and Penn’s photographs. In addition, the book was designed by Ikko Tanaka. 48 pages, with 33 gorgeous plates (captioned as thumbnails at the rear of the book). No text; not necessary. Truly a collector’s item. This copy about Fine condition with minor bump to the top front corner; in boards as issued without dust jacket. $125.00.
Caroline Goldthorp, From Queen to Empress: Victorian Dress 1837-1877 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute, 1988). 88-page catalogue for an exhibition held December 15, 1988-April 16, 1989, with an excellent text and the usual detailed captioning of the plates. In addition to the Queen’s clothes, French fashion plates and examples of period costume are included, nearly all in color. Fine in stiff wraps. $20.00.
Museum of Costume [at the] Assembly Rooms, Bath (Bath England: City Council, 1980). 40-page catalogue with lots of color plates illustrating the diversity of the Museum’s holdings from 17th and 18th century fashion to infants’ clothes, dolls and toys, and jewellery. Near-fine in stiff wraps with faint sunning to edges, previous owner’s name inside front cover. $10.00.
Richard Martin, Cubism and Fashion (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998). 160-page hardcover catalogue for an exhibition held December 10, 1998-March 14, 1999, with an excellent text by Martin, a bibliography, and dozens of color plates: drawings, models, photographs, everything Cubism. Fine hardcover binding in Fine dust jacket. $25.00.
La Belle Assemblée 1995 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute/N.Y.U., 1996). 18-page booklet describing new acquisitions of books, periodicals, and archives by the Library at the Costume Institute, with an introduction by Richard Martin and 4 plates. Very useful reference. Fine in wraps as issued. $12.00.
Portraits of Helena Rubinstein (New York: Helena Rubinstein Foundation, 1976). 18-page brochure that documents the Foundation’s collection of portraits by an amazing range of artists: Dali, Dufy, Laurençin, Portinari, Graham Sutherland, Tchelitchew…when did you last hear these names mentioned in the same breath? No plates, but a color reproduction of Sutherland’s 1959 portrait on the cover. Fine in wraps. $12.00.
Richard Martin, Wordrobe (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute, 1997). Martin’s attempt to reconcile textile and text, beginning with a quote from Nathaniel Hawthorne about a certain Letter. 24-pages, all color plates, and only one t-shirt. Fine in stiff wraps as issued. $15.00.
Diana Vreeland and Christopher Hemphill, Allure (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1980; first edition stated). While there are a number of anthologies of fashion photography, there’s only one of these: Vreeland knew most of the greats of her time, published them, and collected them; she provides a running commentary throughout the book; she doesn’t neglect images made by street and news photographers. So this ultimately becomes a book about her eye. 208 pages, all black and white images. Near-Fine lipstick-red hardcover binding with bit of wear to spine ends in Very Good+ dust jacket with light wear to edges and ends, faint sunning/yellowing to white ground. $45.00.
Twister: The Celebrated Ingenious and Exotic in Fashion (Melbourne, Australia: National Gallery of Victoria, 2002). 16-page catalogue from the very first exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre, a gallery space at the NGV for fashion and textiles. Illustrated entirely in color, annotated, and featuring, no surprise, the celebrated (Magg, Des Kirwan, Lizzy Gardiner, Leigh Bowery, et al.), the ingenious (Hall Ludlow, Johanna Preston, Pacific Sisters, Rude Boy, Akira Isogawa, et al.), and the exotic (Jenny Bannister, Andrew McDonald, and a couple of 19th century objects made by unknowns). Fine in card. $15.00.
AND…
An Imaginary East. 20-minute VHS tape containing archival footage, interviews, and photographs of the costumes included in “Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress”, an exhibition mounted at the Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute in 1994. Directed by Jerrilyn Dodds and produced by Christopher Noey. $10.00.
The Story of Fashion: Program 1: Remembrance of Things Past. 60-minute VHS tape, one of a series by Eila Hershon and Roberto Guerra with the artistic advice of Karl Lagerfeld, narrated by Diana Quick. The liner notes say that Program 1 “traces the fashion of haute couture from Worth through Coco Chanel, as revealed in the rise and fall of the corset and reflected in the wardrobes of the era’s most famous women”. $20.00.
AND…
Essence of Quality: Comme des Garçons: Noir (Kyoto, Japan, 1993). 16-page promotional brochure for the Noir line designed by Rei Kawakubo which became the core of an exhibition held at the Kyoto Costume Institute. Three color plates and color cover—they may be paintings AND clothes, rather than paintings OF clothes. Essay by Richard Martin and Harold Koda of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute. As a bonus, a huge color poster for the show is included. Both brochure and poster in Fine condition in paper envelope as issued; note that the poster was originally folded to fit into the 10.5” x 15” envelope. Sold as a set. $50.00.
AND A FINAL AND:
A complete run of Flair: The Monthly Magazine (February 1950 through January 1951), including the very scarce limited and numbered pre-publication edition, and the Annual, which was released after the magazine’s demise. As a bonus, the catalogue from Fleur on Flair: A Magazine and Its Legacy, the 2003 exhibition at Pratt Manhattan Gallery is also available. The short-lived culture magazine lavishly produced by Fleur Cowles, covering the fine arts, fashion, entertainment, and related, is, from this vantage point, a unique achievement in publishing history and a prolonged snapshot of what people were wearing and buying in 1950...
All of these issues are in Very Good to Fine condition, meaning that there is minor wear to the corners and edges and perhaps some shelf-rubbing. Major flaws are noted in the individual descriptions, which also include the major highlights of each issue. OFFERED AS A LOT at $1750.00.
Pre-publication issue, circulated in September 1949. This copy has two front covers: the over-cover is cream-colored, textured in a woven pattern, with green lettering and the die-cut opening. Inside the over-cover is: "This is number 731 [handwritten in blue ink] of five thousand/pre-publication copies of FLAIR, the magazine for moderns, of which the first issue will appear early in 1950"; the contents page dates it as September 1949. The issue is the same size as the published ones, and has about as many pages (numbered to 118, while the actual February issue has 130 pages), including advertising (the rear cover has an ad for the Lincoln Cosmopolitan Convertible, while the Chrysler Crown Imperial is featured on the rear cover of the February issue). The same production gimmicks are here, various page weights and finishes, bound in materials, etc. Very unusual to find one of these, particularly in this condition, which is near-Fine with light wear to the edges and spine ends.
Volume I, Number 1 (February 1950): Lucien Freud’s “Girl With Roses” postcard bound in; Jean Cocteau’s “Letter to Americans” bound in; short story, “The resemblances Between a Violin Case and a Coffin” by Tennessee Williams; features on the Windsors’ Paris house, Dr. Frank Netter (medical illustrator), and Johnson’s Glass House.
Volume I, Number 2 (March 1950): Hedda Sterne’s “Portrait of Jeane Owens” postcard bound in; Hoyningen-Huené’s full-page photograph of Elizabeth Taylor, fashion photographs; and a feature on Spain ; Dali on “The Gypsy Angels of Spain”; portraits by Steinberg bound in; editorial by Margaret Mead; features on Max Weber and Augusto Genina’s film “Sky Over the Marshes”.
Volume I, Number 3 (The Paris Issue, April 1950): Watercolor by Kenneth King; Profile of Evangeline Bruce, “Easter: Passion & Resurrection” by Mauriac; the Paris Collections; feature on Fontainebleau on tissue bound in; photographs of Parisiens including one by Kertesz; editorial by Simone de Beauvoir; Andre Bauchant card bound in; “Paris is a Man’s Town” booklet bound in; Colette’s “Sido and I”; cartoons by Dubout and Peynet.
Volume I, Number 4 (May 1950): Cover art by Sylvia Braverman (The Flair hybrid Rose); “The New Expense Account Society” by John O’Hara; “The Flower of Flowers” by Katherine Anne Porter bound in; “Fables in Song” by Theodore Roethke; “On Stony Ground” by William Sansom; a Marlon Brando photograph; rose-themed dresses designed for the issue by Balmain and Charles James; Potpourri tissue booklet bound in; travel to Sicily; the Teatro Cifalo puppets; and Redouté, of course.
Volume I, Number 5 (The Vacation Issue, June 1950): Article on Big Sur country with Robinson Jeffers and Henry Miller; “I Was With It” by Gypsy Rose Lee, bound in pamphlet with illustrations by Julio de Diego; “I Came From Yonder Mountain” by Evan S. Connell, Jr.; New England scenes by Walker Evans and Mary Faulconer; color woodcuts by Antonio Frasconi; profile of Mari Sandoz; photographs by John Szarkowski and Hazel Frieda Larsen; fashions by Claire McCardell; Trigger’s truck and horse trailer; Archie Tenter, western artist, in his Jackson Hole studio.
Volume I, Number 6 (All Male Issue, July 1950): Article on sports by Bob Considine; Jim Thorpe; female “types”, with Teresa Wright, Jane Russell, Lili Palmer, Fay Emerson; “Vision of Don Juan” by Dawn Powell; profile of Paul Smith, SF Chronicle publisher and feature on his house; “Animal Life” by Edwin O’Connor; Gary Cooper and his closet; travel to Africa; poem by Ogden Nash with photo; “The Master of Fire”, barbecue booklet bound in; photographs of Ruth Brown and Sarah Vaughan; “George Cukor and the Belles”; photograph of John Ford and John Wayne.
Volume I, Number 7 (College Review Issue, August 1950): Articles on Iowa’s School of Creative Writing, other academic writing programs; “It’s Oppie” [Robert Oppenheimer] and other nerds on campus, with photograph by Richard Litwin; profile of “Miss Charlotte” Haxhall Noland, headmistress of Foxcroft; “Big Men on Campus and What They’re Wearing”; college architecture, featuring Aalto (MIT), Breuer (Vassar), FLW (Southern Florida), Saarinen (Drake, Iowa), and Florence Knoll (interiors, Michigan); Harvard Lampoon material booklet bound in; Hoyningen-Huené’s photographs of a production of Wilde’s “Salome”; profile of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, first U.N. delegate from India; feature on The Theatre Workshop at Howard University. Bottom front corners with a tiny dog-ear.
Volume I, Number 8 (New York Issue, September 1950): Cover art by Pallavicini; photograph of Manhattan made for the magazine by Martin Munkacsi; stained glass window card bound in; editorial by Clare Boothe Luce; “80 Years of Bernard Baruch” by Robert Ruark; the city by Steinberg bound-in pamphlet and two-page spread; Broadway society, including Julie Harris and Montgomery Clift; cartoon of the U.N. building by Gerard Hoffnung; photo layout by Louis Faurer. Repaired with archival tape to spine, re-gluing.
Volume I, Number 9 (At Home and On the Town, October 1950): Cover by Pallavicini, with caricatures of “Call Me Madam” cast, writers, and director by Reginald Massie; profile of Marguerite Higgins; “Endearing” perfume blotter bound in (no scent); article on organized crime by Robin Harris; “Call Me Merman” by Robert Rice with sketches by Raoul Pene du Bois; “The Real Perle Mesta” by Eleanor Roosevelt; Altamont, Wolfe’s home, 50 years later; Hoyningen-Huene fashion photos (Madame Valentina); “Glass” by Alexander Calder, mobile designed for the magazine; “Reflections on Parties” bound in pamphlet; Italian sculptor Pericles Fazzini; Maya Deren text and photos on Haiti; “How To Avoid a Square Stomach” by Roger Price.
Volume I, Number 10 (Country Living issue, November 1950) : 18th century painting, “Death of the Fox” by John Wooton on under-cover; profile of Justice William O. Douglas; editorial by GB Shaw; theatre designs by Raoul Dufy, cartoons by Helen Hokinson, sketches by Pallavicini; “Satchmo” by Tallulah; “Redheads”, with Moira Shearer and Arlene Dahl; cartoons of orchestra conductors by G.A. Hoffnung; American skiing pamphlet bound in; James Gunther’s “The Two Emperors of Japan”; “One Foot in the White House: A Study of Averill Harriman”; foldouts on holiday entertaining.
Volume I, Number 11 (Christmas Giving issue, December 1950): Profile of Wanda Landowska; editorial by Genevieve Tabouis; “Christmas at Bowen’s Court” by Elizabeth Bowen; 12 days of Christmas illustrated by G.A. Hoffnung bound in pamphlet; “The Ox and the Ass” by Jules Supervielle; James Michener on travel to Hawaii; “Hepburn” by Richard Gehman; drawings by Edward Kasper; foldout, the Altenberg Altar Cloth; Elizabeth Arden’s Arizona Maine Chance; Trees by Pallavicini; two-page spread on Roberto Rossellini’s St. Francis.
Volume II, Number 1 (The New Year, January 1951): Over-cover by Victor Vasarely; undercover by Rene Gruan; profile of Lewis Douglas; editorial by Oveta Culp Hobby; collections of satirical cartoons about the magazine’s die-cut covers; “Life With Papa” by Mary Hemingway; “The New Society in Moscow” by Vasili Kotov, illustrated by Martin Bliss; “Walter Lippmann” by Richard H. Rovere; “The Lady and the Bear” by Theodore Roethke; [Ronald] Searle’s Girls; “Winston Churchill, Artist”; British Festival sketches by Barbara Jones; London sketches by Francis Marshall; London art and theatre (Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Tyrone Guthrie, Peter Brook); “London Made Easy” by Iris Ashley pamphlet bound in; travel to London with illustrated map by Leonard Rosoman; “The Texture of India” fashion article by Santha Rama Rau; “Just Press the Button” by Ogden Nash with drawing by Robert Osborn; “Tortilla B Flat: A Serenade to John Steinbeck composed on the typewriter” by Eddie Condon. Front over-cover lightly stained.
The Flair Annual (New York: Cowles, 1952). Oversized hardcover volume, with of course a die-cut cover, designed by Federico Pallavicini. 228 pages, organized into “chapters”, such as Flair for Communications, Flair for Sentiment, …for Travel, …for Americana, …for Art, and …for Winter. The same production approach as in the magazine, including gate-legs, some die-cut; Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Flower of Flowers” booklet bound in; a series of painted portraits of artists’ wives (Alexander Brook, John Carroll, Paul Clemens, Lester Bentley); “Walker Evans at Santa Monica”; a Steinberg drawing (in color); a Degas sketchbook; Modigliani’s nudes; double-page spread in color of “The Sleeping Musicians” by Rufino Tamayo; “Salvador Dali’s Mimicry in Nature” with die-cut owl/butterfly. Overall, very little content is repeated from the run of monthly issues, and this volume has much less color than was used in them. Further, there is no fashion! The paper quality has caused most pages to tone slightly over time. The boards show light wear to the corners, edges, and spine ends; the gilt decoration on the spine covering and the front board has darkened somewhat.
Fleur on Flair: A Magazine and Its Legacy (New York: Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 2003). 8-panel folio catalogue (self-mailer) for an exhibition held June 5-July 26 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication. Lots of color illustrations from the magazine—there’s even a die-cut. Fine on coated stock as issued with small bump and crease to lower corner.
TERMS: All items subject to prior sale.
Payment: Cash (US$), checks drawn in US funds on US banks, USPS money orders, PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card. U.S. institutions billed with a purchase order number.
Shipping: Items shipped within the US via Priority Mail unless otherwise requested, charge to be determined by zip code and weight; all shipments over US$100 insured. Overseas shipments billed at cost, determined at time of order, plus a modest handling charge.
Returns: Items may be returned in the condition shipped within 10 days of your receipt of them for store credit, including one-way shipping.