Inscribed To The Author of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES

FLAIR ANNUAL 1953

Edited by Fleur Cowles

(1952)

First and only FLAIR annual, following the demise of Cowles's sumptuous FLAIR MAGAZINE — an inscribed presentation copy from Federico Pallavacini (Flaire's Production Designer and the person who designed this book) to noted writer and society figure Anita Loos.

Very good.

Price: $750.00

FLAIR ANNUAL 1953

"[T]he most outrageously beautiful, visually daring, and extravagantly inventive magazine ever conceived." (Collins)

Extravagantly art directed and luxuriously printed, Fleur Cowles's short-lived and long-lamented periodical FLAIR is still upheld by many as the paradigm and pinnacle of what a magazine ought to be: exquisite, extravagant, cultured, witty, and driven by the idiosyncratic vision and stylistic obsessions of a charismatic founder with ideas about art and no regard for finances or practicality. During its brief run, FLAIR magazine was viewed with suspicion, hostility, and contempt by a substantial number of competitors and advertisers who found its aesthetic, not to mention its editorial staff, to be unforgivably feminine when not shockingly homosexual: even the pages themselves were studded with intricate cut-outs, hidden folded surprises, imbued with the scent of roses.
All of this was achieved under the direction of Federico Pallavacini, who was discovered by Cowles when she was researching paper, design and printing techniques in the run-up to FLAIR's launch in Milan. After FLAIR, Pallavacini was the art director for Elizabeth Arden, and later still directed design at Helena Rubinstein. Loos, famed screenwriter and author of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, was in many ways the quintessential FLAIR figure: stylish, sophisticated, urbane. A wonderful and entirely appropriate association of an impractical and very beautiful book.

Read more: Amy Fine Collins, "A Flair for Living," Vanity Fair.

The Object

Cowles Magazines, Inc, (1952). 13'' x 9.75''. Original red and gilt cloth with rectangular cut-out to front board. Numerous tipped-in color plates, fold-outs, cut-outs, and other illustrations throughout. Red pictorial endpapers. 229, [1] pages. Signed by Cowles on presentation page. Moderate wear and rubbing to extremities.

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