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59. COWLES, Fleur (Founder and Editor). Flair Magazine. New York. Cowles Magazines Inc.. 1950 - 1951.
£2,500
Folio, 12 issues in original wrappers, bound as two volumes in orange cloth, lettered in gilt on spine (gilt somewhat faded). A few tape repairs and a little creasing and rubbing to some wrappers, the bottom corners of the first 50 or so pages of the October issue clipped, a few white paint marks on cloth covers, generally a very good set.
A complete set of the iconic but short-lived Flair magazine, created and edited by Fleur Cowles. This set Cowles’s own set for her Spanish home, inscribed by her in each volume My Copy, Fleur Cowles, Trujillo.
Cowles devoted a whole chapter of her book She Made Friends and Kept Them to Flair magazine. “Quixotically, one of my best friend-makers over the last forty-five years has not been a person but my magazine Flair It has made friends for me in many parts of the world, year after year, since it died in January 1951.”
In 1947 Cowles had become associate editor of her third husband, “Mike” Cowles’s, Look magazine. She turned the magazine from “tawdry male barber-shop” magazine into a family magazine that became known for its “powerful presentation of human events and its equal appeal to men and women”, with a massive advertising revenue and a final circulation of seven million copies.
Despite her success with Look, Cowles true desire was to launch a “class” magazine, a “magazine-jewel” that would reflect the real her. Mike Cowles supported her dreams and the seed of Flair magazine was sown.
“There was no point in creating yet another magazine frozen to the format of competitors who specialized either in literature, fashion, travel, art, decor or entertainment. Why not put all of these in one magazine? This I decided to do. We intended Flair to be the most beautiful monthly publication anywhere, a new dimension in magazine publishing for the five classic fields that concern human activity; art, literature, entertainment, travel and fashion. In doing so, we introduced to the magazine such names as Jean Cocteau, Tennessee Williams, W.H. Auden, Christopher Sykes, Barbra Ward, Saul Steinberg, Lucian Freud and Simone de Beauvoir.”
Cowles also revolutionised the production values of her new magazine. “What was Flair? I had to answer this question regularly. I would say, if the dimension of a feature could be enhanced by fold-in half-paper, why not do it that way? If a feature was particularly significant, why not bind it as a ‘little book’ into each issue to give it special focus? If a feature was better ‘translated’ on textured paper, why use glossy paper? Why not follow glossy paper with a dull matt finish? If hand-fed offset printing or hand-fed gravure suited a photographic essay better than letterpress, why noy use it? If a painting was good enough to frame, why not print it on heavy cut stock? Why not bind in little accordion folders to add a little fun? Why not an element of surprise in every issue? Why not a magazine with cross-gende appeal? And in the age of television’s newly-acquired allure, why not a magazine of visual excitement?”.
Cowles issued a limited edition preview in September 1949. All the elements of her visionary publication were there; the cut-out on the front wrapper, the differing pages sizes, types and colours of paper, as well as the little book bound in the centrefold. It was a magazine prospectus on a scale previously unimagined.
The first issue came out in February 1950 priced at 50 cents. 11 more issues followed until the magazine was abrupted closed down by Mike Cowles. Although sales from news stands had been reasonable at about 265,000 copies a month, the expected advertising revenue needed to keep the magazine afloat never materialised, partly a result of the larger magazine world’s antipathy towards Cowles and her innovative new publication.
The public had, however, appreciated the new magazine and its ground-breaking features and design, and readers’ fan mail and press plaudits eased the heart-break of Flaiir’s demise. Cowles did follow up the monthly magazine with a one-off Flair annual in 1953, before other events in her life took precedence, “my time and mind were fully absorbed until November 1955, when I divorced Gardner Cowles to marry Tom Montague Meyer, to live in London, to enter a splendid new world.”
Flair’s and Cowles’s legacy lives on. “Am I heartbroken that the magazine only lasted for twelve issues? Certainly not. Flair wasn’t just a dream, it did exist, it still does. It was the first magazine to be called an art form in its own right. It had a noticeable, acknowledged effect on graphic design. it was genuinely loved by its readers. In fact, it is one of the proudest episodes of my versatile life.”
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