"Givenchy Hat (c)"

for Le Jardin des Modes

platinum palladium print

signed and numbered (ink) on recto, signed, dated and titled (pencil) on verso

In Paris, which had become once again the world capital of fashion, Jardin des Modes was to Vogue what a Mercedes was to a Rolls Royce. The magazine had been founded in 1922 by Lucien Vogel, a pioneer of the illustrated press, who in the 1930s went on to start Vu, a news magazine based on photography, which was inspired by the Berliner Illustrierte and became the template for Life. During the war, Vogel escaped to the US, and only returned to Paris in 1945. He died a few years later, after having entrusted the art direction of Jardin des Modes to his former assistant, Jacques Moutin. When Moutin unexpectedly called me, I didn’t know this background, but on my way to our meeting I bought a copy of the magazine – and found it somewhat uninspiring: models caked in make-up, in conventional poses, standing in front of grey or white paper backgrounds, some with their eyes turned skywards, others with a robotic smile on their faces. Possibly Moutin felt the same, and wished to show himself worthy of his late boss by giving the magazine a makeover and blowing away some of the dust left over from the German occupation and the post-war drabness.
(Frank Horvat)