Magazines tell the story of fashion
What better way to inaugurate PENELOPE’S than with an auction dedicated to the fashion magazines that tell the story of the 20th century? These publications are true witnesses in which so much talent is expressed: emblematic editors like ClaudeBrouet, influential journalists like Françoise Giroux, legendary photographers like David Bailey in ELLE, or artists like Joan Miró and David Hockney in Vogue. And of course all the couturiers and fashion designers.
These magazines – from the archives of Jacqueline Jacobson (founder of the Dorothée Bis brand) and Catherine Gorne (film costume designer) – are much more than mere collector’s items. They are living archives that bear witness not only to stylistic evolution, but also to the social and cultural changes of the last century. They explore aesthetics, style and, in their own way, recount the evolution of women’s place in society, from representation to emancipation.
COVERINGS
On their covers, film and fashion icons such as Catherine Deneuve, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin left their mark on the collective imagination, before being supplanted by 90s supermodels such as Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Kate Moss. In the 50s, other beauties such as Lisa Fonssagrives and Dovima embodied the Golden Age of haute-couture, immortalized by photographers like Richard Avedon, followed by Veruschka, Lauren Hutton and Charlotte Rampling, sublimated by Helmut Newton.
These magazines tell the fashion story
These magazines tell the story of fashion, its history and its evolution. They provide an immersion into the different decades, with their aesthetic markers, the star couturiers and designers of each era, but also the preoccupations of French women. Specialized publications such as “Collezioni” and “Harper’s Bazaar Paris Haute Couture” were authoritative before the advent of the digital age. Finally, the first magazines of the 20th century, with their quaint titles such as “La Femme chez Elle” or “La Gazette du Bon Ton”, are a poetic reminder of the times when illustrations replaced photography to sublimate fashion.
Delving into these magazines is like savoring a Strawberry Tagada-an addictive, bewitching pleasure that’s hard to tear yourself away from. These publications are treasures that tell the story of fashion through the ages, the styles, and the faces that
have worn it. Like a tribute to fashion in all its splendor, to all those who create it, to the women who wear it and the men who admire it.
