When I first saw these magazines, I knew they were post-worthy because of their highly-stylized design and lovely covers. Upon further investigation, I discovered that they are issues of the short-lived and well-remembered Flair magazine, helmed by Fleur Cowles (pronounced “coals”).
Fleur Cowles (1908-2009) was born Florence Friedman on January 20, 1908 in New York. She later changed her first name to Fleur and her last name to Fenton. She worked as a writer and advertising executive in her earlier years, founding the Pettingell & Fenton, Inc. agency with her second husband, Atherton Pettingell, Jr. After she divorced Pettingell, she married Gardner “Mike” Cowles, changing her name to Fleur Cowles—a name which she kept professionally, despite remarrying once more. It was Mike Cowles, editor and co-founder of Look magazine and co-owner of the Cowles Media Company, who bankrolled the publication of Fleur’s vision for Flair.
Flair ran from February of 1950 to January of 1951, and lost an estimated 2.5 million dollars (the equivalent of 24.7 million dollars in today’s money). The reason it was highly unprofitable (despite being sold at a price point set higher than other magazines) was Fleur’s dedication to producing a singular vision, what a Vanity Fair feature called “the most outrageously beautiful, visually daring, and extravagantly inventive magazine ever conceived.” The magazine was expensive to make, with different textured stock, die-cut punch-outs, and issues like the May 1950 Rose issue, which was opulently scented. It’s truly a work of art, and the issues also include many famous names, like W. H. Auden, Simone de Beauvoir, Winston Churchill, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí, and Tennessee Williams. I wish I could show more of the interiors, but the magazines’ bindings are quite fragile and could not be scanned aside from the covers.
Although Flair was relatively short-lived, it was Fleur’s favorite project. She even said, “People ask me, If you could read your obit, what would it say? My answer is that I would like it to be about Flair.” Fleur was an interesting person, to say the least, and her story is well worth looking into, as there is much, much more to her than I am able to mention here (for one thing, there are roses named after both Fleur and Flair.) I recommend starting with the Vanity Fair piece, but you could also read her own anecdotal memoir, She Made Friends and Kept Them.
Above is a portrait of Fleur Cowles by René Gruau, who was a major contributor to Flair.
