Upon the 1996 release of HarperCollins'
The Best of Flair, the
New York Times noted "Fleur Cowles' legendary magazine,
Flair, was the
Visionaire of its day." Published from 1950 to 1951, it was considered decades before its time. "The magazine brought together such far-flung contributors as Jean Cocteau, Gypsy Rose Lee, Margaret Mead and Tallulah Bankhead as it covered art, fashion, interior design travel and literature." Today, collectors scour for the originals, which featured intricate foldouts, detailed die-cuts, and bound-in booklets.
HarperCollins only published a few thousand copies of the retrospective (at $250-a-pop), and they sold out in weeks. You can find rare copies for sale on eBay for much more.
Just recently the Italian publisher
Mondadori launched a "new magazine for fashion, arts and culture, for women who love style in all its forms, and with special attention to the creativity of the protagonists of international fashion." The magazine is called
Flair and sports a near-duplicate of the original 1950s
Flair logo and features a
Juergen Teller cover
shoot.
The Mondadori release makes no mention of the
Fleur Cowles creation.
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