Charles James designed the sculptural hat on the cover, about which Vogue proclaims: "It carries to a handsome extreme a new idea about hats; hats head-covering, face-revealing, small." God, I love that editorial style! It carries to a dashing extreme a new idea about prose; prose relentlessly snappy, conjunction-free, brisk as hell.

Striking photographs by Penn, Avedon and Horst... prose by Elizabeth Bowen and S. N. Behrman... plus a contract bridge column--- who could ask for anything more? More? All right, then...

• An Irving Penn layout set in Morrocco.



• Jewels, evening dresses, suits and wedding gowns from Paris: Fath, Dior, Desses, much more.





• Full page ads for Henri Bendel, Harry Winston, Coro jewelry, Adrian, Kramer and the "Pagan Treasure" line by La Tausca's Mayeska.





• A multi-page study of women in coat-dresses, posing in and around various places in the Lever Brothers building.  Go figure.



• Hairstyles by Charles of the Ritz, cool handbags from Balenciaga and Dior, a two page spread on Ernst Laszlo!



• Delicious hats by Hattie Carnegie, Lily Dache, and others.



• A rather discreet ad for Frederick's of Hollywood... I wonder when Frederick's lost touch with their account rep at Vogue?



• Seventeen pages of wedding excess: gowns for those who "marry for love" (i.e., cheap), a guide to silver for the bride (very helpful, but only if the bride is a DuPont), and honeymoon lingerie.



• "The Art of Preserving Boundaries" by Elizabeth Bowen, sketches of Bowen, Osbert Lancaster and Cyril Connolly,  S. N. Behrman's Duveen, Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands with assorted Princesses, "Dancing School" with photographs by Ernst Haas, "People are Talking About" Agnes Moorehead in Don Juan in Hell.  (And she looks divine!  Did you ever notice that Agnes Moorehead's nose is the dead-spit of (John Singer Sargeant's) Madame X's?  Well, neither did I, until now.)





• Illustrations by the fabulous Eric.



• A strange fixation on synthetic fibers: ads for Enka Rayon, Natona Carrelon (are these the names of fabrics or exotic dancers?) Luxite, Celanese, nylon net and acetate.


  


• Another strange fixation on presenting scantily clad women with their heads tilted and their arms at odd angles and/or up in the air (semiologists, please explain).

"I fear my underarms!"