I like fashion and fashion photography. However, a lot of today's magazines look quite similar and boring to me. Whether this is because they actually are boring and look all the same, or whether it is just the fact that everything contemporary and from the same culture is bound to be perceived so, I don't know! It could also be that the good stuff from the past is more likely to be remembered. No hard evidence for the latter though, since sometimes ugly stuff strikes us back too. Ultimately, beauty (and interestingness) does lie in the eye of the beholder.
Hence, when I came across the collection of fashion photographs from 1920 through 1965, which have kindly been collected and brought to our eyes by
myvintagevogue (or on
Flickr), I was delighted!
Why are Vogue no longer doing covers like this one?
Photo by Vogue, Magazine Cover from March 1958.
Just to give you an impression how the magazines used to look from the inside, here's a great Pinup style shot of a young lady which might look familiar to you(*):
Photo taken from myvintagevogue's Flickr account. (I'll try to track the source down.).
Why are they not doing these colours anymore? I mean, I know they probably would have liked to achieve more 'natural' colours back in the 50-60ies, but for me they are a crucial bit that makes the picture work. It almost seems that every decade since the advent of colour had it's own tint. My personal impression of the 70ies, for instance, is kind of yellow-ish. This might be due to the age of the film material though. I'll have to look a bit into this now ;-), so see you soon and enjoy the vintage photographs!
(*) I't good 'old' Marilyn ;-).
Photo by Martin Trefzer, FUSION March 2009.
