Blog de Tendances

VOGUE Paris has been all over Parisian streets. Well, one in particular, and you have probably heard of it.. Champs-Elysées anyone?

Celebrating the best covers of the iconic fashion bible, a plein-air exhibition was set on the Champs, for everyone to admire. Lucky me I happened to be in Paris just on time to witness the public display of love and elegance. Not only did the gorgeous exhibition remind me of the best of the magazine, the endless creativity and audacious choices of its covers – often designed by famous artists and illustrators – but it also showed another side, more engaged in society and reflective of certain times. Just like when the magazine stopped, during WW2, and the post-war covers, totally un-fashioned, but soon followed by the New Look, mirroring society’s bubbly 50s and swinging sixties.

I had not seen most of these covers before, from the 20s illustrated covers to more recent decades’ modern takes on the ‘cover style’, which is why I particularly appreciated this journey through the century in style. Very useful explanations were displayed along the covers, to put it back in context, a blessing that too many exhibitions today miss for the sake of art snobbery.

What I liked most about this exhibition though, was the public aspect of it, this feeling that fashion belongs to everyone and is part of French culture, and for that reason should be exhibited in the street, because eventually, this is where true style and trends are born.

If I made you want to go jump on the first Eurostar, please refrain, the exhibition only lasted for a few weeks and is just over. A book compiling the best Vogue covers is available though, to keep a piece of fashion history.

Pictures: right: cover with Sofia Coppola, one of my favourites from December/January 2005; left: Kate Moss in Vogue Paris October 09 Super-models issue, photography by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, styled by Emmanuelle Alt, Kate is wearing an Isabel Marant leopard fur jacket.