British Vogue - 12.2019

ARCHIVE

’Twas

the

season

Robin Muir looks back

at Christmas past with

a William Klein cover,

Vogue December 1958

T

hough the war years put paid to many Christmas

luxuries, Vogue would always mark the festive

season – albeit with care and restraint, given

that so little was on offer to so many.

Postwar, Vogue’s Christmas edition was the high point

of the year, and perennially the best-selling issue, perhaps

because it re-affirmed the traditional and unshakeable

values so recently under threat. By December 1958, the

tempo was determinedly upbeat – “Morley nylons: she’ll

adore three pairs for Christmas!” – as readers dared to

think again of confidence and prosperity. Optimistic,

too, was the parade of gift ideas, inviting readers to

climb aboard a “Merry-Christmas-go-round”. The

season’s most conspicuous novelty was a snow globe of

London’s Admiralty Arch, populated by finely detailed

and authentically dressed toy soldiers on horseback.

William Klein’s cover featured a faux-Regency look: the

high-waisted plum-satin evening dress was by Dior, from

the second collection of a 22-year-old Yves Saint Laurent

• who was credited with saving the house from ruin. Also
  on the cover? “Young Idea party portfolio”. As the
  meritocratic 1960s drew closer, Vogue took better notice
  of young people. However, it would need time to discern
  what it was exactly that this untapped demographic aspired
  to; comedian-magician Tommy Cooper, in his trademark
  fez hat, looked ill at ease as two bright young things in the
  season’s baby-doll dresses draped themselves round him.
  Meanwhile, Vogue was fascinated by winters in Alicante
  and the de Havilland Comet 4, a passenger plane that flew
  between London and New York. In the outside world, the
  very first satellites were being launched. The Jet Age had
  arrived; the Space Age was just around the corner. Q

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