a Fleur with Flair

my favorite FLAIR cover

the Best of FLAIR

"I decided [the wing of a bird] would be the symbol of Flair because it's flight of fancy, which is what we need if we live an interesting and imaginative life. A flair for something--I don't care what it is, but whatever it is, have elegance in it, even if it's shining shoes. And knowledge--whatever you do, learn more about what you're doing." F.C.

FIRST in FLAIR February 1950

all FLAIR ONE YEAR assemblage
from the blog pages of Brilliant Asylum

50-cent for a peak at high society, art, literature, and fashion, Flair lived & breathed for 12 issues, from February 1950 to January 1951. FLAIR was said to have cost over a Dollar.26 to run each copy. FLAIR was way beyond its time with die-cut overlays, varied paper stocks, and accordion inserts. W.H. Auden, Eleanor Roosevelt,Tennessee Williams, Gypsy Rose Lee, Simone de Beauvoir, Salvador Dalí, and Jean Cocteau all eagerly contributed.
Time magazine reported, "there is an accordion-style pull-out on interior decoration, a pocket-sized book insert, a swatch of cotton fabric, even a page written in invisible ink that can be read when it is heated by a lighted match."

FLEUR lives on today- as FLAIR, blogged about, revisited and oggled over.

Fleur Cowles photographed by Robert Trachtenberg 2003

Fleur wears BALENCIAGA , made for Queen Elizabeth's coronation 1953

Most probably one of the last articles written about Fleur Cowles was in 2003, by Heather Smith MacIssac for the New York Times magazine and photographed by Robert Trachtenberg. Fleur was interviewed in London at her home at Albany, once Lord Melbourne's Georgian manse. Fleur Cowles died June 5 of 2009, making her- it is believed 101.

by FLEUR

It appears she adhered to her FLAIR raison detre: "Live an interesting and imaginative life." My own GranMa lived to be 107 and at the age of 100- I asked her what she attributed her longevity to: She replied with much the same answer-" You must be curious, You must find life interesting and be creative." It would appear that this is sound sage advice.

Of her Albany drawing room- once the Albany ballroom designed by Sir William Chambers, c.1780:

''I believe it's the most beautiful drawing room in London.'' FC

In the original article- clipped from the 2003 Magazine- The bookcase lower shelf is dotted with multiple petite vases each holding a single pale yellow rose- perhaps the FLEUR COWLES ROSE.

Fleur Cowles
a Pale Yellow Floribunda
very fragrant spice, blooms in flushes throughout the season
bred 1972 by Walter Gregory

A Second Drawing Room with panels gold leaf and exotic pots and flowers by Federico Pallavicini resides over the built in baquette-well worn in pink.

A 1954 sculpture by Sydney Harpley has a very haunting presence at the fireplace in the Second Drawing Room, above it a- Fleur Cowles painting. In this photograph one gets a sense of the grand proportions of this room.

Portrait of Fleur & her signature FLAIR Specs by Rene Gruau

painter, writer, and founder of the short-lived but legendary magazine FLAIR

as we imagine her-with FLAIR. Fleur Cowles and Cecil Beaton (photograph from An Aesthete's Lament)

Fleur in her office amongst, books, family photographs, her paintings, rifts on her name, decoupage plates. Throughout the apartment FLAIR is ever present. What do you have a FLAIR for and What keeps you young?

"The world is a magazine to me, Everything has potential." FC

little footnotes

...& from Pigtown Design

all photographs, unless noted are by Robert Trachtenberg