Vogue magazine, April 1, 1950, and it’s mine!

Sometimes the cover of vintage magazine catches my eye more than others and I end up digging around to learn more about it. This was one of those times, especially since this particular Vogue magazine from April 1, 1950, wasn’t listed in the lot I won on eBay and received a few weeks ago. I’m not complaining, as another copy of this issue recently sold on eBay for $249.

The cover photo of “Queen of Fashion Inc.” Jean Patchett is by Irving Penn and was the first black and white Vogue cover since they started using color in 1909. The black lipstick Patchett wore was MacGyver’d from mascara to maximize the contrast. Penn was rather prolific and prodigious for Vogue, shooting 165 covers between 1943 and 2009.

Additional trivia: A 17”x15” signed print of this Irving Penn photograph sold for $481,000 at a 2008 Christie’s auction.

Damn, I have good and expensive taste!

Would you like to know more?

In Vogue: From Penn to Leibovitz, Seven New Exhibitions Spotlight Our Photographers and Their Work

As “Irving Penn: The Centennial” Opens at the Met, We Consider the Photographer’s Vogue Career

Christie’s — Photographs — 11 April 2008, New York — Lot 343

Jean was “a young American Goddess of Paris Couture”.