Fashion

Vogue in the Antarctic: Revisiting the Magazine’s Unforgettable 1964 Shoot, “The Girl Who Went Out Into the Cold”

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    Photographed by John Cowan, Vogue, November 1, 1964
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    The Girl Who Went Out in the Cold

    In a big, glorious bundle of shaggy white lamb, a girl in the very limit of cold—a girl at the top of the world. Arctic world —a soundless, windless place like the inside of an enormous diamond, where nothing falls; nothing blows . . . where children play together, and make no noise . . . where all sense of time and distance is reshaped by days that are twenty-four hours of light, and the flat, unchanging horizon makes remote islands seem within quick reach . . . where the sky hangs as low as a bright-blue stage backdrop, sewn forever to an improbable sheet of white . . . where the refraction of sun on the blinking brilliance of snow and ice spangles the entire world in glacial pastel shadows. This glittering world—scene of the next fourteen pages. (Hooded Mongolian lamb parka by Revillon. Hansen gloves.)

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    Photographed by John Cowan, Vogue, November 1, 1964
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    Arctic white—its magnetic dazzle . . . reflected here in a white winter-evening cape with a pure snowfall of shape, a hood edged in white mink, helmet and gloves of silvery sequins. This, and the clothes on the next twelve pages, photographed in the silent brilliance of Resolute Bay, on Cornwallis Island in the Arctic Circle, where the unbelievable lighting from iceblinks and sunshifts changes the white of floes—and clothes—to shadowy mauve, blue, yellow. Cape by Ben Reig, of white silk faille, with a long princesse dress (unseen here) of the same fabric. Sequin gloves by Viola Weinberger. The sequin helmet by Adolfo.

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    Photographed by John Cowan, Vogue, November 1, 1964
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    To sink into like a snowdrift, with all its glistening depths of dazzle: a coat of white ostrich feathers—swinging, weightless, wildly spectacular—for evenings when gala-levels are highest. Here, with a rounded white space-hennin worn over a white-wrapped head, at the crevice-striped tundra of Resolute Bay. Coat by Georges Kaplan. Hat by Halston.

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    Photographed by John Cowan, Vogue, November 1, 1964
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    Smashing long white flings of fur: An ermine dress, left, with deep-slit skirt, a bare halter top surrounded, here, by sequins—a blouse, helmet, gloves. Dress, by Donald Brooks for Coopchick Forrest, of bleached white Russian ermine. Blouse, by Sportswear Couture. Adolfo helmet. Viola Weinberger gloves.

    Long white mink coat, right, a narrow limber shape with nine glittery buttons of beads and fringe, a collar framed here—for more glitter—with an elaborate necklace. Coat by Oliver Gintel, of “Jasmine,” Emba natural white mink. Pavion-Expansion necklace. White mink kerchief-cap, by Emme. White mink boots.

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    Photographed by John Cowan, Vogue, November 1, 1964
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    White mink pea jacket, left, with beaded buttons, a wide notched collar, a wonderful kind of mink-ase. By Bill Blass for Revillon, of white-dyed mink. Rhinestone gloves by Arpad. Silvery helmet and purdah, by Adolfo.

    Spanish snap in white mink, right, a long, slightly Flamenco coat-shape—the long lean top worked vertically, the rounded skirt horizontally. By Betty Yokova for Neustadter, of Umpa natural white mink. Marcel Wagner gloves. Halston hat. White mink boots: Andrew Geller.