Lady on a Zebra 500 Piece Puzzle

A.E. Marty crafted one of Vogue’s most fantastical covers with a sure hand and clean lines. At first glance the reader might not even notice that this modestly dressed, veiled, behatted, and bepearled adventuress sits astride a rearing zebra, rather than a steed, as three giraffes wander in the distance. Here was an imaginative “fashion travelogue” that spoke to the issue’s theme, Southern Fashions—“the great migration to sunny climes”—and “those small accents of so vast importance to chic—the wearing of the scarf, the tilting of the hat, and similar weighty details” that add to the element of fantasy in fashion. This cover inspired the editors of the New York Herald Tribune to pen an essay on the combination of “convention and novelty” and the “juxtaposition of old matter and fresh forms.” Vogue both contributed to and reported on (sometimes with a wink) the great changes happening in the 1920s. In response to the paper’s editorial, the magazine stressed “Vogue’s desire to promote all that is new in art . . . regardless of whether it belongs to the literal school of art or to the imaginative school—a school that can not be explained accurately through the medium of words.”