Watch any noir movie and you’ll quickly understand the importance of fur coats for a femme fatale in the 1950’s. It seems definitely wrong to those of us living in the 21st century that women would dream about wearing the skins of little animals raised for the sole purpose of fashion and glamour. But make no mistake. Furs meant status and elegance as echoed in the copy of this ad:
We like the luxury of luxuries, empress chinchilla, the precious fur for a privileged few, even more elegant in this cape designed exclusively for I. Magnin & Co.
The ad appeared in the October 1959 edition of Vogue magazine. Interesting that it was advertised to buyers in California (San Francisco, Oakland, Palo Alto, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Santa Barbara, La Jolla, Santa Ana) and Seattle where the temperatures were mild.
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