Early Twentieth-Century Vogue, George Wolfe Plank and the ‘Freaks of Mayfair’

Janes

doi:10.1080/14714787.2017.1317017

Early Twentieth-Century Vogue, George Wolfe Plank and the ‘Freaks of Mayfair’

Janes

Authors

Dominic Janes d.janes@keele.ac.uk

Abstract

Vogue was one of the most influential fashion magazines of the twentieth century. In the 1920s its British edition, launched in 1916, became a focus for various forms of queer visual and cultural expression. The origins of the related ‘amusing style’, which delighted in camp display, can be traced to the romantic and artistic collaboration between the American artist George Wolfe Plank and the British writer E.F. Benson during the First World War. The illustrations that Plank produced for Benson’s book of satirical sketches of life in London’s high society, The Freaks of Mayfair (1916), shed light on the camp images that Plank designed for the covers of both the American and British editions of the magazine. Therefore, Plank can be understood to have played a key role in the development of queer visual culture during the early twentieth century.

Acceptance Date	Jan 18, 2017
Publication Date	Apr 27, 2017
Journal	Visual Culture in Britain
Print ISSN	1471-4787
Publisher	Routledge
Pages	68-83
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/14714787.2017.1317017
Keywords	E.F. Benson, camp, fashion, George Wolfe Plank, magazines, queer, Vogue
Publisher URL	http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14714787.2017.1317017