1959 Vogue Magazine Norman Parkinson Daimler SP250

This issue of British Vogue is dated November 1959. Its cover, by Norman Parkinson, shows the model Suzanne Kinnear beside a Daimler SP250 sports car, wearing a Kashmoor coat, a beret by the milliner Otto Lucas and jewels by Cartier. Kinnear, born in Doncaster in 1935, had come to London in 1958 to model and became one of Parkinson's subjects. The cover was made near the end of Parkinson's long association with Vogue; from 1960 he became an associate contributing editor of Queen magazine.

Norman Parkinson changed British fashion photography by taking models out of the studio and into real settings, often outdoors and frequently in motion: playing golf, riding in speedboats, walking through the city. His pictures combined elegance with a sense of activity and humour. Following the example of Martin Munkácsi at Harper's Bazaar, he made the setting part of the story. A car on a Vogue cover belongs to this approach. The model is shown not posing in isolation but in relation to an object that suggests a life of movement, travel and modern pleasures.

The late 1950s were a high point for the British sports car. The Daimler SP250, introduced in 1959, was the long-established company's move into the modern open sports car, with a fibreglass body and a V8 engine. Cars of this kind stood for a new idea of leisure and freedom, especially for a younger generation emerging from the austerity of the post-war years. Placing a fashionable woman beside such a car on the cover of Vogue linked fashion to that sense of modern mobility, on the eve of a decade that would make youth and speed its themes.

The cover is precise about what the model wears: a Kashmoor coat, an Otto Lucas beret and Cartier jewels. Otto Lucas was one of London's leading milliners of the period, and Cartier signals the highest level of jewellery. Coat, beret and jewels are styled for autumn, and the car adds colour, line and context. The composition shows how Vogue covers of the late 1950s combined fashion credits with a scene, so that the image could be read both as a picture and as a guide to what to buy.

Norman Parkinson's Vogue covers are among the most recognisable images of British fashion photography, and this one, from near the end of his years with the magazine, combines his characteristic setting, a named model and a celebrated car. It is of interest to collectors of photography, fashion and motoring alike. The interior is pristine and the spine sound, with slight fading to the cover and a crease at the bottom of the spine.