One of the major mainstream fragrance releases for autumn 2013 was Estée Lauder’s Modern Muse, with the tagline “Be An Inspiration” and an advertising campaign featuring the model Arizona Muse. In both the print and television ads, Muse (the person, with the perfume!) makes an appearance at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
In the print ads, she poses inside the Guggenheim, which is immediately identifiable by its spiral ramp and its circular skylight.
In the television ad (watch it here), she strides gracefully along a side street on the Upper East Side, enters the museum, gazes upwards, mingles with the other guests at some sort of gala opening, and (naturally) becomes the center of attention. Because of her perfume, you know.
The Guggenheim Museum is located at Fifth Avenue and 88th Street, and its iconic building was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. (I try not to throw the word “iconic” around too often, but in this case, it’s appropriate.) In this photograph from the Guggenheim’s archives, Wright (holding his hat) stands with collector and museum trustee Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim himself, regarding an architectural model of the museum building.
The museum opened on October 21, 1959, just a few months after Wright’s death.
I’ve always thought of the Guggenheim as a classic and groundbreaking example of mid-20th century American architecture, and a landmark of uptown Manhattan, but as part of my parents’ New York (my mother clearly remembers all the excitement surrounding the opening in 1959). I love it, but it still seems so anchored in the late 50s and early 60s.
The Guggenheim was featured as a background in many fashion shoots and cosmetics ads of the 1960s; I know of a few, which I’ll share here! This young woman in this Condé Nast image is a “college girl visiting the Guggenheim Museum” circa February 1961. Her outfit would still be stylish today, and her confident smile completes the portrait of a smart young woman-around-town.
Speaking of smart: here we have the Monroe Monro Matic Calculator of 1963, juxtaposed with a distinctively clad model (look at those gloves!) and, yes, the Guggenheim. In just a few years, the Gugg had become shorthand for everything contemporary, forward-thinking, streamlined.
And, although the Guggenheim had yet to become an international brand with museums dotting the globe (that came a few decades later), it made a cameo appearance in a magazine advertisement spotlighting sharply cut wool garments for “the people that Go Places.” Jet-setters! or, as they’re called here, “The Jetaways.” This ad was published in Vogue on September 1, 1966.
When the Guggenheim popped up in this ad campaign for Isaac Mizrahi’s Fabulous fragrance in 2012, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed by these shots. The model (named Bambi Northwood Blyth—I kid you not) is so very young and blank-looking that I can’t read much fantasy or mystique into these photos. The dresses just look, well, cheap. And I don’t even think poodles are the dog of choice on the Upper East Side.
I’m trying to figure out why I enjoy the vintage photos of women posing at the Guggenheim so much more than these recent ads.
Maybe it’s because the Guggenheim really was modern in 1960. And maybe it’s because the women in those images are, to paraphrase the “Jetaways” ad, “people who Go Places, Do Things.” They’re going to college, working, traveling. In my eyes, at least, they’re not just twirling around and inspiring other people. They, themselves, are inspired by their surroundings. That makes a big difference.
