It was this month, 72 years ago that Harper’s Bazaar launched the iconic face of Betty Joan Perske, who came to be known as Lauren Bacall, when she appeared on the magazine’s 1943 cover.
The photo, taken by Louise Dahl-Wolfe and chosen by Harper’s Bazaar editor Diana Vreeland, is also the image that opens the exhibition called “Lauren Bacall: The Look” presented by The Fashion Institute of Technology’s (FIT) School of Graduate Studies and The Museum at FIT.
The photograph shows Bacall as a fashion model at age 19 staring wistfully past the gaze of the reader next to the sign of the Red Cross in a black two-piece suit and white shirt, holding a bag that is as red as the red cross.
I used to tremble from nerves so badly that the only way I could hold my head steady was to lower my chin practically to my chest and look up at Bogie. That was the beginning of The Look.
