Charm Magazine was another important marker in Cipe Pineles Career. This was a collaboration between she and Helen Valentine under Street & Smith Publication. After successfully creating Seventeen Magazine they realized yet again that there was an “issue” with the female magazine industry. Adult women that were being represented in magazines, were not accurate to the actual American women demographic. Pre-existing magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Glamour depicted women as either living a life of leisure, being a stay at home mom, or only needing information on high fashion. Something major was missing from the demographic; working women. Yes, they existed, but it was not a time that career driven women were held in high regards. Careers were for the in-between of high school/ college and getting married. Pineles and Valentine inadvertently helped break that standard by creating a magazine “For women who work,” that offered information about careers, work fashion, and sometimes how to handle situations at work. They brought the glamor into work, and helped create a society that was more accepting about women in the work force. This particular Issue was created in July of 1951. It portrays a woman of typical beauty standards at the time, but she is seen holding a phone, and pencil ready to jot down important information. She could be a secretary, a woman in advertising, or any number of careers. She has a career, while still being able to have a personal style and keep fashion relevant to her life. Careers are not depicted as something that opposes fashion, but as something that can still go hand in hand with it. Careers are not sacrificing fashion, and fashion is not taking the place of a career. Depicting fashion and careers as parallels and representing working women accurately were goals they indeed reached. Pineles and Valentine went on to create more issues, with some of the most compelling graphics and images for covers and spreads. Another importance of Charm Magazine was that it was one of the last fashion Editorials that Pineles would be the Art Director of. Charm helped her gain a great recognition in the design world, as she won several awards by the ACD, and IAGA. She still went on to do many more creative pieces and work for many influential companies and create wonderful designs, but Charm was the beginning of the end of Pineles career in Editorials and Fashion.

 

Image from:

“Age of Information, The New York School, Charm (Magazine).” History Graphic Design, historygraphicdesign.com.