Fire and Ice
Revlon matches a lipstick to a nail enamel, then hands the reader a questionnaire.
Autumn 1952, and the page arrives at full saturation. Avedon photographs Dorian Leigh in silver sequins under a cape the exact red of the enamel, one hand raised so that the fingertips and the mouth agree, and Revlon puts a lipstick and a matching nail lacquer on the counter under a single name. Charles Revson's house had been selling matched lips and fingertips since the previous decade. What is new in 1952 is the temperament sold with them.
Beside the photograph runs a quiz. The copy, written inside the house by Kay Daly, asks the reader whether she has ever danced with her shoes off, whether she closes her eyes when she is kissed, and totals her answers into a verdict on whether the shade is hers to wear. It is a shade with a character attached, and the reader is invited to prove she qualifies for it.
Revlon names its colors like lines of verse through the decade, and the drugstore counter fills with them: Cherries in the Snow the following year, Love That Red after. The Fire and Ice page sets the register. Color at full strength, a photographer from the fashion pages, and a piece of copy that speaks to the reader about herself rather than about her complexion.
“It is a shade with a character attached, and the reader is invited to prove she qualifies for it.”
Images recreated in the period manner for Muse Parlor. The 1952 Fire and Ice campaign, with Dorian Leigh photographed by Richard Avedon for Vogue, remains in copyright; these are original recreations, not period scans. See the real Revlon record through the links below.