“Mysterious femininity captures Carl Erickson,” Vogue once declared; it also perfectly describes his cover for the magazine’s Débutantes/New York Season issue from November 15, 1939. Known simply as Eric, the artist—a dandy whom waiters and hat-check girls dubbed “Monsieur le baron”—knew plenty about panache, a quality he imparted in spades to this cat-eyed stunner. “Up to your eyes in leopard,” read the accompanying copy. “The evening coat on the cover symbolizes the stir it makes by night.” Making the look roar was the René Boivin bracelet, “a single orchid of diamonds, with a sapphire heart.”

Vogue Cover by Artist Carl Oscar August Erickson, originally published on November 1939