Last month we showed you a piece of art by Raymond Brenot and noted the eclectic industries for which he worked. Well, he also painted advertisements. The ad above is a very nice piece of tropical themed art, apparently for the technologically advanced Tiki bra, designed according to LOU guidelines, whatever those are, and incorporating innovative side straps, whatever those are. No, we don't know much about bras. But thanks to this ad we learned that one would be called in French a soutien-gorge. At least back then. To us that sounds like some sort of surgical procedure you have on your digestive tract. And in fact if you break the word apart, soutien translates as “support,” which is encouraging enough, but gorge translates as “throat,” which raises terrifying images. Love this piece of south seas island art, though. It's, erm, gorgeous.

French illustrator Raymond Brenot, aka Pierre-Laurent Brenot painted many magazine covers and pin-ups, and a few paperback fronts, as well. He also painted sleeves for numerous records. You see a beautiful example above for French trumpeter Fred Gérard's Si nous dansions... en 16 tours. The close-up image shows the unique aspect of the art—its mise en abîme element, or what the Dutch call a Droste effect, an identical image within the image, with infinite repetitions implied.

The title of the record translates to “If we danced... 16 turns,” which is weird because there are actually twenty songs. The tunes cover various dance styles, such as mambo, Charleston, foxtot, etc., and we know what you're thinking. You're thinking sixteen dance styles must be covered. No—only nine styles are played, so the 16 tours part of the title is a mystery to us. If you know the answer to the riddle, you know how to reach us. But don't expect an immediate response—we'll be busy foxtrotting.

Update: It is incredibly informative having readers from all over the world. The answer came from Jo B. in France, who informed us: "16 tours is the rotation speed of the record in 1 minute."

We’ve mentioned artist and fashion designer Raymond Brenot, aka Carols, aka Pierre-Laurent Brenot a couple of times before in relation to the French magazine V. This is the first time we’ve seen his work on a book cover. It’s a copy of Journal d'une chambre de femme by Jean-Albert Foëx, and it was published by E.D.I.C.A. in 1958 as part of their Collection Le Mauvais Oeil, or Evil Eye Collection. Brenot’s cool cover also wraps onto the rear of the book, as you can see below.

More from France today with V magazine of winter 1965. This particular issue, in the masthead in extremely small print, reveals that V is short for Voilà. Other issues we have do not mention that, so it’s news to us, and probably to many other people as well, especially because we shared an issue a while back that clearly says on the cover “Supplement au No. 445 de Voir Magazine.”

So it is Voilà, Voir, or just V? To tell the truth, we wondered in the past if the 1950s V was the same as the earlier magazine that published through the ’40s, but it was. The publisher, editor, and even the street address changed, but we’ve seen an issue from 1949 that shows an unmistakable visual transition between the two versions. If indeed the magazine was ever actually called Voilà, or Voir, the full name never appeared on the cover, as far as we know.

Speaking of covers, this one was painted by Raymond Brenot, aka Pierre-Laurent Brenot, who was both an artist and a successful fashion designer, and he joined a special fraternity of brilliant V cover artists such as René Caillé, Jean David, and Georges Pichard. The interior illustrations are from Brenot, Pichard, Le Gano, Renoir and others. Plus there are photos of Margaret Lee, Catherine Frank, Mara Berni, Liten Østern, dancer Sonia Vareuil, et.al. Below are more than thirty scans for your enjoyment.

The French magazine V is probably one of the most visually pleasing and collectible periodicals ever published. The early issues featured photo-illustrations of movie stars, but starting in the 1950s V began to showcase provocative pin-up style cover paintings from a succession of three artists—Georges Pichard, René Caillé and Jean David. All were geniuses; none are well known outside collectors circles and France, where they lived and worked. But popularity is never a true measure of value—Pichard, Caillé and David Vs can go at auction for thirty, forty, or even fifty dollars. We've seen them listed for even more, though those went unsold as far as we can tell. Vs with Pierre-Laurent Brenot covers are also highly regarded. This one, V Sélections 57, with a Pichard cover and Brigitte Bardot, Christine Carère and Marilyn Monroe inside, dates from winter 1957. We have a couple more of these we’ll share in their entirety as soon as we get in the mood to do the scanning. Meantime see some 1940s V covers here and here.