Photo: Archivist / Alamy Stock Photo1/7The Arrow Collar Man, an early 20th-century sex symbol, predated Jay Gatsby by two decades.
Photo: Bygone Collection / Alamy Stock Photo2/7Drawing from life, J.C. Leyendecker brought the Arrow Collar Man to life with pen and paper. His main inspiration was Charles Beach.
Photo: Courtesy of PVH Archives3/7Sketches of Charles Beach in a Norfolk jacket in an original ARROW scrapbook from 1913.
4/7While J.C. Leyendecker was known as "a painter of men," F.X. Leyendecker's taste tended to times past. Frank, who was said to have said to be one of Mr. Condé Nast’s favorite artists, created 14 covers for the magazine, on some of which he reimagined the Vogue Girl, created by the magazine’s first art director, Harry McVickar, for its 1892 debut issue.
Photo: Heritage Images / Getty Images5/7The Arrow Collar Man, as created by J.C. Leyendecker," biographer Deborah Solomon has written, "was selling not just a shirt but the promise of urban sophistication.”
Photo: Courtesy of PVH Archives6/7“In this ad from 1915,” says PVH Historian Suzanne E. Shapiro, says, “Leyendecker varied Beach’s superficial features, making him blond.”
Photo: Courtesy of PVH Archives7/7In this two-page ad from 1909, "both the man in formal dress at the far right and the leaning man in sportier attire are modeled on Beach,” explains Suzanne E. Shapiro, PVH Historian. “Beach himself was known for his rather flashy style, given to Persian lamb collars and walking sticks.”
