[HARRISON]. L'Homme élégant. Biannual illustrated fashion magazine. Paris : Geo Harrison, 1912-1922. - 7 folio issues. Paperback, textured paper covers, decorated on the upper cover with an antique cameo in relief, modern gray and black cloth box signed MCR, upper cover decorated with three black cloth bands and a mosaic composition representing half of a man's suit in a medallion, gray title-piece on the spine. Extremely rare, almost complete collection of one of the first men's fashion magazines. Created in 1912 on the initiative of tailor Geo Harrison, L'Homme Elegant was intended to be the masculine counterpart to the numerous women's fashion publications: "While for so many years a thousand publications have solicited the attention of elegant women, there has been no organ that has offered the gentleman concerned with absolute correctness a guide and advisor. This is the aim of L'Homme Élégant. The first issue bears a quotation from Balzac: "The brute covers himself, the rich or the fool adorns himself, the elegant man dresses himself...". This collection includes the first 6 issues of the magazine, with a long interruption due to the war (April 1912, Autumn-Winter 1912-1913, Spring-Summer 1913, Spring-Summer 1914, November 1920 and April 1921) as well as n°8 (April 1922), an issue entirely devoted to marriage. To our knowledge, this was the last issue. Each issue contains 12 to 16 pages of articles on costumes, ties, hats, shoes and perfume, by Geo. Harisson, Jacques Collandres, Pierre de Trévières and contributors from various fashion houses. These articles are enhanced by numerous drawings in color, black or two-tone by Édouard Touraine, Hal Ludlow, Pierre Brissaud, Jean Dulac, Hemjic and others. Numbers 3, 5, 6 and 8 also contain 4 or 5 loose-leaf plates for L'Homme Elegant: a total of 17 delightful stenciled men's fashion figures, drawn by Marty, the Brissaud brothers, Hemjic, Benito, André Pécoud and Édouard Touraine. The publication of this ambitious magazine seems to have undergone the vagaries of fashion and the turmoil of the times: semi-annual publication was not always respected, the format varied, as did the cover and paper quality (glossy paper for the first issues, vellum or laid paper for later issues, with 2 leaves printed on crystal paper in issue no. 8). Illustrations were printed in color, black or two-tone, depending on the issue... Enclosed are several loose subscription forms and 2 typescript letters from Geo Harrison to M. Couderc concerning drawings. Exceptional set preserved in an attractive modern decorated box. Edges of some covers faded, some foxing in the third issue.