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In 1920 the modalities of feminine beauty were in upheaval and fashion was the banner of the new woman’s liberal style. Already famous in the London magazines for his portraits of fashion beauties, Hoppé chose to make a pseudo-typological study of the world’s most beautiful women, defining an ideal “type” for each country. Britain’s Anglo-Saxon women are compared to their Nordic, Latin, Asian, Polynesian, and African counterparts under the ironical synonym that “Fair” equals "Beautiful". This controversial approach was sure to win Hoppé great publicity, which it did.

Lady Hazel Lavery, 1916	Viscountess M., 1916	Marion Davies, 1921	Hebe, England, 1917
Kathleen Martyn, 1917	Lilian Gish, 1921	Anna Q. Nillson, 1921	M. di Castellani, 1917
Madame Federova, 1912	Olga Morrison, 1916	Mika Mikum, 1916	Prs. White Deer, 1921
Miss Wellington Koo, 1921	Cuban Woman, 1926	D. W. Indian Woman,1922	Haitian Woman, 1921

Editions:
New York’s Alfred A. Knopf edition is a large-format limited-edition book with hand-made Batik-style paper binding and masterfully made tipped-in gravure plates. It is an exquisite object by itself (shown above).
London’s Jonathan Cape edition is a smaller format of a more modest binding but has the same high-quality tipped–in gravure plates.

The Telegraph UK, "Hoppé's Book of Fair Women was not about beauty" (2/16/2011)