Vogue 100: A Century of Style”. On February 11th 2016 (closing on May 22nd 2016) the National Portrait Gallery in London is inaugurating the first photographic exhibition ever dedicated to British Vogue on the centenary of its foundation. The UK version first appeared on the editorial market on September 15th 1916 when the international distribution of Vogue America (founded in New York in 1892, passing to Conde` Nast ownership in 1909) became impossible during the First World War. The exhibition has been encouraged and promoted by the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Nicholas Cullinan, on account of the role enjoyed by British Vogue in photographic portraiture throughout the 20th Century since it produced some of the most memorable and influential images in the history of fashion and beyond. The exhibition follows in the traditions of the Gallery which possesses over 200,000 portraits from the 16th Century to the modern day: from paintings to drawings and sculptures, right up to the advent of photography.
The exhibition has been curated by Robin Muir, British Vogue’s Contributing Editor, and is sponsored by Leon Max and made possible by Conde` Nast that has, for the first time, opened up its rich and immense archive – an archive belonging to the world’s most influential fashion magazine, telling the story of the 20th Century through the portraits (more than 280 photos) of people who have influenced fashion, artistic trends, tastes and styles the most. The greatest photographers of the day were responsible for these photographs, from historic figures such as Cecil Beaton, Lee Miller, Irving Penn and Lord Snowdon to contemporary figures such as David Bailey, Corinne Day, Patrick Demarchelier, Nick Knight, Herb Ritts, Mario Testino, Tim Wolker and Albert Watson. In the exhibition, the visitors will witness the most significant moments in the history of British Vogue,
immersed in an evocative journey surrounded by images created by Patrick Kinmonth. Vintage prints by the eclectic Adolphe de Meyer, the first professional fashion photographer; a rare version of the legendary “corset” by Horst P. Horst from 1939; the cover by Peter Lindbergh from 1990 that launched the era of top models; the greatest fashion designers who set down the dictates of style and influenced tastes in fashion season after season. Hollywood portraits of Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire and Charlie Chaplin as well as those of today’s actors, a little less unreachable for our imaginations but icons nevertheless of our times; a series of exceptional photographs from the Second World War by the beautiful and intrepid Vogue war correspondent, Lee Miller; the main players in art in the 20th Century, from Picasso and Matisse to Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, right up to contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst, all influencing the visual language of their times with the iconic power of a photograph.
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