Vogue 100: A Century of Style opens in London

Spanning 10 decades and documenting around 1,800 issues of Vogue, 15 rooms chart the history of Vogue from 2016 back to its first issue, beginning with Kate Moss captured by Mario Testino and ending with a detailed insight into Cecil Beaton’s early work.

The Vogue 100: A Century of Style at the National Portrait Gallery features more than 280 prints from the Conde Nast archive and international collections to mark the magazine’s hundredth anniversary. The style exhibit includes cutting-edge fashion, beauty and portrait photography from Second World War photographs to shoots with famous models and celebrities, including Princess Diana, David Beckham, Linda Evangelista and Lee McQueen.

The exhibition brings together prints from each decade of the magazine’s publication for the first time ever, and showcases imagery taken by renowned photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Irving Penn, David Bailey, Tim Walker, Irving Penn and Mario Testino as it celebrates the magazine’s position at the forefront of fashion and design.

There are many highlights of the exhibition including the entire set of prints from Corinne Day’s controversial Kate Moss underwear shoot taken in 1993, as well as Peter Lindbergh’s famous 1990 cover shoot that defined the supermodel era, and a series of Second World War imagery take by Vogue’s official war correspondent, Lee Miller. Other standout moments includes a rare version of Horst's 1939 ‘corset’ photo, which inspired the music video for Madonna's ‘Vogue’ song, as well as vintage prints from first professional photographer, Baron de Meyer.

The exhibition, which has taken over the whole ground floor of the National Portrait Gallery, is the culmination of five years’ research, Robin Muir contributing editor to British Vogue and curator of the exhibition explained, as well as the visual inspection of around 1,800 issues of Vogue, including every issue of British Vogue, as well as many American and French Vogues.

National Portrait Gallery celebrates 100 years of Vogue

National Portrait Gallery director, Dr. Nicholas Cullinan, said: “British Vogue has played a pivotal role in the development of photographic portraiture over the past century, commissioning leading photographers and designers to produce some of the most memorable and influential images in the history of fashion.

“We are extremely grateful to Alexandra Shulman and her team for giving us unprecedented access to the treasures of the Conde Nast archives and for allowing us to present a panoramic view of this highly important British institution on a scale that has never been seen before.”

This collection of photographs and magazine covers isn’t just about impressive fashion editorials, when you view each decade of images together they really capture the cultural shifts in contemporary culture and bring that era to life, for instance, the sense of optimism and love in the Sixties, to war-torn London depicted in the Forties and the economic downturn of the Seventies.

Commenting on the opening, British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, added: "Vogue 100: A Century of Style is a landmark exhibition on the history of magazine photography. I am incredibly proud of this collection of exceptional photography and of the whole concept of the exhibition, which shows the breadth and depth of the work commissioned by the magazine as well as Vogue's involvement in the creation of that work.”

Alongside the exhibition, the National Portrait Gallery will also be hosting a series of talks on fashion photography, Cecil Beaton, fashion today, women in fashion, as well as a conversational talk with British Vogue’s editor Alexandra Shulman.

Vogue 100: A Century of Style is at the National Portrait Gallery from February 11 to May 22.

Images: Danielle Wightman-Stone