As you may be aware 2016 is the centenary year for Vogue and as part of the celebrations the National Portrait Gallery in London is curating an exhibition in collaboration with British Vogue called ‘Vogue 100: A Century of Style’, and this AMAZING exhibition houses over 280 prints from the Condé Nast archive and international collections and also houses many of the issues of the magazine since it’s first publication in 1916. And according to the curator Robin Muir this exhibit took over five years to pull togeather as there are over 1,500 issues to go through.{via}
When I first heard about the exhibition last year I knew that it was one that I could not miss and when walking around it, I could tell by the comments of the people around me that it was one of the most anticipated exhibits of the year. I have fallen in love with photography and the fact that I would be surrounded by the work of some of the most talented fashion photographer’s art such as Mario Testino, Tim Walker etc. was something that I was very excited about. And the photos showed some classic shots of Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Alexander McQueen but to name a few.
Walking through the exhibition is like taking a walk through history from the more illustrative covers at the beginning to the glossy celebrity covers of today. Personally it is always the illustrated covers that I love (as seen here). And the focal point when you first enter – a floor to ceiling image of Alexander McQueen which is just mesmerizing. To me this was an ode to last year’s ‘A Savage Beauty’ exhibit which was my favourite fashion exhibit of 2015.
The other memorable point to me was seeing the very first issue that was published. The exhibit has a long room that has issues spanning its 100-year history on either side that you can walk down to look at the issues (in glass cases of course!) and seeing the first edition was a pretty cool experience. The magazine today can still take you away to a fantasy land with it’s photography as it did in the beginning.
And of course I couldn’t leave without buying something… so I decided on the book on the exhibition and also some postcards of some of the images on display which I intend to frame.
I love how Alexandra Shulman notes the exhibition in the April Edition Editor Letter, that “it illustrates how fashion is a filter for the culture of the time, and not simply about the clothes.” {via} and if you did miss it in London, the exhibition is touring to Manchester Art Gallery from 24 June to 30 October 2016 and you can find out more here and I would highly recommend popping in to spend a few hours soaking up fashion history.
