Between 1900 and 1969 fashion photography underwent enormous changes. Unique archive material from Palais Galliera is being shown in Amsterdam for the first time ever in order to illustrate this remarkable story. This exhibition not only shows the move from studio photography to outdoor shoots, but also developments in photography itself, the position of women, tourism, and prêt-à-porter fashion. The exhibition will display unique photographs and magazines that are normally kept deep in the archives of the French fashion institute.
The historical development of fashion photography, from studio settings to outdoor shoots, is a story of emancipation and liberation, both in visual and geographical terms. The exhibition shows how over the years women’s bodies gained increasing freedom – starting from static poses, shrouded in long gowns, and moving to sports activities, sunbathing, or simply laughing and walking down the street. Over the same period photography moved from black and white to colour, and the range of places where these photographs were made expanded enormously due to the advent of worldwide tourism.
Outside Fashion will show nearly 150 extremely high-quality photographs, from superb vintage gelatin silver prints to beautiful Ektachrome projections. The exhibition includes work by important pioneers of fashion photography between 1900 and 1969; besides the aforementioned Jean Moral and Henry Clarke, it contains work by Henri Manuel, Reutlinger, Séeberger Frères, Dorvyne, Egidio Scaioni, Willy Maywald and others. The couture they photographed is by iconic fashion houses and designers such as Balenciaga, Dior, Fath, Hermès, Poiret and Schiaparelli. The photographs were originally published in specialist fashion magazines like Excelsior Modes, Fémina, Harper’s Bazaar, Le Jardin des Modes, Les Modes and Vogue, of which no fewer than 32 original examples will be on display in vitrines. A large part of the exhibition material has never been published before, and is being shown to the public for the very first time.
