| Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World (9 October 2025 – 11 January 2026) at the National Portrait Gallery will be the first major exhibition to spotlight the renowned twentieth century photographer’s trailblazing fashion photography, the core of his illustrious career which laid the foundation for his later successes. Often highlighted, but rarely examined in detail, the exhibition – curated by Vogue contributing editor Robin Muir – will explore Beaton’s contribution to fashion, charting his meteoric rise and distinguished legacy. The exhibition will celebrate how his signature artistic style – a marriage of Edwardian stage glamour and the elegance of a new age – revitalised and revolutionised fashion photography and led him to the pinnacles of creative achievement. Renowned as a photographer, Beaton was also a fashion illustrator, Oscar-winning costume designer, social caricaturist and perceptive writer. ‘The King of Vogue’ – was an extraordinary force in the twentieth century British and American creative scenes. Elevating fashion and portrait photography to an art form, his era-defining photographs captured the beauty, glamour and star power in the interwar and early post-war eras. With around 250 items displayed, including photographs, letters, sketches and costumes, the exhibition will showcase Beaton at his most triumphant. The exhibition will journey through the London of the 1920s and 1930s, the era of the ‘Bright Young Things’ and Beaton’s first commissions for this greatest patron, Vogue, to his travels to New York and Paris in the Jazz Age. Drawn to its glamour and star wattage, Beaton photographed the legends of Hollywood in its Golden Age. Cecil Beaton’s first royal photographs appeared in the late 1930s. As the Second World War loomed, he defined the notion of the monarchy for a modern age. Appointed an official war photographer by the Ministry of Information, his wartime service took him around the globe. 9 October 2025 – 11 January 2026 Booking is now open for tickets here |
