Cecil Beaton – ‘The King of Vogue’ – was an extraordinary force in the 20th-century British and American creative scenes. Renowned as a fashion illustrator, Oscar-winning costume designer, social caricaturist and writer, Beaton elevated fashion and portrait photography into an art form.
Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World is the first exhibition dedicated solely to Beaton’s ground-breaking contributions to fashion and portrait photography. The exhibition will showcase Beaton at his most triumphant – from the Jazz Age and the Bright Young Things, to the high fashion brilliance of the fifties and the glittering, Oscar-winning success of My Fair Lady. Via London, Paris, New York and Hollywood, his era-defining photographs captured beauty, glamour, and star power in the interwar and early post-war eras.
For this lecture, we welcome back Anne Haworth; freelance lecturer and guide at the V&A and is an accredited lecturer for the Arts Society. She worked for the Royal Collection for 15 years, giving private tours of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace as well as exhibition lectures. She has given many Know Before You Go exhibition talks for KCWC's Antiques and Design group, including for the V&A's ground-breaking retrospective exhibitions on Christian Dior and Gabrielle Chanel and also for 'Shoes: Pleasure and Pain', to name just a few. Remembering the glamour and elegance show-cased in the V&A past exhibitions on 'The Golden Age of Couture' (2007-8) and 'Horst: Photographer of Style' (2014-5), she is particularly excited about the upcoming exhibition 'Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World' at the National Portrait Gallery. Anne's lecture and powerpoint presentation will introduce the exhibition to KCWC members before their visit.
For any queries, please contact the Event Organisers at photography@kcwc.org.uk
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