“Vogue’s Book of Houses, Gardens, People” 1968 Lawford, Valentine [Text]

LAWFORD, Valentine [text]

The Viking Press

[195] pp.

1968

12 3/4″ x 9 1/2″

It was during the 1960s that Horst’s stylised black-and-white studio shots began to full out of favour and the fashion magazines switched their preference to natural-looking location shots in colour. Diana Vreeland, soon to be editor in chief of Vogue, suggested to Horst that he try his hand at shooting interiors. She commissioned a new feature called “Fashions in Living” in which Horst provided photographs of the interiors of a celebrity’s house and Horst’s partner, Valentine Lawford, would provide the text. It was an enviable job, Horst often spent a couple of weeks staying in the residence to understand fully the building, it’s character and it’s light. The results were a triumph and the articles ran in Vogue and House and Garden for twenty-odd years. Horst had the ability to capture the essence of the home as a reflection of the personality of the owner. He focused on the revealing detail, such as the embroidered slipper of Baron Philippe de Rothschild resting on a carpet portrait of Napoleon III (the image which graces the cover of Horst: Interiors ). But where Horst excelled is in the portraits that he took of the owners in their interiors, a shot that was included in each article. He used his expertise in portrait photography to perfectly capture the dynamic between the owner and their home. Diana Vreeland provides a short introduction and then eighteen homes are featured, including those of Doris Duke, Desmond Guinness, Emilio Pucci, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Baron and Baroness Philippe de Rothschild, Henry Francis du Pont, Cy Twombly, and Lord and Lady Eliot. The photographs and text taken from the original articles published in Vogue magazine between 1963 and 1968.