Baron Adolphe de Meyer
The first fashion photographer was probably Baron Adolphe de Meyer who
was hired by Conde Nast in 1913 to take experimental pictures for Vogue.
Early fashion pictures were essentially society photographs of aristocrats,
actresses and society models wearing their own clothes.
Prior to World War I thge clothese shown in fashion magazines were most often sketched in pen and ink. In 1913 Conde nast the publisher of Vogue magazine asked De Meyer to try his hand at photgraphing fashions. De Meyer became the pioneer who founded the profession of fashion photography.
His Success was based on his familiarity with the fashionable world of his time and his ability to interpret it pictorally and on the ethereal quality of his photographs - which effect he got mby veiling his lens with silk gauze and using soft backlighteing.
this study (above) of a woman in a gold lame costume was made by Dr Meyer in europe Although it is not strictly a fashion photograph, it was the kind of deliberately blurred image of a richly gowned, glamorous femal that led conde nast to hire De Meyer to photograph fashion for Vogue.
De Meyer - jeanne Eagels 1921
De Meyer almost invariably posed his models standing with one hand on hip, a stances that presumably spelled chic to the Baron.
Above is actress
Jeanne Eagels in an evening gown and to the right a male model showing
off the latest in morning coars, they both stricke the classic De Meyer
pose.
De Meyer - male fashion - date unknown
Bewlo the models outfit is overwhelmed by her surroundings.
De meyer - Woman with oriental plant - date unknown
De Meyer was also an interior decorator who often created luxurious settings for his fashion shots. some of Vogues wealthier readers were so taken by these ornate and exotic pbackgrounds that they commissioned him to create salons for their town houses.