Veruschka, dress by Bill Blass, New York, January 1967 - Image courtesy of Richard Avedon Foundation

Fashion in its purest form is an active force; it moves with the times, the seasons, not to mention the subject. By the same measure, accessories—scarves, stilettos, bags, berets, and baubles—are more than stand-alone entities. When paired with a model, the objects that were already beautiful in construction take on life through activity.

The real excitement lies in capturing fashion in action. Starting with Harper’s Bazaar in the 1940s, a photographer with ingenuity and creativity emerged, infusing editorials with pizzazz and a heady dose of spontaneity.

Richard Avedon breathed life into fashion as he brought energy and movement to designer clothing, transforming inanimate objects into wearable art. Dismissing fashion exhibition’s roots in one-dimensionality, its tendency to use models as clothes hangers, and the idea of staging an editorial down to a T, Avedon
unearthed a newfound freedom.

He shifted focus to models whose personalities leapt off the pages, giving life to designers’ visions and silhouettes. In 1955, Avedon placed an aristocratic Dovima wearing a streamlined Dior gown in a wrinkled lineup of playful mammoths. Fashion history was made as circus elephants stamped in the hay alongside Dovima’s black designer pumps.

Indulging his fascination with portraiture, Avedon connected with his subjects to explore the emotions that coloured his photographs. Playing with low angles, Avedon ran and danced with models to inspire animation in images. Leaping from behind the lens, he once grabbed Youthquake fashion icon Twiggy’s hand and frolicked in the studio, thus snapping the quintessential candid photograph.

A maestro of minimalism, Avedon used stark backgrounds to highlight the hidden complexity of his subjects. By juxtaposing dynamic and static elements, Avedon exposed the nuances of movement, inviting the audience to step into his images and rediscover the world of fashion.

More than anything, Avedon drove home the notion that fashion is a mobile force, one that may be observed minute by minute, if only one raises the shutter and views fashion as an extension of personality.

Richard Avedon’s universal challenge remains; strip away excess, look past imagined limitations, discover an angle, and jump into it with careless abandon.