Revel in “The Glorious Tradition,” a 1995 Couture Feature With a Special Portfolio by Irving Penn

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June 28, 2026 8:07am EDT

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By Laird Borrelli-Persson

Like Angelina Jolie, we’re getting a head start on the fall 2026 couture season, which will run from July 6–9, with some pre-show content. Sean Sullivan, writing about the actor’s new movie, says the “instinct—to turn the camera away from the runway and toward the workroom—is the subversive heart of Couture.” Vogue writer Kate Betts took a similar approach when, in the December 1995 issue of the magazine, she addressed rumors of the métier’s decline, by interviewing the couturiers and artisans keeping the tradition alive.

The publishing of “The Glorious Tradition,” a 15-page story, coincided with the “Haute Couture” exhibition curated by Richard Martin and Harold Koda at The Costume Institute. Vogue commissioned a special portfolio from Irving Penn for it, which included portraits of Gianni Versace, Karl Lagerfeld, Philip Treacy, Mr. Pearl, and John Galliano as well as fashion photographs old and new. In 1950 in a small, naturally lit studio in Paris, Penn created some of the most famous fashion photographs of all time when he documented pieces from the 1950 couture season. In the 1995 editorial, black and white photographs from that series were shown besides new ones of Shalom Harlow in remarkable designs including a meringue-like Christian Lacroix dream dress and a crystal-beaded plastic sheath by Gianni Versace that weighed in at 16 pounds.