The photography of Cecil
Beaton marks him out as one of the 20th century’s finest image-makers, equally
at home orchestrating high fashion shoots, documenting warzones or taking
high-society portraits, including those of the Royal Family, with whom he had a
long and close association.
The man behind the lens,
however, was also a fascinating subject in his own right. A self-professed
‘rabid aesthete’ from the age of 18, Beaton went on to amass an extraordinary
collection of bespoke clothing, much of which has been preserved for posterity
in New York’s Metropolitan Museum and the V&A in London.
Now
Beaton’s sartorial adventures have been lovingly curated by writer and fashion
historian Benjamin Wild in A Life in Fashion, featuring previously
unpublished archival material, conversations with Beaton’s former tailors (of
which, unsurprisingly, he had many) and a foreword by renowned fashion
photographer Tim Walker.
The book begins with
Beaton’s 1922 arrival in Cambridge as a bright young thing cutting a dash in
clad in red shoes, black-and-white trousers and a large cravat. After this
comes his Savile Row heyday in the Thirties and Forties — ever-experimental,
Beaton kept accounts with both Anderson & Sheppard and Hunstman, tailors
with very differing house styles – and his dalliances with the new fashion of
London as it began to swing in the Fifties and Sixties.
It’s both a fascinating
biography-through-fashion of a Zelig-like figure who led a remarkable life
while being impeccably dressed throughout, and an important document of men’s
style. In the words of Beaton himself: “All I want is the best of everything,
and there’s very little of that left.”
A Life in
Fashion: the Wardrobe of Cecil Beaton (Thames & Hudson) is out now.
http://www.esquire.co.uk/culture/article/9509/the-style-behind-the-camera/
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