1. Sequined suit, Chanel, 1926
2 Long robe, Vionnet, 1932-35
Irving Penn took the photographs in 1974 using mannequins draped by Diana Vreeland in gowns she had chosen for exhibition at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum. She went to work there as fashion exhibitions curator in 1972. Her museum career is well documented in the recent book by Lisa Immordino Vreeland called Diana Vreeland : The Eye Has To Travel. The photographs were first published in Irving Penn's photo-catalog of the exhibition, Inventive Paris Clothes 1909-1939.