Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World

Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 9 October 2025 – 11 January 2026

Cecil Beaton (1904–1980), ‘the King of Vogue’, was an extraordinary figure in 20th-century British and American creative circles. A renowned fashion illustrator, Oscar-winning costume designer, social caricaturist and writer, Beaton elevated fashion photography and portraiture to an art form.

This catalogue of the first exhibition devoted exclusively to Beaton's contributions to fashion photography and portraiture presents Beaton at his peak, from the Jazz Age and the Bright Young Things to the glittering haute couture of the 1950s and the resounding, Oscar-winning success of My Fair Lady. Across London, Paris, New York and Hollywood, his iconic photographs captured the beauty, glamour and charisma of the stars of the interwar and early post-war years.

The book features portraits of some of the most iconic figures of the 20th century, including Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando, Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, as well as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Salvador Dalí.