William Wegman / Fashion Photographs

Synopsis

William Wegman didn’t always dress up his dogs. But one day in the late 1980s, after taking a good, long look at his canine companion Fay Ray, he decided to literally put this “woman of power, depth, and hypnotic beauty” on a pedestal. Before long, with a little fabric here and a few touches there, the naturally graceful Fay and her charismatic progeny were the subjects of multiple series of fanciful large-format photographs.

William Wegman Fashion Photographs, originally published to accompany a major traveling exhibition, highlights one of the artist’s most provocative and inventive portfolios: a collection of more than fifty eerily anthropomorphic and very funny high-fashion pictures shot with a 20 x 24” Polaroid camera. Modeling clothes and accessories by some of the world’s most well-known designers, including Jean Paul Gaultier, Helmut Lang, Alexander McQueen, Issey Miyake, Todd Oldham, and Anna Sui, canine supermodels Battina, Chundo, Chooky, and Chip display all the attitude and insouciance of their human counterparts. Coyly confident yet vulnerable, mysterious yet utterly familiar, they play on our cultures obsession with beauty, style, luxury, and celebrity.

A candid preface by Wegman and an insightful foreword by Vanity Fair editor Ingrid Sischy set the stage for these remarkable photographs, providing more information about the artist, his unusual models, and the unique relationship they have with one another—and with fashion.

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William Wegman, famous for incorporating clothed dogs in his photos, here presents a fashion statement to accompany a major traveling exhibition: anthromorphic fashion photos modeling some of the best designers' creations - with canines. The result blends comedy with fashion insights.