In Paris, this exhibition traces 60 years of fashion through the lens of Irving Penn, opening in September.

Irving Penn makes his mark at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie with PENN & FASHION, running from September 30, 2026 to January 17, 2027. Spanning more than six decades of images, the exhibition shows how his eye reshaped the rules of fashion photography, from Dior and Balenciaga to Issey Miyake, Chanel, and John Galliano.

This autumn, fashion goes under the lens of Irving Penn at the European House of Photography, in the the 4th arrondissement of Paris. From 30 September 2026 to 17 January 2027, the exhibition PENN & FASHION traces more than six decades of work and looks back at how the American photographer moved fashion photography off the magazine pages to give it real artistic reach.

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The show brings together images created between 1947 and 2008 to trace the evolution of Penn's eye, from the early Paris haute couture series to the color-rich compositions of the late career. It mainly reveals how Penn rode the major shifts in fashion. In the 1950s, he captured the clean lines of Dior and Balenciaga on Lisa Fonssagrives or Jean Patchett. Two decades later, silhouettes loosen, cuts quicken: Ungaro and Courrèges enter the frame, soon followed by Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld. Marisa Berenson and Lauren Hutton embody this new, more direct, more mobile allure, which Penn captures without ever reducing the image to the garment alone.

A portion of the exhibition also focuses on its relationship with Issey Miyake. The sculptural volumes of the Japanese designer naturally catch the photographer’s eye, attuned to the structure of a room, the way it falls, and how it shapes the body.

His later work extends this exploration of matter and volume. The gowns by John Galliano, the opulent silhouettes of Christian Lacroix, and Chanel’s feathered headdresses appear there in color photographs, while the beauty series he shot for Vogue in the 1990s and 2000s reveal another facet of his practice, one that focuses more on faces, makeup, and details.

The exhibition centers on photographs held in the collections of the MEP and by collector Nicola Erni, supplemented by loans from the Irving Penn Foundation and the Miyake Issey Foundation. This carefully chosen selection lets viewers gauge, image after image, how Penn reshaped the way we look at fashion.

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