The partnership of Edward Steichen and Marion Morehouse changed the course of fashion photography. As chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, Steichen propelled both titles into the age of modernism. And they came no more modern and streamlined than model Marion Morehouse, with her sleek head, attenuated limbs and ramrod back, all accentuated by Steichen’s dramatic lighting. At a stroke, his predecessor Baron de Meyer’s soft-focus aesthetic looked outmoded and trivial. Vogue’s proprietor Condé Nast told Steichen: “Every woman de Meyer photographs looks like a model. You make every model look like a woman.”
According to Steichen, “Miss Morehouse was no more interested in fashion than I was. But when she put on the clothes that were to be photographed, she transformed herself into a woman who would really wear that gown or that riding habit …” That models became so recognisable that they began to fascinate the public is often traced back to Marion Morehouse. And with justification. She was not an actress or a society figure but something new entirely, a dedicated model, and Vogue began to use her name in credit lines.