Who is Model Marion Morehouse and MET

The Edward Steichen: In High Fashion exhibit currenty at the International Center of Photography features the finest examples of his fashion and celebrity portraiture made for Vogue and Vanity Fair, of these a models I saw one specifically many times photographed. Her name is Marion Morehouse. I wondered who she was and I wrote her name in my journal and Googled her today.

She was an actress and a model and photographer, she was the third wife of poet E. E. Cummings. (who is known as an American poet, painter, author, and playwright)
Marion was one of the first models to be known in the public.

An up coming exhibit called Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion will also feature photographs of Marion at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 6 through August 9, 2009.

"The exhibition will examine a timeline of fashion over the past 100 years through the paradigm of the fashion model," said Harold Koda, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute. "We look at the power of clothing, fashion photography, and the model to project the look of an era. With a mere gesture, or the line of her body, a truly stellar model can sum up the attitude of her time, creating an alluring synergy between herself and the clothing to communicate a designer's message to the wider world."

"The emergence of the modern woman in prewar society and the photography of Edward Steichen set the stage for Marion Morehouse—one of the first models known to the larger public by name."

Both of these exhibits are something any model should see, to understand history is to understand the business today.

Photo by Edward Steichen, Marion Morehouse (aka Mrs. e. e. Cummings), Louiseboulanger dress, 1926

For more on models and the history of the modeling business and photographers who helped shape it read Michael Gross's book called The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women, -it is one of my favorites and it is quite a catch!