This photographic genre has spread from fashion magazines and is featured in coffee table books, art galleries and museums.

The oldest surviving photograph taken on camera was made by Nicéphore Niépce in 1826,[2] but people would soon use photography to present costumes and garb.

Many of the photographs depict her in official court attire while other outfits ranged from the theatrical to the absurd, making her arguably the first fashion model.

In 1911, photographer Edward Steichen was "dared" by Lucien Vogel [fr], the publisher of Jardin des Modes and La Gazette du Bon Ton, to promote fashion as a fine art by the use of photography.

That is, photographing the garments in such a way as to convey a sense of their physical quality as well as their formal appearance, as opposed to simply illustrating the object.

[6] Baron de Meyer's replacement as staff photographer would be Edward Steichen, himself, who brought in a crisp, modernist style focusing on the model rather than the settings and surroundings.

In the mid-1930s as World War II approached, the focus shifted to the United States, where Vogue and Harper's continued their old rivalry.

The covers they produced included celebrities as well as students; their work centered on haute couture and investigative journalism.

[12] From 1939 and onward, what had previously been the flourishing and sizeable industry of fashion photography all but stopped due to the beginnings of World War II.

Cecil Beaton's ‘Fashion is Indestructible’ from 1941 displays a well-dressed woman viewing the rubble that once was Middle Temple in London.

[15] In postwar London, John French pioneered a new form of fashion photography suited to reproduction in newsprint, involving natural light and low contrast.

[18] In 1983 Vanity Fair hired Annie Leibovitz as its first chief photographer to continue Steichen's legacy in modern photography through celebrity portraits.