The Dina Vierny Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition "Willy Maywald and Fashion" as part of the celebration of the gallery's 70th anniversary.

Willy Maywald was an important companion of Dina Vierny, a close friend, from the opening of the gallery in 1947 until Maywald's passing in 1985. He particularly captured black and white images of Maillol's sculptures for exhibitions and appraisals. One year after Maywald's death, Dina Vierny established the Willy Maywald Association, currently chaired by Jutta Niemann, which continues to preserve and disseminate the Willy Maywald collection.

Born in 1907 in the city of Cleves, Germany, Wilhelm Maywald – later changed his first name to Willy – arrived in France in 1931. He quickly became part of the artist circles in the Montparnasse district, which he began to photograph. Recognized after the war for his portraits of artists, he was equally renowned for his work in fashion. As the first photographer for the house of Dior, he captured its inaugural collection in 1947 and subsequently became its official photographer. He also produced numerous photographs for other major fashion houses such as Givenchy, Balenciaga, Jacques Fath, or Edward Molyneux, to name a few.

The nineteen silver gelatin prints exhibited by the Dina Vierny Gallery, developed by Maywald himself, offer a splendid overview of French haute couture in the post-war years. These photos contributed to perpetuating the myth of French elegance by showcasing the creations of the greatest couturiers of that era. Whether in front of a Rolls-Royce or a Cadillac hood, on the banks of the Seine or in the colonnade of the Palais Royal, Maywald, one of the first to take fashion photography out of the studios, used the city as a poetic backdrop to the graceful, subtle, and refined elegance of the women he photographed.

Far from extravagant setups, Maywald simply placed his models in a natural setting. Avoiding the spectacular and artificial, he knew how to extract the essence of his subjects through simple means (his Rolleiflex and three small projectors that he carried everywhere in an ice skate bag). All of this lends a great lightness to his photos. The model stands alone with her dress in a deserted setting, only to affirm the talent of the couturiers he represented. Thus, his models, placed with grace, full of curves and counter-curves, illuminated these now-iconic photographs.

Willy Maywald succeeded in conveying the grandeur and nobility of aristocratic portraits to his models, whom he photographed with a subtle balance. This is how he gave the women of Dior or Fath such a delicate aspect, characterized by his own sobriety.