The Vogue Fashion Photography of Lee Miller during WW2, with Ami Bouhassane

* PLEASE NOTE THIS TALK WILL NOT BE RECORDED*

'... she [Lee Miller] has borne the whole weight of our studio production through the most difficult period in Brogue’s [British Vogue’s] history’.
Wrote Audrey Withers, Lee Miller’s editor at British Vogue, in 1941

Many know Lee Miller’s name in connection to her inspirational World War 2 reportage. Others through her Surrealist Photography and iconic images taken during the 1930s from her Paris Studio and later her successful New York Studio. More recently, her re-invention as a gourmet cook, in her later years, has received attention. However, little examination has been made into the depth of her fashion photography. Especially work during the four and a half year period which spans from when she joined Roland Penrose in London in 1939, until just after D-Day, when she left Britain to cover the allies advance in Europe during the war.

Lee Miller’s photography of British fashion for Vogue during World War 2 was prolific yet few are aware of the full extent of this body of her work.

Images: Hats, Vogue Studio, London, England 1942 by Lee Miller (4391-7) © Lee Miller Archives, England 2025. All rights reserved.

Female war correspondent Lee Miller, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, U.S. Army Official Photograph, Public Domain

Speaker:

Ami Bouhassane is Trustee of the Lee Miller Archives and Co-Director of Farleys House & Gallery Ltd, the organisation that manages the Archives, The Penrose Collection, its galleries and sculpture garden. Ami has worked in the Lee Miller Archives for over 26 years, caring for the works, as well as organising exhibitions and loans of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose (her grandparents) work and collections that are exhibited and travel throughout the world. Ami is a lecturer, an author and a podcast presenter. Following the success of her first podcast series on Lee Miller and Roland Penrose’s love letters has just finished and she’s now working on one based on Lee Miller’s wartime letters.

Ami’s first book ‘Lee Miller: A Life with Food, Friends and Recipes', published in 2017 has won 3 awards, including the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) Jane Grigson award for scholarship.

The other two awards were: Winner of - IPPY (Independent Publishers) Gold award for cookbook category 2018 & Winner of – IACP award for Literary or historical food writing category 2019.

Other publications:

• Lee Miller: Fashion in wartime Britain by Ami Bouhassane, Amber Butchart & Robin Muir ISBN: 978-0953238989
• Grim Glory: Lee Miller’s Britain at war by Ami Bouhassane, Lee Miller Archives Press, 2020, ISBN: 978-0953-23-8965
• Lee Miller by Ami Bouhassane, Eiderdown Press, 2019, ISBN: 978-1-9160416-4-6
• Photographer Lee Miller: The liberation of Denmark, May 1945, One of 2 contributors, essay ‘Lee Miller and the Mermaid’ by Ami Bouhassane, The Museum of National History at Frederiksberg, 2018. ISBN: 978-87-93049-21-5
• Lee Miller: A Life with Food, Friends & Recipes by Ami Bouhassane, Grapefrukt Forlag with Penrose Film Productions Ltd, 2017 ISBN: 978-82-997574-5-4

Podcasts:

• Lee Miller: Fashion in wartime Britain presented by Ami Bouhassane – guests; Hilary Roberts, Amber Butchart, Robin Muir, Antony Penrose, Julie Summers and Viviane Sasson – available on Spotify and Acast.
• Love Letters bound in gold handcuffs – 18 part series based on the 300 pages of love letters between Lee Miller and Roland Penrose 1937-1939. Available to Lee Miller Archives Patreon subscribers.

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ONLINE PROGRAMME 2025

Follow the Costume & Textile Association's Eventbrite page to receive notifications when new events are posted. Talks are held monthly on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings at 7pm.

Spring & Summer 2025

Weds 22 January Briefly: Men's Underwear and Swimwear 1940s - 2020s with Dr Shaun Cole, Associate Professor in Fashion at Winchester School of Art

Tues 11 February Recording Historical Costume Pattern Drafts with Anna Deacon, GSMB award winner

Wed 12 March Recycled Denim Art, 'The Secret Garden' and other Artworks with Ian Berry, Visual Artist

Tues 8 April Stitching like it's 1066: a Bayeux-style 'Tapestry' for Norwich Castle Keep with Nik Ravenscroft, Project Co-ordinator

Tues 6 May Lorina Bulwer's Embroidered Letters with Ruth Battersby, Senior Curator, Costume and Textiles, NMS

Tues 24 June The Vogue Fashion Photography of Lee Miller during WW2 with Ami Bouhassane, Trustee of the Lee Miller Archives (**Please note this talk is Not being recorded)

Tues 15 July Japanese Textile Techniques on Historic Kimono with Dr Rosanna Rios, Textile Artist

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