Francesco Horvat: The Italian Photographer Who Took Fashion to the Streets of 1958 Paris

In 1958 Paris, thirty-year-old Italian photographer Francesco Horvat pulled fashion models out of the studio and shot them across the city — at the Gare de Lyon, in the metro, at the horse races, in public gardens, and even among the vegetable crates of Les Halles. He framed his images to include the bystanders around his subjects. Horvat worked for Jardin des Modes, the magazine he was introduced to by William Klein. As Ferdinando Scianna wrote in doppiozero after Horvat's death, the photographer was in all likelihood the first to work this way, at least in Europe. Fashion moved into the street and remained fashion — that is, prêt-à-porter — but became a matter of social custom beyond the glossy page, something to be observed outside its designated settings, though still within magazines. The photographer's gaze remained dominant, yet the strategy of displacement appears to have worked. In 1961 Horvat would repeat the approach. The piece, titled "Occhio rotondo 72. Mannequins," is by Marco Belpoliti and Anita Romanello and was published on doppiozero on Sunday, 20 September 2026.