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If you’d like to see fashion through an intellectual lens, you might want to stop by The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 6th to August 9th to view: Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion .   The exhibit’s gala opened May 4th with appearances by Marc Jacobs, Kate Moss, Anna Wintour and Justin Timberlake.  Anyone who has whined about whether or not Kate Moss has any authority to design clothes for Top Shop might be enlightened.  The show examines how and why certain models embodied the spirit of designers when they did and how particular personalities reflected our cultural zeitgeist by era.

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Models featured in the exhibit are Nadja Auermann, Naomi Campbell, Janice Dickinson, Dovima, Linda Evangelista, Lisa Fonssagrives, Jerry Hall, Shalom Harlow, Sunny Harnett, Lauren Hutton, Iman, Dorian Leigh, Donyale Luna, Peggy Moffitt, Kate Moss, Suzy Parker, Jean Shrimpton, Christy Turlington, Twiggy, Amber Valletta, and Veruschka, amongst others.

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Photographers included are Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Cecil Beaton, Gilles Bensimon, William Claxton, Patrick Demarchelier, Arthur Elgort, Hiro, William Klein, Annie Leibovitz, Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Norman Parkinson, Irving Penn, Gösta Peterson, Franco Rubartelli, Francesco Scavullo, Melvin Sokolsky, Bert Stern, Juergen Teller, Deborah Turbeville, Ellen von Unwerth, and Chris Von Wangenheim.

See shots of the Iconic models featured in the exhibit and the general gala hubub here.

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John Galliano brought the super of the supermodels together for Christian Dior’s 60^th Anniversary collection Canadian model Linda Evangelista (L), British model Naomi Campbell (3rdR), Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen (2nd R), and American born and bred Amber Valletta (R) for the finale of Christian Dior’s fall/winter 2007-2008 Haute Couture collection in Paris. This anniversary also marks’ Galliano his 10th year as Dior’s creative director.

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