During the 1930s, Wallis Simpson was a frequent subject of Cecil Beaton’s photographs.
Shortly before Wallis’s marriage to the Duke of Windsor in May 1937, Cecil Beaton was asked to take some official photographs of the bride-to-be at the Château de Candé, where she was staying as a guest of Charles Bedeaux.
Since many of the past photographs of Simpson were unflattering, Beaton had a bright idea and suggested more romantic-looking pictures, including an image of her standing in the château’s garden wearing the Schiaparelli Lobster dress. The infamous lobster dress was a design collaboration with Salvador Dalí that grew out of the lobsters that started appearing in the artist’s work in 1934.
Beaton took almost a hundred photographs during the session with Simpson, and Vogue devoted an eight-page spread to the results (source).
Wallis Simpson in the infamous Schiaparelli dress decorated in the Dali lobster print by Cecil Beaton, 1937
Wallis Simpson in the infamous Schiaparelli dress decorated in the Dali lobster print by Cecil Beaton, 1937 via
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