Double Exposure

Good fashion photographers capture clothing. Great ones chronicle culture. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana draw this critical distinction as they present “Extreme Beauty in Vogue,” featuring nearly 100 images that reflect beauty’s role in society. All were published in U.S. Vogue over the past 75 years.

The Dolce & Gabbana duo commissioned the firm of Jean Nouvel, winner of last year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize, to transform the main room of Milan’s Palazzo della Ragione into a bi-level gallery. Deep-red velvet drapes the main level’s niches, where Edward Steichen, famous for his noirish Hollywood portraits, shares spaces with Steven Klein, he of the smoochy A-Rod shot. Upstairs, images by Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, and Annie Leibovitz are suspended back-to-back from the ceiling. A special section is devoted to 91-year-old Irving Penn, whose subjects range from Pablo Picasso to Balenciaga.

Following a star-studded premiere, the show continues through May 10, long enough to catch it during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile.

Clockwise from top: A 2006 photograph by Steven Klein appears in an exhibit designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel at Milan’s 13th-century Palazzo della Ragione. A 1949 image by Clifford Coffin. A Duane Michals, 1979. Erwin Blumenfeld’s shot from 1950.