The Duchess of Cambridge is going to feature on the cover of British Vogue to mark the magazine’s centenary. A total of seven photographs were taken in the Norfolk countryside by photographer Josh Olins, which will appear in the June edition of the magazine. The shoot is in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, where two of the images will be displayed in the Vogue 100: A Century of Style exhibition. The Duchess of Cambridge has been a patron of the National Portrait Gallery since 2012.
Nicholas Cullinan, director of the National Portrait Gallery, said: “Josh has captured the duchess exactly as she is – full of life, with a great sense of humour, thoughtful and intelligent, and in fact, very beautiful.” He also said the images displayed what Vogue had done over the past 100 years – “to pair the best photographers with the great personalities of the day, in order to reflect broader shifts in culture and society”. The Duchess of Cambridge will visit the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery on Wednesday, where she will see her portraits on display next to a portrait of her father-in-law, the Prince of Wales.
Alexandra Shulman, editor-in-chief of British Vogue, has said: “To be able to publish a photographic shoot with the Duchess of Cambridge has been one of my greatest ambitions for the magazine.”
The Duchess of Cambridge is not the first royal to be featured in Vogue. She follows in the footsteps of her mother-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales, who has been on the cover four times and the Princess Royal.
A Kensington Palace spokesman said: “The duchess was delighted to play a part in celebrating the centenary of an institution that has given a platform to some of the most renowned photographers in this country’s history. She is incredibly grateful to the team at Vogue and at the National Portrait Gallery for asking her to take part. She would like to thank Josh Olins for being such a pleasure to work with. The duchess had never taken part in a photography shoot like this before. She hopes that people appreciate the portraits with the sense of relaxed fun with which they were taken.”
