Taken by David Bailey for British Vogue in 1975, this photograph brings together supermodel Marie Helvin and shoe designer Manolo Blahnik in a precisely composed fashion image, with a dress by Bruce Oldfield and the creative direction of the celebrated Vogue stylist Grace Coddington.

This particular work has exceptional provenance, as it is from the private collection of Marie Helvin, who has reflected that “Renowned shoe designer Manolo Blahnik was not a model but Bailey adored working with him and shot with him numerous times over the years for Vogue and other fashion magazines". The natural rapport and creative power between the figures binds together Bailey’s lens, Blahnik’s presence, and Helvin’s modelling poise at a moment when Vogue was consolidating its role as a crucible for modern style. It is a notable example of Bailey’s 1970s editorial practice: a fusion of portraiture and high fashion, and within Bailey's wider 1970s Vogue archive, the photograph also sits in dialogue with his celebrated Nice group portraits of Helvin, Anjelica Huston and Blahnik from 1973.

Marie Helvin emerged as one of the defining supermodels of the 1970s and 1980s, with an extensive presence in British Vogue and a decade-long creative and personal relationship with David Bailey, to whom she was married from 1975 to 1985. Manolo Blahnik, born in 1942 in the Canary Islands, is the Spanish designer whose eponymous luxury shoe house has become one of the most recognisable names in fashion history.