STELLA TENNANT BY MARIO TESTINO FOR AMERICAN VOGUE, 2006 IN THE V&A'S MARIE ANTOINETTE
When the Victoria & Albert Museum unveils its landmark exhibition Marie Antoinette catalogue in London, one of Mario Testino’s most striking fashion portraits will take its place among history’s icons: Stella Tennant, New York, Vogue US, 2006. The image, originally published in Vogue’s May issue under the title No Rules Britannia, is part of the editorial now fondly remembered as Marie Antoinette Style.
Styled by Grace Coddington, with makeup by Diane Kendal and hair by Julien D’Ys, the story fused British heritage with theatrical grandeur. Dressed in John Galliano, Tennant personified a modern aristocracy, self-assured, graceful, and quietly rebellious. Shot in New York, the photographs translate the spirit of royal pageantry into something modern, cool, and unmistakably British.
The featured image stands as a key moment in Testino’s archive, now recontextualised through the lens of history. In the context of Marie Antoinette at the V&A, Tennant’s portrait becomes a meditation on the construction of power and poise, a dialogue between past and present, between Galliano’s couture imagination and Testino’s instinct for modernity.
The entire series was photographed inside The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Among its marble halls and grand staircases, Testino transformed one of the world’s most revered institutions into a cinematic stage, merging fashion and history in a single frame.
Stella Tennant, Jacquetta Wheeler, Karen Elson, Lily Donaldson and Lily Cole by Mario Testino, in New York, for American Vogue May 2006 issue, No-Rules Britannia Fashion Editorial
Stella Tennant and Lily Cole by Mario Testino, in New York, for American Vogue May 2006 issue, No-Rules Britannia Fashion Editorial
Stella Tennant and Lily Cole by Mario Testino, in New York, for American Vogue May 2006 issue, No-Rules Britannia Fashion Editorial
Stella Tennant, Jacquetta Wheeler, Karen Elson, Lily Donaldson and Lily Cole by Mario Testino, in New York, for American Vogue May 2006 issue, No-Rules Britannia Fashion Editorial
Stella Tennant, Jacquetta Wheeler, Karen Elson, Lily Donaldson and Lily Cole by Mario Testino, in New York, for American Vogue May 2006 issue, No-Rules Britannia Fashion Editorial
Over the years, this image has travelled widely, exhibited in In Your Face at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2013), which later toured to Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Berlin; in Todo o Nada at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (2010–2011), and in Mario Testino: Superstar at the Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, Saint Petersburg (2019). It was also featured in No Limits at Kunstforeningen GL STRAND in Copenhagen (2016).
As Marie Antoinette opens at the V&A, Tennant’s image steps into a new chapter. It bridges centuries of style and storytelling, reminding us that fashion has always been both mirror and metaphor. Testino’s photograph remains as powerful now as it was in 2006, not only a testament to beauty and craft, but to the enduring dialogue between rebellion and grace.