CANOODLING WITH JULIA — TESTINO, ROBERTS, AND THE ART OF PRESENCE

When Viktor & Rolf: Fashion Statements opens at the High Museum in Atlanta this October, one image will draw both recognition and reflection: Canoodling with Julia (1999), Mario Testino’s Vanity Fair portrait of Julia Roberts dressed in Viktor & Rolf. The photograph is part of fashion’s collective memory, luminous, composed, and effortlessly magnetic.

Styled by Lori Goldstein, with hair by Orlando Pita and makeup by Tom Pecheux, Roberts appears both playful and poised. The Viktor & Rolf look is theatrical yet tender, transforming couture into dialogue. The title Canoodling with Julia hints at intimacy, but what the image really captures is distance and allure, the fine line between actor and icon, self and performance.

It is not simply a fashion image. It stands at the intersection of celebrity, design, and art. Over the years, Canoodling with Julia has travelled widely: first shown at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2002, it went on to Milan, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Tokyo, Mexico City, Lima, Beijing, Shanghai, and Seoul. Few portraits have moved through as many institutions or retained such freshness in each new context.

Now it returns to the spotlight within Fashion Statements, where it becomes part of the Viktor & Rolf story, both subject and statement. Within this curatorial frame, the photograph speaks to fashion as an enduring form of art, and to Testino’s instinct for creating images that evolve with time.

In 2025, it resonates anew. In an era of relentless imagery, this portrait reminds us that presence does not need to be loud. Roberts’ steady gaze, Testino’s measured composition, and the restrained intimacy of the scene hold power without spectacle.

For collectors, Canoodling with Julia carries more than nostalgia. It has institutional presence, a photograph that bridges celebrity and curation, now part of the permanent conversation between fashion and art.

As the exhibition opens on October 10, Julia Roberts reappears not as a character, but as a collaborator in stillness. Through Testino’s lens, she remains suspended in a moment that continues to captivate, twenty-six years later.