History & Practice: Narrative Fashion Photography

Fashion magazines may include a set of thematically-linked images spread across several pages to convey a rhetoric.
Telling a story through fashion photography requires a conscious art-direction and multiple composed photographs so that all elements add to the narrative.

The following fashion story is from the 1985 October edition of British Vogue magazine.

The fashion story titles itself "The Scarlet Woman", unsurprisingly the colour red is frequently used throughout the series of images.
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I believe the narrative intention of this set is to convey an air of mystery surrounding this elegant, sophisticated, and coveted figure: The Scarlet Woman.

The demographic of such a set like this would be women (Vogue is a fashion magazine aimed at women), perhaps older women who would want to view themselves as an intriguing figure, creating passionate allure with their refined demeanour.

The location of this particular narrative is largely obscured by the backdrop of luxurious flowing fabrics, the attire, of the models included in this set would lead one to believe the setting is an upper class, almost aristorcratal locale. The amount of bold jewellery on display, the decadent excess of fabrics, and the leisurely poses all point to an upper class social event.

The use of cropped shots in this set obscure the model, which invites the viewer to fill in the gaps with their imagination, creating more engagement while adding to the overall theme of mystery and intrigue.
The retracted shots help to showcase the overall aesthetic of the model's attire and set the scene of this narrative.
Tighter shots focusing on the face of the model looking directly towards the camera creates a more intimate, passionate atmosphere, focusing the viewer's attention.

The use of red as the only bold colour in many of these images creates a passionate mood of desire, this is controlled throughout the story by how much red is on display within each picture, and how intense each red is.

The choice of font for the sub titles evokes an almost theatrical old-world theme. 
The condensed letterforms spaced out so much creates a feeling of early 20th century Film or Theatre show signage, a show, an event.
The body-text is soft, rounded, and not the most pleasant to read (but entirely legible), however this is mitigated by the greater leading and reduced quantity of body-text.
The positioning of text within this story keeps it out of the way, aligned to the edge of each page, it's clear that the photography is the main focus here.

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