Now, generations of covers and pages have been painstakingly photographed and digitised for an exhibition opening Friday at the National Portrait Gallery.

"It's like a time capsule in here," laughed model Samantha Harris at the gallery on Thursday.

In 2010, Ms Harris became the second Indigenous woman to ever grace to cover of Vogue - and admits her mum still has dozens of copies of the issue.

"My whole career is in boxes at Mum's house," she said. "I still can't believe they put me on the cover, I was only 19. Now I'm on the wall over there."

Vogue Australia began in 1959 as an outpost of the British magazine with a distinctly "colonial" view of the continent, according to current editor-in-chief Edwina McCann.

It was largely a gamble, only the fourth Vogue in the world at the time, but publishers were betting on the growing appetite for couture among Australia's wealthy sheep farming regions.

It's second - and distinctly Australian editor - Sheila Scotter was a "legend", Ms McCann says. Renowned for wearing all black, the Melbournian ran in the circles of Australian high society and brought out great photographers to visit including Princess Margaret's husband Lord Snowden.

By then, the paper was rapidly developing its own voice - as the push for civil rights and sexual freedom, along with the introduction of the Pill (and the miniskirt), changed women's lives.

But Ms McCann admitted some past stories still raised eyebrows for the team sorting through the collection.

"We did have to take stock of some of the crazy diets we published," she said.

There was also a memorable article from the 60s devoted to "how to keep your woman happy". It started promisingly enough, McCann said, with the advice: "make sure her cigarette is always lit".

Despite the grim forecast looming over the print industry, she said revenue at the magazine was still booming in 2019 as it expanded into events and new platforms.

"We've always been about telling women's stories, we're doing more now about social issues and sustainability, but portrait is still so important." she said.

"People don't discard us. We've almost become a luxury item ourselves."

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Featured among the collection are a selection of gowns and costumes from past shoots - along with Julie Bishop's now infamous red shoes.

"In Australia there's always been this thing if you're intelligent you must not care about fashion, which is just not the case in places like France or even the UK," Ms McCann said.

"But [Julie] was someone bold enough to use fashion proudly, and that showed me you could be at the top of your game and you didn't have to dress like a man."

Ms McCann was a young fashion assistant at the magazine in the 90s when the likes of Baz Luhrmann guest edited an issue.

"I've since had Emma Watson guest edit one on sustainability," she said.

"She really pushed us on diverse casting too and I'm glad she did."

The magazine recently followed Ms Harris to remote Aboriginal communities in the top end, and Ms McCann is still glowing from a photo-shoot at the Adelaide home of top model and refugee Adut Akech.

"She's now the biggest model in the world. [Our first publisher] at Vogue came to Australia as a refugee too."

Gallery director Karen Quinlan said the Vogue exhibition was the gallery's first since closing its doors for renovations in April. It will run until November 24.