About Fashion Illustrators

The work of fashion illustrators, commercial artists who create non-photographic depictions of designers' clothes, is both descriptive and expressive. A fashion illustrator's drawing conveys more than simply the appearance of a model and the apparel she wears. These artists stylize a great deal to achieve the effects they seek, exaggerating some aspects of the clothing and figure and diminishing the significance of others. It is the personality or character of the look that is the subject of most fashion illustration. Because fashion illustrators can often communicate the personality of clothes or of a designer in a more personal and particular way than can photography, they are essential participants in the fashion industry.

History of

Late sixteenth century European books recording costumes from around the then-known world constitute the earliest fashion illustration. In the seventeenth century, French and German magazines dedicated to fashionable dress and manners reproduced the work of important designers. The proliferation of ephemeral print media in the final years of the eighteenth century increased the production of fashion illustrators. Their numbers and fame grew along with their primary audience, the middle class, possessed of both social aspirations and disposable income. In the late nineteeth century and early twentieth centuries, artists like Charles Dana Gibson and Paul Poiret were recognizable names, producing fashion illustrations valued in their own right.

Evolution

The increasing ease of photography changed the way fashion illustrators worked, for literally descriptive drawings of haute couture clothing were no longer necessary. Illustrators of the 1920s instead drew the clothes in a stylized way, suggestive of their elegance. The light and airy sketches that now characterize much of fashion illustration derive from this period. So too does the elongated figure, a head taller than a real woman, then established by illustrators like Helen Dryden.
The development of inexpensive color photo reproduction in the 1960s greatly reduced fashion magazines' need for drawings of clothes. But today, after its end has been predicted numerous times, fashion illustration is experiencing a renaissance. This is in part due to a reaction against fashion's emphasis on models and celebrity photographers.

Function

Designers hire illustrators whose style suits their own to make images of garments for several reasons: to help work out their ideas, for potential buyers to see or for other promotion. An effective illustration of clothes in process or of the finished product may convey the impression of a design better than a photo can. The relationship is sometimes reciprocal: an illustrator's drawings may allow the designer to make decisions about the direction of her own work. Some catalogs also use the work of fashion illustrators to create a unified look. While fashion illustration appears less often now than it once did in fashion magazine advertisements, when it is there, surrounded by photographs, it is striking in its difference.

Type

Fashion illustrators today work in a wider variety of modes than ever before. Fashion editor Laird Borrelli, in her book "Fashion Illustration Now"(Thames and Hudson, 2003), helpfully categorizes contemporary fashion illustrators into three distinct tendencies. The first she calls the Sensualists, artists whose illustrations are the most traditionally revealing of process and material. The Technocrats are those who employ digital means in the creation of their images. The Gamines and Sophisticates are playful, and by making whimsical reference to older forms of fashion illustration in their work, both undermine and renew the field. Borrelli provides as examples of each type Ruben Toledo, Jason Brooks and Jordi LaBanda, respectively.

Misconceptions

Good fashion illustrations look effortless, as if they could be dashed off in a minute. But they are actually complex visual messages, and the product of very disciplined hands and minds. Successful fashion illustrators may start with little more than a liking for clothes and a talent for drawing. But most receive training at a school of art or design, and all work hard at developing their signature style. The education they receive teaches both the history of their field and the principles of visual representation. This, along with practice and a close familiarity with the fashion industry, allows illustrators to choose the elements that will make each drawing succeed.

Resources

• This video by the artist David Clemen demonstrates different types of fashion illustration.
• Fashion-era.com provides a detailed history of fashion with a wealth of illustrations.
• Fashion Illustration Gallery displays the work of contemporary illustrators.