Colin McDowell

Holly Brubach

Joelle Chariau

This stunning survey reveals the genre of fashion drawing to be an art form in its own right. Drawing Fashion celebrates renowned art dealer Jo'lle Chariau's unique collection of some of the most remarkable fashion illustrations from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These original works define the fine art of illustrating fashion, from Poiret, Chanel, Balenciaga, and Dior to Comme des Garçons, McQueen, and Viktor & Rolf. This catalogue, which accompanies the exhibition at the Design Museum in London, showcases fashion illustrators at their creative heights: Lepape at the beginning of the century, Bérard in the 1930s and Forties, Cecil Beaton in the Fifties, Antonio from the Sixties to the Eighties, and current artists Mats Gustafson, François Berthoud, and Aurore de La Morinerie. In their engaging and highly informative essays, Germany Times Magazine journalist Holly Brubach and London Sunday Times chief fashion writer Colin McDowell reveal how the art of drawing fashion continues to reflect not only the spirit and style of the decades, but also the wider social and cultural changes of the past century.

A Century of Fashion Illustration

Drawing Fashion

Effortless sophistication and timeless elegance are the hallmark of René Gruau's fashion illustration. Filled with iconic full-page reproductions, detailed drawings, and biographical insights, this glorious celebration traces a career that is inextricably linked to the history of Parisian haute couture. Before photography became the primary medium for marketing fashion, there was René Gruau with his pens, brushes, watercolors, and inks. Beginning in 1940 when he helped create the Miss Dior campaign, and for more than two decades, Gruau was at the forefront of fashion design. In addition to his long and fruitful partnership with Dior this book features sublime reproductions of Gruau's work with luxury designers such as Givenchy, Chanel, Balenciaga, Lacroix, and Schiaparelli. It looks at the artistic influences--from Toulouse-Lautrec to Kabuki theater--that shaped his use of pigment and line and demonstrates how, with just a few strokes and a splash of color, he managed to capture the perfection of a woman's hat, or make tangible a perfume's alluring scent. A gorgeous introduction to French fashion's golden age, this definitive volume is also an indispensable reference for anyone interested in fashion design, haute couture, and commercial illustration.

Joelle Chariau

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