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From left: a Cartier poster by Megan Hess; Erté's cover art for a 1915 issue of Bazaar; Bunny Ears by Tanya Ling for Louis Vuitton. Below: one of Kelly Smith's works for Valentino Parfums.
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ix years ago, little-known Melbourne illustrator Megan Hess was working on “anything and everything to pay the rent”, including uninspiring horse manuals, Kama Sutra books and pizza packaging. But in the blink of an eye everything changed. “I got a call in the middle of the night from Candace Bushnell’s book publisher, who had seen my work,” recalls Hess, who went on to design covers for the entire Sex and the City series. “The week of the global release I was contacted by Chanel, Dior and Tiffany & Co. I often wonder what I’d be doing if that call hadn’t come.” Now, Hess is one of the most sought after fashion illustrators, with private commissions from US First Lady Michelle Obama and Jimmy Choo pioneer Tamara Mellon under her belt.
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Currently, she is working on her “biggest project yet”, for a Dubai princess. “The trend of illustration is definitely growing,” says Jeremy Worstman, who represents Australia’s largest roster of illustrators at Melbourne’s Jacky Winter Group. “It’s one of the most effective mediums to transmit ideas and feelings and we are shifting into a time where brands are realising the emotional, financial and cultural benefits it can offer,” he says. It’s a sentiment echoed by Christine Cavallomagno, director of illustration at Jed Root, one of the world’s leading creative management agencies. “I think the demand for illustrators who employ traditional drawing and painting techniques is a response to today’s sophisticated digital means of producing art as well as the growth of photography as the dominant commercial art form,” she says. Illustration is back on the drawing board, so to speak, undergoing a renaissance as high-profile fashion brands increasingly collaborate with illustrators; Prada commissioned street artists to create murals for its S/S 2014 show which ended up on the clothes; M.A.C emblazoned the glamorous ’70s fashion illustrations of Antonio Lopez on its cosmetics range; J.Crew is currently working with prolific illustrator Tanya Ling on paper images for its new London store.
H a r p e r s B A Z AAR . c o m . a u January/February 2014
courtesy of the artists; Harper's BAZAAR
The age-old art of fashion illustration is being resurrected thanks to the rise of new talent around the globe. Meet the newgen illustrators who are drawing attention. By CARLI PHILIPS
Thanks to his blog What I Saw Today, the international profile of New York sketcher Richard Haines has skyrocketed. Chronicling street style with impressive immediacy, Haines’s irreverent charcoal and graphite etchings have led to collaborations with Carven and accessories brand JvdF. Recently he worked with Prada on its Il Palazzo project, documented the ready-to-wear 2014 menswear shows for Mr Porter and reported (in portraiture) for GQ at New York fashion week. But is illustration necessary in the age of Photoshop? “Even more so,” insists SarahCarter Jenkins, fashion illustrator and lecturer of design at the Whitehouse Institute. “We are so used to seeing slick imagery in our media-saturated lives, but some of the most exciting images are from the imaginative power of paper and pencil.” Indeed, illustration’s resurgence is a response to a pervasive photographic landscape. Street style floods our newsfeeds; who posts first wins. But we need respite from the bombardment of digital images, says Haines. “People crave the human line, the interpretation illustration provides in a way that photography doesn’t.” This alternative appeals to Paspaley Pearls in its partnerships with Hess. “Beautiful photos are expected; beautiful illustrations are not, and I think this is why people react so well,” says creative director Christine Salter. “There’s a wit, charm and timelessness to Megan’s illustrations; it’s added a new dimension to what we do.” t h e n Legendary artist Erté signed an exclusive contract with Harper’s BAZAAR in 1915, but his Deco style was eventually surpassed by the charcoal realism of American Carl Erickson. While illustration declined with the advent of photography, René Bouché and Parisian Christian Bérard were in demand nonetheless, documenting twice-yearly collections for the press. By the 1960s Andy Warhol’s iconic Pop Art aesthetic had exploded, with his bold sartorial drawings featured in all the major fashion titles.The ’70s saw a change of pace, with Tony Viramontes’s striking New Wave fashion imagery reigning supreme. Viramontes died of AIDS in 1988, but his illustrations were featured in a new book, exhibition and Bergdorf Goodman window display last year. NOW The work of international fashion illustrator and celebrity portraitist David Downton has never gone out of style and in 2013 he was crowned Vanity Fair’s artist in residence at Claridge’s. Seasoned print illustrator Jean-Philippe Delhomme is also at the top of his game, charting new
territory with satirical blog The Unknown Hipster. Garance Doré’s site merges photography, text and illustrations. “Sometimes I start a drawing on paper and finish it on computer, sometimes the other way around,” says Doré, whose debut book is expected in early 2014, and the Londonbased animator, designer, illustrator and allround It girl Quentin Jones is refining the genre with her cool digital collages. N e x t Blogs, apps Behance and Paper 53, and social media platforms Flickr and Tumblr are affording independent creatives unprecedented exposure. Expect big things of 21-year-old Hayden Williams, whose “old-school pencil, paper and marker” sketches of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Beyoncé were Instagrammed by the stars, leading to posts on the latter’s official website and Facebook page. “Stylistically, there’s been a steady rise in the technique of finely rendered pencil transcriptions,” observes William Ling of London’s Fashion Illustration Gallery. One to watch? Tasmanian Kelly Smith, whose feminine lines caught the eye of Valentino Parfums and graced the invites to Jenny Packham’s S/S 2014 show.
Clockwise from top: Tony Viramontes for Nina Ricci, 1985; Other Commandments by Garance Doré; Beauty Masks by Jeanne Detallante for Prada S/S 2014; David Downton for YSL, 2006.
“People crave the human line, the interpretation illustration provides in a way that photography doesn’t.” – Richard Haines