Research Task: Fashion Illustration History

For this research task, I should explore fashion illustration in the 1950's and the 1990's, then compare them.

Looking into 1950's

Observing the illustrations, I found that the illustration were created with a lot more movement and expressive line-making; I found that the line-work was prominent and bold, vividly capturing your attention to the figures. Barbara Hulanick used lots of expressive lines to create volume and capturing the dimensions of the sketch designs, additionally, that artistic edge as they create dynamic faces to give the illustration more character.

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René Gruau (1950's)

Heavy influence and inspiration from the art nouveau era by my initially observation of their work, with eye-catching bold line-work and bold eye-catching colours. High contrasting colours with elegant line-work with each model pose being expressive, appealing and dynamic. I've taken a big liking to Rene Gruau's work, previously, I have explored art nouveau era and love the bold lines and flowing lines- their work is ahead of it's time, I would love to see this style everywhere. 2

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Looking into 1990's

The illustrations become more abstract, the imagery is bold by their shape and colour (not necessarily their lines). The work is more inclusive and they capture more what it feels like to be a woman in high fashion than the high fashion itself (in comparison to the 1950s); the idea is to capture what a woman "should" be.

4

Mats Gustafson

Mats Gustafson has a unique style, with incredible use of shape language to convey the model using watercolour- doing so, by using pools of water to create tones, leaving a darker pigment while creating a gradient to the lighter areas. The illustrations are very abstract and monochrome, and leaves a lasting impression on it's viewer, not capturing the detail of the fashion but capturing the shape and tones.

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Comparison

Illustration of Fashion has changed with the different trends that come round every few year, trends are becoming more hung dry everyday the more we discover (rediscover it most cases), fashion is dispensable-- we find ourselves always finding something new to use, something "modern".

However, with this in mind, what I've noticed from personal experience is that people are starting to go with what they personally like, a particular "core". This could be anything, like dressing up in Y2K, Barbiecore, Cottagecore, Fairycore- the list could go on really.

This changing fashion reflects the art industry as well, as we turn to different styles of art. In a previous research task, I came across the trends of the graphic design industry and it was so diverse and ever-changing that I found the video itself a contradiction.

1960's, 70's, 80's.

Fashion illustration takes inspiration from it's prior years to help drive that consistent "eye" on fashion. Lately, however, you hardly see the fashion illustration in the public eye since we have cameras to capture the models wearing the clothes and 4K video to capture how a dress could flow. I looked into one of the most famous magazines in fashion, Vogue and tried to find fashion illustrations, filtering through the magazine colours from 1892 to 2024. The most recent illustration cover being Late 2020, but never seen again till 1958! 6

Vogue Fashion illustration History

Researching this task, I came across a really insightful video about the illustration history of Vogue, finding out that the first 40 years of Vogue had illustration. Vogue wanted people to know what the rich were wearing, that they were using (perfumes and makeup), and what the gossip was-- and had to compete with Bazaar to get people's attention, which meant having the most attractive covers to lead people in.

Vogue would use famous artist at first to pull audiences in (audience recognition), before getting dedicated illustrators to create beautiful and iconic contemporary covers. Initially, Vogue would show the covers in colour and must show the magazine name, it should be refined and delicate.

As the world changed, Vogue would use the cover to show current events and the fashion trends, Vogue had to keep up with all of it. Always though, a beautiful illustration be on the front; one of the Vogue artists, Eduardo Garcia Benito. His work would be iconic for it's long bodies and elegant ladies with vibrant colour, every artist trend that came along, like the geometric style of art deco.

Art deco would help leave their mark in the fashion world, it would be the most influential before turning to realism art to drive the modern era forward. However 1930's considered the start of photography and ending the illustration era. With the last artist being Carl Erikson, my personal favourite, Carl Erikson was well-known for his depictions of a lady in delicate ink and watercolour and always holding something or doing something-- living life. After that, photography takes over.

Evaluation

This research task was really fun to explore, it's given a new-found interest into the illustration of fashion; I would like to use the influence of René Gruau, since I really like that style of bold lines and colour with high contrasts. With the research and dive into Vogue, I feel like I can confidently approach the next exercise

1 V&A, Barbara Hulanicki 'Fashion Illustration', V&A. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1247897/fashion-illustration-illustration-barbara-hulanicki/ Accessed Feb 15, 2024.

2 U/A, artnet 'René Gruau',U/A. https://www.artnet.com/artists/ren%C3%A9-gruau/?period=1950to1959 Accessed Feb 15, 2024.

3 Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, 'rené gruau', U/A. https://www.stephenongpin.com/object/790256/0/the-hunting-jacket Accessed Feb 15, 2024.

4 Art Space Editors, Art Space 'See the Evolution of Fashion Illustration Through 10 Seminal Artists, From Dalí to Delhomme', July 7, 2016. https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/phaidon-fashion-book-fashion-illustrators-53980 Accessed Feb 15, 2024.

5 Mats Gustafson, matsgustafson, U/A. http://matsgustafson.org/ Accessed Feb 15, 2024.

6 Vogue, Vogue Archive, U/A. https://archive.vogue.com/issues/2020 Accessed Feb 15, 2024.

6 Fashion History Sessions, YouTube 'Vogue - The illustration Years - FASHION HISTORY SESSIONS', June 9, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfA1nlCpgt0 Accessed Feb 15, 2024.