Fashion Illustration today

Illustration by Connie Lim

When I was a little girl I used to read my mother's fashion magazines. I lived in Italy back then and the riviste di moda that my stylish mother used to buy regularly were a source of endless fascination for me. There were pages of beautiful drawings of all the catwalk novelties and I used to love the figures - the Italian for fashion illustrator is figurinista and back then I dreamt that one day I would be one.
In pre-digital days photos took ages to develop so the fashion illustrator would often be found sketching furiously at catwalk shows, in order to have some drawings ready for the fashion magazine she worked for, the magazine being eager to show the newest catwalk trends. Famous magazines such as Vogue used to have drawings on their cover until the 1960s.
Somehow my dream of becoming a fashion illustrators evaporated - drawing was not really my thing and I developed other interests.
So it was quite amazing, many years later,  to be asked to model for fashion illustration classes, it brought back memories in some way and it also woke me up to the reality that fashion illustration has not died out, as I had thought, but it is undergoing a massive revival. It has changed of course but it is still thriving.

Photographer: Steven Brown 
Modelling for a fashion illustration class or workshop is quite interesting. It is similar to portrait modelling but poses tend to be standing ones and shoes are often worn as part of a mise. I tend to wear lots of fabric draped around the body, to give a fashiony sense to the pose. It is something that truly allows me to understand the relationship of clothes with the body, the way clothes are worn, the volumes created by the fabric. I love seeing the way illustrators capture the figure.
I have done a little reading about it. Yes, fashion photography has the upper hand today but illustration is truly alive and kicking. Blogs by fashion illustrators can easily be found online - Fashionista has a list of what it regards as the best ten fashion illustration blogs. Hopkins in his book Fashion Design states that good fashion illustration expresses a mood or emotion and this is why the best illustrators tend to work with life models.
Fashion illustration has also been anointed as art and prints now have a good market value. Andy Warhol began as illustrator and turned into a most influential pop artist and other illustrators have had their work turned into art prints - it is indeed an important acknowledgement of their skills and talent. The Fashion Illustration Gallery founded in 2007 curates shows and has a well stocked bookshop.
It would be wonderful to see more fashion illustration in magazines, why not? I also feel that illustrators, who often work with life models, with the latter having different body shapes, can do much to change the perception of the "ideal" body, even more so that photographers.


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