Fashion Illustrations - Basics of Fashion Illustrations

Fashion Illustration: The "Devil of Fashion" with a 500-year history

Fashion illustration has existed for nearly 500 years. Since the emergence of clothes, it has been necessary to design clothes. Ideas or images transformed into fashion illustrations. This visual form originated in illustration, drawing and painting, and is also known as "fashion sketching". Fashion designers mainly use "fashion sketching" to brainstorm ideas on paper or digitally. Its main role in design is to preview and visualize the final result before sewing the actual clothes.

Next, we will take a look at the historical development process of fashion illustration, the "devil of fashion" with a history of 500 years, in stages.

1. The Beginning of Fashion Illustration

Fashion illustration began in the 16th century, when global exploration and discovery led to people's fascination with the clothes of people in various countries around the world. Books illustrating appropriate clothing for different social classes and cultures were printed to help combat the fear of change and the social unrest caused by these discoveries.

Between 1520 and 1610, more than 200 such engravings, etchings or woodcuts were published, containing panels of figures dressed as a particular nationality or caste. These are the earliest illustrations of clothing and the prototype of modern fashion illustrations. These illustrations are likely to be used by dress designers, dressmakers, and their clients to inspire new designs.

Seventeenth-century artists Jacques Callot and Abraham Bosse both used modern engraving techniques to create realistic details of period clothing and costumes.

These periodicals began in France and England in the 1670s and are considered the first fashion magazines, and include Le Mecure Gallant, The Lady's Magazine, La Gallerie des Modes, Le Cabinet des Modes and Le Journal des Dameset des Modes. During this period, the number of published periodicals increased, in response to the market's growing female readership hungry for the latest fashion news. It was not until the late 18th and early 19th century that male-style illustrations became as important as female illustrations.

2. The fashion plate in the 19th century

The fashion plate came to the forefront in the late 18th century and became popular in Paris. During this period, publications such as Horace Venet's "Incroyable set Merveilleuses" etc. objects, as well as a series of watercolor fashion pictures engraved by Georges-Jacques Gatine during the Napoleon I period, both became famous for a while.

France’s position as the arbiter of fashion ensures a constant demand for fashion illustrations at home and abroad. This interest in, and increasingly widespread access to, fashionable clothing resulted in more than 150 fashion periodicals in the 19th century. These highly detailed fashion illustrations capture information on fashion trends and provide general dressmaking guidance.

Haute couture customization also appeared at this stage (appeared in the 1860s). Fashion companies hired illustrators, who would work directly with women's clothing designers. When the designers hung the fabrics on the live models, the illustrations The designer will sketch out the new design. They also create illustrations of each design in the finished collection, which can then be sent to clients.

By the end of the 19th century, hand color printing was replaced by full color printing. Fashion patterns began using two figures, one of which could be seen from the back or side, so that the garment could be seen from more angles, making copying easier. The focus of 19th century illustrators was accuracy and detail. They adhere to static image conventions in order to provide comprehensive information and guidance to the viewer.

3. Fashion magazines and illustrations in the 20th century

In the early decades of the 20th century, fashion illustrations in the modern sense blossomed for the first time. As the distribution of the latest fashion styles became increasingly profitable, the job of fashion illustrator became a profession. Fashion, formerly the work of individual artists, is now becoming an industry, producing new merchandise in unprecedented quantities to fill department store shelves. These stores invented a new pastime in full name - shopping culture.

Gazettedubonton, a French luxury magazine published from 1912 to 1925, brought together a group of young artists who were given unprecedented freedom in interpreting fashion. Iribe was the leading figure among these fashion illustrators, contributing to prestigious publications that also included Charles Martin, Eduardo Garcia Benito, George · George Barbier, Georges Lepape and Umberto Brunelleschi.

The plates they produced for the Gazette showed the influence of Japanese woodblock prints, as well as new changes in Art Deco style.

In the United States, mass-market fashion magazines Vogue and Harper's Bazaar cover social occasions as well as contemporary clothing trends. Harper's Bazaar magazine signed an exclusive contract with the genius Erte, which lasted from 1915 to 1938 and was one of the longest contracts in publishing history.

From 1910 to the outbreak of World War II, Vogue magazine always featured illustrations on its covers. Early covers of Vogue featured illustrations by American illustrators Helen Dryden, George Wolf Plank, Georges Lepape, and F.X. Leyendecker of artwork.

After World War I, they were joined by European artists, including Eduardo Benito, Charles Martin, Pierre Brissaud ) and AndreMarty.

4. The Golden Age of Fashion Illustration

The 1920s to 1930s represented the "golden age" of fashion illustration. Every commercial artist is considered a fashion artist and is a consummate draftsman. Many people can represent the texture, sheen and even weight of a fabric with authority and conviction.

New technological developments in photography and printing began to place reproductions of photographs directly on the pages of magazines, meaning that fashion graphics were no longer representative of modern life. By the early 1930s, photographs began to become the magazine's first choice, with Vogue reporting in 1936 that photographic covers were selling better and illustrations were beginning to be incorporated into the inside pages.

With the economic recession following the 1929 stock market crash, the American fashion industry became less dependent on Parisian fashion. During the interwar period, clothing manufacturing in the United States made great strides, improving mass production methods and standardizing sizing. Middle-class women relied on skilled seamstresses to purchase the latest fashion designs at affordable prices, while magazines such as Vogue and Women's Journal published patterns that were invaluable to home dressmakers.

The main purpose of Vogue magazine is to show fashion to readers as much as possible. Photography frees illustrators from the need to accurately record clothing and is more inclined to interpret fashionable clothing. According to the magazine's publisher, "The artists, who are primarily interested in obtaining interesting pictorial and decorative effects, are burdened and therefore bored with faithfully reporting anything in the spirit of contemporary fashion."

Dior's "New Look" of the late 1940s provided inspiration for the postwar fashion revival. In many ways it's a throwback style, reaching back into the past rather than looking forward to the future, but it also symbolizes a return to more cheerful, optimistic times.

5. The Destruction and Revival of Fashion Illustration

By the 1950s, fashion editors had allocated more budgets to the editorial communication of photography. The subsequent elevation of fashion photographers to celebrity status meant that illustrators had to be content with producing articles on lingerie and accessories, or working on advertising campaigns.

During the 1960s, fashion illustration continued to lose its place in magazine publishing, a trend that was reflected in the new category of teen magazines aimed at young people, many of which were published in the 1960s, all of which Illustrations are all about illustration as a cheap alternative to photography.

Antonio Lopez (Antonio Lopez) was the only artist to appear regularly in Vogue magazine during this period. His career began in "Women's Wear Daily".

In the second half of the 20th century, fashion illustration struggled to survive, and it was not until the 1980s that it began to revive. The new generation of artists was featured in magazines such as La Modeenpeinture (1982), Conde Nast’s Vanity (1981) and Visionaire (1991). This resurgence was attributed to advertising campaigns, specifically Barney's New York advertising campaign from 1993-1996.

6. Fashion Illustration Today

Between fine art and commercial art, fashion illustration has recently been re-evaluated as an important genre. Since beauty and elegance have become passé in both fashion and art, fashion illustration sometimes seems like a throwback to an earlier era.

Photography is very good at recording the details of a garment, so the illustrator's focus is no longer on an exact representation of the garment, but on explaining the garment and its possible wearer. In the late 20th and early 20th centuries, it developed a range of unique artistic styles, enabled by digital tools and social media platforms. In the 1990s, pioneer illustrators Ed Tsuwaki, Graham Rounthwaite, Jason Brooks and Kristian Russell began to emerge in the field of computer graphics.

This period witnessed the emergence of computer design programs Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as the revival of traditional art-based forms of fashion illustration. New York's Parsons School of Design and FIT School began offering illustration as a dedicated element of their fashion courses. Hand-crafted "traditional" illustration has been enjoying a renaissance, with fashion illustrators often looking back to the masters of the past for style inspiration. Fashion illustrations based on classic methods have successfully complemented those created by more modern processes.

Recently, illustration has become popular through collaborations between fashion designers and illustrators. With the use of social media, fashion illustrators have begun to attract people's attention. Stylish illustrations are full of vibrant colors, intricate patterns and endless personality to make a lasting impression.

Welcome to visit the public account "Painting Practice", you can receive a gift package of illustrators' painting secrets for free, and learn about the world's commercial illustration price trends. Basics of Fashion Illustration | Detailed graphic and step-by-step tutorial on the proportions of the fashion human body

The fashion human body is also called the "sketch" human body, which is the basic fashion body shape. We can design clothing or draw a floor plan based on drawing the human body. , which is also the starting point of fashion illustration.

Drawing a fashion human body sketch

First of all, you must be familiar with some rules of proportion.

The fashion human body is measured by "head length", and each head length represents 1 inch. Under normal circumstances, the fashion human body is basically 10 heads long, but it does not mean that 9 or 11 heads is completely incorrect. More often, it needs to be decided based on the characteristics of the clothing drawn. For example, if a shirt is loose, has large sleeves or a large collar, and has many corset details, it may have a longer waist and neck; if it is an exaggerated bat sleeve, the arms should be longer. If it is a skirt, the legs need to be longer.

Different costumes require different focus, and different focus requires different exaggeration methods.

The following is an example of a human body with 10 heads:

1. Draw a vertical line on the paper, and then divide it into 10 intervals. The top line is 0 and the bottom line is 10.

Each line represents a different part of the human body.

2. Head: Draw an ellipse between 0 and 1. The chin is exactly on line 1.

3. Shoulders and neck: Draw the neck and shoulders between 1 and 2. Shoulder width is approximately 1.5 head lengths (special styles of clothing may vary).

4. Waist and hips: Draw a line from both ends of the shoulders (shoulder line) downward to the waist line. The width of the waist is approximately 3/4 of the head length. Draw a line from both ends of the waist (waist line) to the hips (highest point 4 of the hips). The width of the hips is greater than the head length and waist, but smaller than the shoulder width.

5. Legs: Draw a gradually tapering straight line from both ends of the buttocks, from 4 to 10.

6. Feet: Draw a triangle on the outside of the lower end of the leg. The base of the triangle is the toe, and on line 10, the vertex of the triangle is the ankle.

7. Arms: Draw gradually tapering lines downward from the shoulder line to the wrist.

8. Hands: Use rectangles and triangles to roughly draw the hands, with the fingertips on line 5.

Now you have a rough basic human body drawn.

9. Smooth out all parts of the human body. (The natural connection between the head, neck and shoulders, armpits to waist, upper hip line, buttocks, crotch to ankles, feet, arms)

Regarding the ideal body proportions of the fashionable human body, In fact, you need to be flexible and accept changes in fashion. What seems perfect in one era may look strange in another era. For example, if you look at Monroe in the 1950s by today's standards, many people may think she is a bit fat~

The following standards determine the "perfect" fashion body of a certain era:

< p>Models or celebrities of that era

Emphasis on body parts and certain postures of the characters

Fitting clothing and underwear or other decorations, or no decoration

Generally speaking, the fashion human body must be taller than the ordinary human body, so that the fashion body can be better displayed and the effect of the fashion body can be highlighted in photos or works of art.

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For more exciting hand-painted tutorials, please pay attention to subsequent updates. (The article was first published on the WeChat public account, you can leave a message to tell what you are interested in)

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Works by popular fashion illustrator Helen Downie

As a veteran visual communication medium, fashion illustration has not only continued to develop in the new era, but has also spawned many new forms of expression with different styles. How many of the most popular and eye-catching fashion illustrators and their works do you know?

The Golden Age of Fashion Illustration

In the early days, fashion illustrations and fashion magazines worked hard Cooperation helped it enter a heyday. At that time, magazines almost without exception needed to use illustrations to illustrate everything from the cover to the inside pages.

Readers at that time received information about fashion, art, taste, etc. from exquisite illustrations. It can be said that fashion magazines and fashion illustrations at that time were in a mutually beneficial relationship.

Harper's Bazaar magazine cover

The collision of fashion illustrations and fashion brands

In the digital age, photography has become the main source of visual communication for magazines and publications. Although the era of magazines with fashion illustrations as the main promotional media has ended, the fashion illustration industry has not fallen asleep, but has continued to develop and evolve in new directions.

Collaboration between fashion illustrations and fashion brands is the most successful new path discovered at the moment. As the most topical brand nowadays, Gucci often searches for some popular illustrators on social media for cooperation.

The following colorful and poetic works are created by illustrator Helen Downie. It is worth mentioning that this extremely professional illustrator is actually a housewife without a professional background. Her legendary experience and her paintings became popular on the Internet at the same time. In addition, her painting style is surprisingly similar to the new aesthetic concept advocated by Gucci, so the brand's creative director fell in love with her work at a glance and launched a series of in-depth cooperation.

Helen Downie’s works

Although she is a mother, her unrestrained works always reveal a little girlish innocence. Especially the pairs of innocent big eyes in the characters in the painting are strange and full of childishness.

Helen Downie's work

However, this is not the first time Gucci has cooperated with fashion illustrators. Earlier, the brand also invited another illustrator Alex Merry to launch a more "artistic" collaboration.

From New York to London, Milan to Shanghai, cities with art walls have been occupied almost overnight by Alex’s creative fashion illustrations. It is rare for such a giant fashion illustration to be presented in this way, so when the picture of the art wall was released, it immediately caused a commotion on the Internet.

Works by Alex Merry

In addition, Gucci will also produce and sell products from the illustrations, so that all interested consumers can find and own these products. They turn these fantastic ideal products into reality. On the other hand, viewers can see from these romantic-style fashion illustrations that the style of fashion illustration is no longer single.

Works by Alex Merry

When it comes to cross-border cooperation between fashion illustrations and brands, Prada has to be mentioned. At the 2018 men's spring and summer series show, the brand invited illustrator James Jean for a second collaboration, which shows the popularity of his works.

Works of James Jean and Oliver Schrauwen

This time, James Jean and Belgian graffiti artist Oliver Schrauwen teamed up to create illustrations of the show space. Viewers of the show look at these picturesque works as if they are looking at pages of lively and interesting comic strips.

At the same time, the author also specially produced an illustrated promotional video of the same style for Prada. James's cool illustration style, combined with Prada's futuristic fashion style, complement each other.

Works of James Jean

In the same year, at Prada’s women’s wear show, the brand also chose to join forces with fashion illustrators. This collaboration invited eight female illustrators: Stellar Leuna, Trina Robbins, Brigid Elva, Joelle Jones, Giuliana Maldini, Natsume Ono, Emma Ríos and Fiona Staples.

In addition to jointly creating the wall works in the show space, they also perfectly integrated their illustration works into the new season's fashion series. Their comic-style works not only inject vitality into fashion, but also increase the possibility of stylization of fashion illustration works.

Today, fashion illustrations no longer follow the rules. As long as you are willing to put pen to paper, everyone can create their own illustrations.

Grace Coddington's works

Pioneering fashion illustrations

In addition to cross-border cooperation with fashion brands, there are also some professional fashion illustrators who insist on independent creation. While mastering the basic techniques of illustration, they extended and explored the painting forms of fashion illustrations and figured out their own style.

Pioneering fashion illustrator Velwyn Yossy has created a series of unique works. It can be seen from the smooth and neat lines of the characters in his works and the exaggerated but still appropriate overall proportions that he has always pursued the aesthetic concept of modernism.

Velwyn Yossy's works

Another rising star fashion illustrator, Ernesto Artillo, has extended fashion illustrations to a more abstract direction. His unique visual expression technique breaks the public's traditional understanding of fashion illustration forms.

Some of his recent surrealist works combine dynamic and still, virtual and real things, and use hand-drawing and collage to infinitely amplify the visual impact of illustrations, giving them a mainly static style. The fashion illustration has a bit of momentum.

Ernesto Artillo's works

Not only are his creative works still published in major magazines for a long time, but they are also often exhibited around the world. Ernesto Artillo said: "I hope to feel relaxed and excited when I see my works. It is the same in daily life. I will look for the balance and how to break the existing state."

Works by Ernesto Artillo

Even though the golden age of fashion illustration has passed, it is undeniable that fashion illustration still occupies a place in the fashion field and is full of high artistic value.

Fashion illustration is one of the few industries that can perfectly combine business and art, and the continuous emergence of popular illustration works has increased the possibility of fashion illustration continuing to move forward.

JamesJean’s dynamic fashion illustrations

After understanding these most popular and eye-catching fashion illustrations, everyone can pick up the pen and try to explore new paths in fashion illustration. The next popular fried chicken may be you.

Wonderful review:

[Editor, text/Chen Zhuo]