Winter’s Gone in a Snap!
Rayon Vert collection, fashion drawings, House of Worth, Paris 1950–51I have been neglecting my poor Sketchbook for months – longer in fact! I have not even posted any calendar pictures, but here come four in a row: you never saw winter flash past so fast!
Purple and green are the themes for the last few months. What sumptuous colours that got me through winter. As lovely as these illustrations are – the clothes are rich, and the figurative parts are serviceable – I do have a question: why does the model’s face always look exactly the same?
Delicieuse and Matinale collections, fashion drawings, House of Worth, Paris 1950–51Perhaps in this case the House of Worth’s illustrator was working with a house-model (she always looks surprised, too), but I have noticed this phenomenon in modern-day fashion illustration too. Any given fashion illustrator invariably draws the same face – a pretty, but characterless, default face. Granted, fashion illustrations are not portraits, per se, but it still bothers me. I would rather not see any features at all, as for example, in Mats Gustafson’s beautiful watercolours. What do you think?
Manon and Anne collections, fashion drawings, House of Worth, Paris 1950–51
Taquine and Dans le Nuit collections, fashion drawings, House of Worth, Paris 1950–51