The fashion industry is well known for its Fashion Illustrators to help create a visual prediction for fashion when photographers cannot capture the image. These drawings are used to communicate fashion in the industry between designers, magazines, and trend forecasting. This occupation has been around for hundreds of years using the same tool all the while, the croquis. There are millions of Fashion Illustrators and the techniques are ever changing, launching now into digital illustrations. When design began to develop things were mostly done by hand. People were hired to draw and paint images of clothing on croquis or design an eye-catching fashion image for a product. Since the late 80’s technique changed and allowed illustrators to develop their work digitally. This new advance changed the look of fashion illustrations forever, but many of the original fashion illustrators are still looked to for inspiration. One of the most well known illustrators that has been around for centuries, and who has recently passed, is Rene Gruau. His illustrations have been used in several fashion publications and used with several designers.
Rene Gruau was born Renato Zavagli Ricciadelli delle Camminate in 1909 to an Italian count and a French mother named Marie Gruau. His mother was beautiful and was one of the most well dressed woman at the most prestigious haute couture houses. When he entered the art world he adopted the name Gruau after his mother, and his mother soon became one of his biggest influences in the art industry. When asked about his mother he said, “My mother was a marvelous woman”.
Gruau was mostly known for his vibrant use of colors and the way he complements the element of lines. His unique fashion illustrations created a whole new world before fashion photography and digital art even came into play. Rene Gruau illustrated simple and dramatic designs that involved a few ink lines, which was usually black or red. In the 1940’s and the 50’s he became one of the favorites of the haute couture family. He worked with Femina, Marie-Claire, L’Officiel, L’Album Du Figaro and other high fashion magazines. In 1947, he was asked to launch the Miss Dior fragrance and he came up with a stunning design, a white swan with a black fan, glove and a pearl necklace. Designers everywhere were hired to help Gruau promote the “new look” of the fashion forties and early fifties. Even up to his death at age 95 Gruau kept creating fashion drawings for Elle, Vogue, France, Madame Figaro and L’Officiel de la Couture.
Throughout Gruau’s life he painted 80,000 illustrations and worked with some of the greatest names in Haute Couture such as Balenciaga, Balmain, Givenchy, and Schiaparelli. Inspired by Japanese prints, art nouveau, and Toulouse-Lautrec's sketches of Paris night life. Gruau was a master at creating designs with elegant lines and feminine silhouettes. His works are exhibited in museums and art galleries around the world, including the Louvre in Paris. Gruau died at the age of 95 in Rome, Italy but his passion and gift of fashion illustration has made a huge impact in fashion history.
“Elegance is fluid and therefore difficult to define but it is made of desire and knowledge, of grace, refinement, perfection and distinction.” – Rene Gruau
Image links:
Dior_http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/Ross/5409~Dior-Man-Rear-View-Posters.jpg
Vogue_http://www.renegruau.com/gruau_artist/assets/images/vogueparis.gif
Black dress_http://farm1.static.flickr.com/223/501277066_ba9fe0fb34.jpg?v=0
Rene_http://www.posterpage.ch/mem/gruau/f001635.jpg
Resource links:
http://www.findarticles.com/- Obituary: Rene Gruau
www.iht.com/articles - Remembering Rene Gruau
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ - Rene Gruau, Capturing the look of Parisian chic.
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