Fashion illustration news and archive

‘Illustration is stronger than ever’: Fida 2023 winners named

The eight winners of this year’s Fashion Illustration and Design Awards (Fida) have been announced, each selected for their high standard of artistic ability and diverse range of technical skills. For its eighth edition, Fida introduced new textiles and live event artist categories for the first time, bringing the total award categories to...

Culture

Fashion artist David Downton's illustrations to be exhibited at London's Cromwell Place

Renowned fashion artist David Downton is the focus of a new exhibition at Cromwell Place, organized by Gray M.C.A, celebrating his 25-year journey capturing the splendour of haute couture in Paris. Downton's work has been influenced by luminaries like John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Lacroix, and Valentino, and his new Théâtre de la Mode...

Fashion Featured

The 7th Fida Awards celebrates the broadening aesthetic of fashion illustration

The Fida Awards, the first global online platform to promote fashion illustration and drawing, announced its 7th round of winners on May 26 via zoom. The illustration awards happen twice annually to coincide with the spring/summer and fall/winter fashion seasons and the second, later this year, will be an in-person awards ceremony, location to...

Culture|Interview Featured

Iconic 70s model Debbie Dickinson curates fashion and art in Manhattan exhibit

“It truly was by fluke,” says Debbie Dickinson of her entry into the modeling industry in the mid-70s. She had moved to NYC with the goal of becoming an actor, her mind filled with dreams of Broadway, but that all changed when scouts visiting from a Paris model agency spotted her and offered to fly her to France. “The day I landed I worked with...

Fashion Featured

Fashion illustration and luxury Italian craftsmanship merge in Fida's Rodisegno prize

In a move that Fida founder, Patrick Morgan, describes as “the start of a journey and partnership between artist and artisan,” the Fashion Illustration and Digital Arts community and Italian accessory house, Rodo, collaborated to create the “Rodisegno Prize - Drawing an Icon.” The competition is a result of Fida’s aim to promote excellence in...

People|Interview Featured

Meet the NYC illustrator who sketches at Paris Haute Couture shows

There’s no denying Elly Azizian, who illustrates under the moniker Fashion Strokes, has an impressive client list: Van Cleef & Arpels, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino and Sotheby’s to name a few. Nevertheless it is quite a rarity in modern times to be flown to Paris to sketch inside the elite environment of haute couture where the one-off handmade...

BusinessFeatured

Dismantling the Eurocentric worldview behind fashion illustration teaching

As many schools take steps to guarantee diversity among staff and student body so that classrooms are reflective of society at large, one area of fashion education continues to undermine these efforts yet eludes scrutiny: the fashion illustration curriculum. The evaluation of fashion illustration has remained unchanged for more than a century....

Fashion Featured

Istituto Marangoni and Fida to stage fashion illustration show during Miami Swim

Fida, the Fashion Illustration and Drawing Awards, is launching its first Fashion Arts Summer Exhibition which will be hosted by Istituto Marangoni Miami during the upcoming Miami Swim week. The school’s Billboard Building, designed by Shulman + Associates, in the city’s Design District, is celebrated for its blend of traditional and...

Fashion |Interview Featured

Leading fashion illustrator Nuno Da Costa discusses his success

Nuno Da Costa is the fashion illustrator’s illustrator, commanding respect in an industry that has arguably prized the camera over the paintbrush since photography emerged over a century ago. His style, a mixture of craftsmanship, fantasy, and judicious use of technology, is immediately recognizable yet he attended none of the top fashion...

BusinessFeatured

What I have learned from teaching fashion drawing remotely

Initially the prospect of teaching fashion sketch remotely filled me with dread. I thought longingly about the wooden horses and easels of past classrooms in which I had taught drawing for fashion. The live models, and the suitcase of vintage garments they would generously bring to wear while they posed, the plastic accessories and lengths of...

Fashion Featured

Is this modern fashion's most influential illustrator?

Howard Tangye’s decisive line and rich layers of chalk, watercolor and pastel form the foundation upon which contemporary fashion illustration rests, yet he insists he is not a fashion illustrator. His former students, which have included designers John Galliano, Stella McCartney, Hussein Chalayan, Zac Posen, Christopher Kane, speak reverently...

Fashion Featured

The Career-Making Elevation of Fashion Illustration

Although the death knell for fashion illustration was struck as far back as the end of the first world war, that’s ancient history for a new generation of image makers who are snatching up brushes and applying washes in their droves. When Vogue put its first color photograph by Edward Steichen on a 1932 cover, a new norm was launched, and the...