KAREEM ILIYA

Kareem Iliya

            Kareem Iliya was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1967.  He moved to Texas in 1976. At first, he studied in fashion design at the University of Texas, Austin, USA. Then, he continued his studies at the F.I.T (Institute of Fashion Technology), in New York. He graduated in 1990 and is living in New York now.

               He first started his fashion career with Giorgio Armani as week as a freelanced as an illustrator from 1992. His works appeared on CNN TV show "Style with Elsa Klensch" and he has exhibited at the "Art 54" and Seed galleries in New York. Besides, his illustration also ever appeared in many fashion magazines, but his greatest buzz was for his work to appear in W magazine which he has followed avidly throughout his college years. The other publication he longed for his work is to appear in was Visionaire, and he was fortunate enough for his works to appear in some of the early issues. On the other hand, his work was prominently featured in Nicholas Drake's book "Illustration Today".

He uses watercolour and inks on paper as the medium, often in vibrant colours through which figures and objects seem to burst and radiate. His work usually described as being 'ethereal' and 'mystical'. However, his aim is to create an illustration in a graphical way, yet soft and beautiful. 

His works give both beauty and grace impression, yet appearing mysteriously with sinuous movement. The employs watercolour and ink to have fully effect with limited palette bleeding into one another organically. Besides, there is also a strong element of nostalgia.

These illustrations of his show the gorgeous silhouettes.

By using watercolour and ink medium, he creates simple and elegant illustrations by playing with the background colour. He doesn't put much on the dress, besides, he has more focus on the background and the details for the accessories on the dress.

TOBIE GIDDIO

TOBIE GIDDIO

        

             Tobie Giddio was born in 1963, New Jersey, USA. She studied fashion illustration at Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. After her graduation in 1986 with a BFA in illustration, she began to teach in the illustration department of F.I.T. She also began her career with creating weekly advertisements in New York Times for Bergdorf Goodman. As she discovered her primary medium that was to inform her work to the present, which was ink, then she added a liquid form as she never felt satisfied with it. With the layering of colour transparent pantone films she had found the ability to expand in a way that brought endless possibilities while maintaining the structure of her ink drawings.

       

Her elegant abstract and organic figures are created with Sumi ink, watercolours, and Pantone film which described her work as being 'very internal and beyond surface'. Her amazing works has appeared in numerous publications, including George, Glamour, Harpers Bazaar, Interview, Manhattan File, Marie Claire, Mode, The New Yorker and various editions of Vogue.

''Fine art and fashion coexist simultaneously and equally. There is an understanding. each is in constant service to the other in a quest to express in the most extraordinary way possible.'' - Tobie Giddio

This work is done by ink.

Dots of inks as the bottom dress, and the thick and thin lines create volume on the skirt with either smooth texture (leaves) and stiff texture (twigs).

Tobie Giddio's portfolio for McQueen.

It's like seeing the magic of colours and lines. This feminine illustration in ink and Pantone film gives a moody heroines and glamour sense.

Creative Mix Media, ink and pantone film.

The process of abstracting and deconstructing creates a form of beauty and balance here. No words can describe this artworks as it's too awesome.

STINA PERSSON

STINA PERSSON

          Stina Persson was born Lund, Sweden, in 1972. She studied fine art, more precisely, in graphic, in Perugia, fashion drawing in Florence, and has her degree in illustration from Pratt Institute in New York. She was awarded as the Society of Illustrator's Student Scholarship in 1996 and 1997, thus, her works are often being exhibited in several shows in New York and Japan. 

The goal with her work, Stina says, ''is making the ugly prettier and the beautiful a little edgier''. 

      All her works that she has done are in variety of mediums, initially creating her luminous characterisations by hand, before enriching them digitally. Using rich jewel toned inks, watercolour dyes, colour pencils, handwriting technique, photography, and Mexican cut paper are to create a style that is both vivid and elegant. As for the final step, she scans them and then gives a digital touch-up. 

She fuses the traditional with the edgy to introduce a up to date look for illustration - a look that is appreciated by numerous clients including Nike, Absolut Vodka and Blue Note Records.

These handwriting are done by ink. The dots and spray of the ink give an effect of the writing itself.

These two works are done by her by using Mexican paper cut. Both of them are similar, but the first picture is more likely about a natural beauty of leaves, hence, it emphasise more on the leaves colour and twigs. As for the other one, it tells more about the natural beauty of the apples.

Mix media, inks and watercolours for the first picture and inks for the second picture. The first picture gives a bit gloomy and depression feeling on how she draws the face and the background which is in darker way. On the other hand, the second picture gives a snob feeling.

Both of these illustrations are done by watercolours. She really expresses well on her works. It gives an elegant sense and  natural beauty of the women.

KELLY THOMPSON

Kelly Thompson is a Fashion Illustrator and Photographer who is from Wellington, New Zealand. She finished her studies on Bachelor of Design at Massey University Wellington. She once was head of the textiles program at Goldsmiths, University of London (England) and spent more than a decade as a senior lecturer and program manager at the School of Art, Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin, New Zealand. She is also an Art Director with a creative brilliant knowledge and skills to detail which ensure that not only does the job gets finished, also the way and final output with catch the attention of everyone's eyes.

Some of Kelly's illustrations are based on reference one. "If I make things up I never really feel that it looks as realistic as if I work from reference imagery, I am also not that skilled when it comes to perspective, so I find having a reference helps me to visualise the correct directions of lines, etc." - Kelly Thompson replied one out of her fans' question.

I can just tell that the jackets would be so weighty and thick and the silks perfectly smooth and bliss to wear. The way it combine clean shapes with pretty clashing pattern and texture. Then it is completed with gateway luxury hunting down accessories.

Most of her illustrations are more focused on the face's expressions. For instance like for the pictures above, she has her illustrations done in a make-up way rather than has more focus in the dress. The way she applies make-up onto it illustrate or define the sense we get. Like for the first picture, it gives a femininity and timid sense. As for the other one, it gives more of confidence yet gorgeous sense.

LAURA LAINE

Laura Laine, a talented fashion illustrator who was born in 1983 in Finland, was considered as a great marvellously brilliant young Scandinavian. She studied fashion design at the University of Art and Design Helsinki with an interest mainly on fashion illustrator. After completing her studies, she worked as a freelance illustrator with famous brands now a days which are Zara, Tommy Hilfiger, H&M, Iben Hooej, Daniel Palilo, The New York Times Magazine, Elle Girl, The Guardian, Pap Magazine, Vogue Nippon, GAP, Telegraph, Rad Hourani, Prada, Muse Magazine, and Wunder. She has also displayed in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

She is known as her predominantly black and white illustrations which are hauntingly beautiful and delicate. She has an incredibly fine and detailed line work, which manages the suggest a great variety of textures (furs, silk, wool, leather, etc). Furthermore, there is a certain motion quality to her illustrations which is conveyed by the gracefully twisted body postures and the splendidly flowing long hair of her characters.

Her style is great and not so conscious about. She simply makes working in her illustrations, painting what she feels like at the moment. Most of her illustrations are quiet unique with black and white imagery of long-haired females caught in almost theatrical movements, which exude femininity, sensuality and sophistication. The skinny legs emphasized or more focused to the the details of the dress (patterns, leather, etc). She also played with the styles of long-haired which have the roles of sophistication (on how the hair move along with the outfits' style). As for the femininity and sensuality, they come from all of the elements that go together.

"Fashion is impressive I discover enormously inspiring and like to stay as an aspect of my work, but I have not at all be apologetic of giving up the genuine designing" - Laura

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CARL ERICKSON

American illustrator, Carl Oscar August Erickson was born in Joliet, Illinoise 1892. Carl Erickson would received his formal art education at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Although limited to only two years of schooling, his artistic talent attracted the likes of Marshall Field, Lord & Thomas and other well known advertisement accounts in Chicago. In 1914 Eric would move to New York to continue his advertising illustrations.

In 1916 Eric made his debut in  Vogue magazine and by 1925 he was a regular artist on the magazine. He would go on to dominate the field of fashion illustration for over thirty five years, creating illustrations for French publications and drawing society portraits. Becoming a pillar of the illustrious magazine, Eric worked together with Rene Willaumez Bouet and later Rene Bouche. He was known for his drawings of people in fashionable settings and would stress the importance of detail in his artistry. He continued to work for Vogue until the 1950s.

The Brooklyn Museum held a retrospective of his drawings shortly after his death in 1959.

Most of Eric's illustrators has lots of overlap, diminishing size, surface lines and foreshortening. You can observe on how every line and shape and detail seem to direct your eye right to the centre of interest, the centre of interest being look. They give the impression of having sprung to life without suffering the usual labor pains. But his performance looks too easy; its nonchalance is deceptive. It is not accomplished without a struggle. 

Erickson indeed is a hard-working man, a very serious artist who is usually practicing when not actually performing. In spare moments he is usually drawing from the model and his sketchbook goes with him to the restaurant and the theatre, capturing the elegance around him.

Eric took his sketchpad wherever he went (like what is mentioned above), and drew his models using intensive bright colors and black lines which capture their gestures perfectly. His sketches speak of the elegance and the beauty of the fashion in the 1940’s, and as Reed himself would say, Carl Erickson’s “drawings and paintings are authoritative because he knew his subjects and their world; his taste and beautiful draftsmanship reveal him to be an artist of permanent importance.”

ANTONIO LOPEZ

Warm Welcome to my Blog!

Well, this week discussion is about a fashion's premier illustrator who touched sixties New York, rocked seventies Paris and his reverberations are still being felt in the Runways today! He was Antonio Lopez!

When he was young, Antonio Lopez's mother, a seamstress, would ask him to draw flowers for her embroideries. He helped his father, a mannequin maker, to apply make-up and stitch the wigs on the figures. At first, he thought he would become a dancer, and in fact, at the age of 12, he was awarded a scholarship to the Traphagen School of Fashion, which provided Saturday programs for children, particularly inner-city youth. Then in junior high school, he was encouraged by his art teacher to attend the High School of Art and Design, part of the New York City school system. Upon graduation, he was accepted to the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), where three teachers - Beatrice Dwan, Frances Neady, and Ana Ishikawa - supported him in his efforts to embark on a career in fashion illustration.

In the early 1960s, Lopes began to free-lance for fashion magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Andy Warhol's Interview. He introduced himself to couturier Charles James and the meeting between the young artist and older master produced an illustrated record of all the clothes James had ever designed. James taught Lopez to appreciate the sculptural quality of clothes, a perspective that had a lasting effect on his drawings.

Lopez worked in a variety of materials, including pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, water-colour, and Polaroid film, and also pursued jewellery design, conceptual designs (such as window displays for Fiorucci and Studio 54), graphic collaboration on Interview, he was in demand around the world.

But unfortunately, Lopez died of complications related to AIDS on March 17, 1987, when he was forty-four years old.

Here are his works!

It's an outre undertow which referred to pop art. This is not just a usual or simple dress but it was a state of mind by playing with the pattern and colours of the dress.

Lopez's campaigns for Missoni endure as one of the greatest artist/designer collaborations. It is from a campaign launched at the same time as the 1984 Olympics. At this time, Lopez was already ill. It was a rare thing in the annals of fashion illustration because he always sketch in black and white before making the finishing picture, like doing a Polaroid, but not this time. 

It's mature style is familiar through the posture of the bodice and the pattern of itself that bring out the edge in its Swinging Sixties imagery, more New York underbelly than London dolly bird

       Antonio, Karl and Pat Cleveland in Paris, 1970

LUCIEN LELONG

Warm Welcome to all of you guys who visit my Blog!

This week, it is all about Lucien Lelong, a fashion designer and he also has a line of his perfumes!

Lucien Lelong trained at the hates Etudes de Commerce in Paris. He opened his own fashion Salon in 1918 at the end of world war I. He developed the talents of up and coming Designers, such as Pierre Balmain, Christian Dior and Hubert de Givency. For nearly 30 years, the House of Lucein Lelong epitomised Parisian elegance, with a clientele drawn from International Society and the Arts. He was well known for his beautiful fabrics and understated dresses and evening wear.

Back to Paris, in the late 1930s, he designed tight waisted full skirted dresses reminiscent of "The New Look" of Dior.

Lucien Lelong was the last in a long line of Courturiers who were Masters of every aspect of Haute Courture, combining a keen business sense with a refined eye for modern design. One of the greatest talents of the fashion industry of this period.

1932 - Lucien Lelong in his perfume advert

A Dress Fitting drawn by the Artist :  Carl Ericksen

1937 - These smart dresses are for day wear

As economic hard times required more customer's and so this lead to Lucien Lelong launching to the label Robes d'Edition. This line of high quality pre manufactured clothing required just one fitting and was far less expensive than his coveted Haute Courture line.

1942 - Another design was a gathered section in the front of the dress which was used to give a soft effect mainly used in the front of the style. The original French text reads : - Robe d'apres midi. Simple et elegant en linage noir. Effect de drape du corsage et a la dupe devant. Which means : "Evening dress. Simple and elegant in black fabric. Effect of the bodice and draped dupe ahead."

1944 - This beautiful gown has a fabulous scooped neck-line and a fitted bodice. the sleeves are rushed narrowing to the cuff. Ending with a magnificent full skirt using lots of patterned or textured material.

A high wasted robe with a white decorated layered fabric panel, falling over a pale blue long skirt. It has a detailed bodice with elbow length lace edged sleeves.