This Fashion Illustration project research point asks the question, “is there a difference between the imagery created by the fashion illustrators from the early twentieth century to the 1950s and those since the 1990s : has fashion illustration changed over this period or is it the fashion of illustration that’s changed?”.
Based on the Alan Male quote:
“Historically, imagery that promoted the fashions of the day, most notably from the early 20th century to
the 1950s, was dominated by illustration. However, the discipline lost ground to photography and it was not until the 1990s that illustrators have returned to this domain.”
In examining this as an argument I did some research from each time period looking not only at the vogues and mediums for each period of fashion illustration but the intention and the way these were accessible to audiences and consumers.
Early 20th Century
The Edwardian period saw a slight shifting away from traditional figurative representation and overly ostentatious representation of clothing of the Victorian period, although there was still a prevailing representative style.
For Women, the traditional Victorian bustle had all but disappeared by now and the hourglass figure was replaced with the ‘S’ curve profile and looser fitting and slightly less formal garments. Men were still wearing suits and hats, and the illustrative representations were formal : Haute Couture had already been established in the late Victorian era, by now the Art Nouveau period has started and illustration was often feeding into the fashion side.
The suffragette movement established among other important factors a shift in women’s fashions, which meant reformations, where the previous Victorian social conventions were gone and clothing became bound by practicality and comfort more than expectation.
1920 to 1930
As the Edwardian age gave way to the post WW1/pre WW2 era, so too did Art nouveau to Art Deco and the shift in availability for clothing to other social classes. Along with the elongated simple geometric styles of Deco, clothing was also emphasized in a similar way with ladies dresses in particular becoming long, flowing calf or knee length garments. Mens clothing was still relatively formal and conformed to the suit and jacket convention with style changes.
The fashion illustration style had begun to employ a more stylized approach to representing the figure, particularly with the female form which can often be seen using a nine heads system to accentuate the long flowing clothing. Graphically there were also changing trends with hints of Deco style in certain designs, still some nouveau influences on illustration. interestingly away from Europe, the American illustrative styles began to incorporate the Clara Bow ‘IT’ girl / Betty Boop look of the idealistic flapper girl.
1930 to 1940
This decade featured a shift with women’s fashions to large shoulders, small waists and knee length skirts or dresses and illustration styles depicting these would shift from rather geometric representations with triangular shapes to impart the wide shoulders/narrow waist/skirt flare to long ‘S’ curve styles. Ever more head measurements were being added in certain illustration styles, increasing the height of the model and emphasizing the sleek and elongated figure. Some fashion illustration of the era appears to incorporate elements of pin up style presentation.
Men’s fashions seemed to have still remained somewhat representational and conservative in comparison, with the exception of waistcoats which were considered a superfluous use of material and were often dropped in favour of a two piece suit. Fashion illustrations often appeared to employed a heavy shaded style from what i’ve observed, mainly in the advertising sector.
1940 to 1950
Post war fashions were lifted from the constraints of rationing with a return to longer dresses for ladies, elegant arm length gloves and later in the decade, the start of more material. For men, fedora hats were a staple and as rationing lifted towards the end of the decade, military styles came in through trench coats and bomber jackets.
1950 to 1960
In the post war decade of the 1950’s, fashions became ever less formal for younger people with the prominence of music movements such as Rock n’ Roll. Formal styles were still rather conservative for men, although leisure wear became popular and for ladies, there was a trend for small waists with hips emphasized by flared knee length skirts. Illustrative styles varied somewhat from idealistic representation to the stylized long body croquis.
1960 to 1970
This was an important decade in terms of fashion trends : and this also marked a shift in fashion illustration too. Monochrome schemes marked out the earlier years of fashion illustration, with simplistic representations replacing the often objective offerings of the previous decade. The intrinsically linked mod fashion and music movement ushered in Italian style chic and woodstock marked the onset of hippy trends. Later, fashion illustrations began introducing a mainstay of the 1970’s, the magic marker which resulted in bright, bold fashion presentations.
1970 to 1980
Another very musically trend driven decade, fashions were influenced by Punk, disco and earlier on, glam rock, along with the hippy movement. Towards the end of the decade, the mod and ska revival saw a resurgence of suits and mini skirts. Flared trousers were a mainstay for mainstream fashions, body and jump suits were worn at the height of disco, whereas the British punk subculture saw a boom from Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren’s Chelsea boutique SEX. In terms of fashion illustration trends, there was a definite swing towards marker visuals (this was true of creative industries in general). The representation style was of long and lithe Croquis renders with straight fitting garments as opposed to the tighter fitting garments of previous decades.
1980 to 1990
The 1980’s was the decade of affluence and fashion certainly reflected this. Men’s fashions included power suits, gaudy leisure pants and tracksuits, hi-tops and even pastel coloured zoot suits made a brief appearance, complete with watch chains and fedora hats. For ladies, large shoulder pads and even larger hair was a common theme, with wasp-like jackets fitted at the waist in bright colours. Consumerism was the thread in this age and the fashions reflected it, with lots of trend changes. Fashion visuals were slick and vibrant, and often looked more polished than the presentations of the previous decades.
1990 to current
The 90’s took a turn with denim, plaid and converse as the grunge scene emerged, while there was a return to casual mod clothing with the explosion of the indie scene for both men and women, the androgynous look being a staple for bands. The 2K’s have seen a ‘rinse and repeat’ re-emergence of fashions which were popular in the 90’s, a return in places to fashionable grunge and Riot Grlll looks with a punk aesthetic and retro 40’s – 50’s styles thrown into the mix. Illustration styles have begun to move into the digital side for convenience, however there’s still a strong reliance on traditional mediums : style representations vary between more traditional to very stylized.
is there a difference?
So the overarching question posed by this research point was Has fashion illustration changed from the early twentieth century to the 1950’s and to the present : or is it the fashion of illustration that’s changed?
To give some context to this, it’s probably good to start with the trends for illustration as these ultimately become the driving force behind how particular areas of advertising, fashion and many other areas are presented. There’s generally a point at any given time in the last two centuries where graphic design has crossed into, or been influenced by illustration styles and vice versa. The two disciplines have a bearing on each other and fashion appears to have been influenced by both, certainly in the first half of the twentieth century.
Whenever a particular trend or movement happened from the Victorian era onwards, there appeared to have generally been an influence within fashion illustration : the 1920’s for example shared the deco sensibility, with a more streamlined approach to depicting fashion models and the flapper look found appeal with long gowns and flowing dresses. The same could be said of the late pre and post WWII era styles, these were depicted in a similar way to how much of the advertising world would illustrate for consumerist products markets (advertisements for cigarettes, cars, etc. by this, i mean the style in which the illustrations were rendered).
When the swinging sixties arrived, photography did play a major part in the faster paced advertising and fashion worlds : unsurprisingly with the speed at which fashions trends were developing and changing and the rate at which music of the day pushed this along. I don’t believe it truly toppled fashion illustration as I did find examples from the era where this appeared to contradict things. The speed and accessibility of photography is great for actual fashion model shoots, but not for conceptualizing outfits really.
The 1970’s and 80’s were ever more influenced by other areas of illustration outside of fashion alone, the late 80’s in particular where some facets of fashion illustration were showing similarities with those of advertising in the mediums being used to render croquis type sketches (brush and ink, bold pencils in loose expressive styles etc).
In response to the question then, has fashion illustration changed over this period or is it the fashion of illustration that’s changed, I believe the answer would be that both have changed. I think fashion illustration has changed due to the fashion of illustration changing, as with many facets of creativity they move with trends and vogues and I believe fashion is no exception to this.
OCA Illustration 2: Responding to a brief 