This week I’m pleased to be sketching shows at Toronto Fashion Week for FLARE.com… I’m thrilled to be using Paper by FiftyThree on the iPad for a live runway sketching project again! Check out my best efforts and thoughts on the shows here, and follow the FLARE tumblr for updates throughout the week.
My first show sketching in Toronto since 2010 is by London based designer and friend Jean-Pierre Braganza. It was a major challenge to somehow capture even a fraction of his magnificent engineered prints quickly – which is no surprise considering how painstaking the process of designing them is. The first show of the week is always more of a warm-up, though I was happy with these two figures. You can see a quick little video of me at work by Ryan Cheung of FLARE.com here.
I’m very pleased to announce I will be sketching using Paper on the iPad again this week, exclusive for FLARE.com. You can follow FLARE’s tumblr for updates throughout Toronto Fashion Week.
Why are there no recognizable new fashion critics? You would think, with an abundance of free media for the taking, one or two strong fresh voices would rise to challenge the established names and push this type of writing further. I can only think of a few who have more recently made a strong impression with personality and flair, only to abandon the form. Alexander Fury did consistently insightful and contextual reviews for SHOWstudio – he has now moved into an editorial position at LOVE. Sarah Nicole Prickett brought a sharp eye and sharper pen for a few memorable seasons in Toronto and New York. Now she no longer writes about fashion. Further off the radar, I enjoy the brief, sensitive, poetic reviews on Fashion156 by John Michael O’Sullivan of 1972 Projects – his unique work does not enjoy the attention I think it deserves.
There are many possibilities for fashion criticism that haven’t yet been played out, but for all the critics’ protests about the encroachment of the bloggers, isn’t it odd that so few bloggers are actually challenging them with direct competition? What does that mean for the future of fashion criticism?
Fashion has changed. Fashion criticism has stayed the same. Same names, same game. We often forget that fashion criticism in its narrowest form is a fairly recent development – in the 1990s. Fashion criticism emerged just as more academic and intellectual interest was focused on fashion for the first time, while at the same time supermodels legitimized fashion with popular attention. Most importantly, newspaper journalism had not yet been transformed by the media revolution. Fertile ground for fashion criticism existed for less than a decade. Since then, no new seeds have taken root.
The internet, for all of its many benefits, is a terrible environment for fashion criticism. The paradox of free speech is that it’s more in the sense of free market than it is like actual freedom. Horyn, Menkes, Alexander, McDowell and their contemporaries all have the tremendous subsidy of a major media corporation that protects their freedom of speech for them. Freelancers and bloggers, on the other hand, have to look out for themselves. Being critical isn’t good business in fashion. There are no economic advantages to it. It’s also tremendously difficult to do well, and be popular doing it, since it is a somewhat intramural, confrontational pursuit. Fashion is wary of words. For fashion criticism to survive and thrive, it needs at least one degree of separation between the creator and the money required to support their work.
A great fashion critic needs to be an outsider’s insider. They need to be obsessive and knowledgable about fashion history, recent and past, and also be well versed in the culture at large as well. Able to grasp the technical language of fashion as well as being able to interpret an expressive, visual phenomenon using words, without falling into the claptrap of cliches. Ideally, the critic needs to be able to write about a narrow topic in an expansive way that would also draw in the casual reader. A strong personality is a major plus. It is no wonder so few bloggers or young writers have such a unique combination of exceptional talents, not to mention the encouragement to pursue criticism as a career.
When I was reading the fashion criticism on offer this season, I was frustrated. The old guard seemed far older than usual – griping about bloggers and email invitations, bemoaning the digital influence on design. Many missives seemed to be pining for the glory days of fashion criticism rather than keeping up with ever-changing fashion as it is NOW. There were two insights in particular that I was looking for and never found – a dispassionate, up-to-date commentary on the effects of the media revolution on fashion, and a cool consideration of why, exactly, Hedi Slimane is offending the fashion establishment so much right now.
It’s clear that if I want to read these things, I will have to write them myself, and this post is a stab in that direction. Perhaps I’m flattering myself, but I think I’m in an ideal position to experiment with fashion criticism. Since my writing is wholly un-monetized and somewhat distanced from my business as an illustrator, I have more freedom in what I choose to write about than most. I also have the freedom of time – unlike a newspaper reporter, I have the privilege to ponder, research and wait for a genuine insight to emerge rather than racing to cover a particular event in a timely fashion. I also want to stretch fashion criticism beyond its traditional format of runway reviews and designer profiles, because really, it could be so much more.
Are you aware of any fresh voices in fashion criticism? I’d love to learn their names. What do you think the future of fashion criticism should be like?
Last year I was delighted to create a series of original paper dolls for a media kit to promote StyleSequel, an online shop specializing in hand-picked, pre-owned fashion. I really enjoyed rendering their sweet red lips and to-die-for designer vintage wardrobe. Many thanks to Emma for a fun project!
My niece Evelyn just turned five years old with much fanfare and excitement. One of the greatest things about being back in Toronto is being able to be an active Auntie again, so I get to participate in fun kid stuff – for me, that means doll play. For her major milestone, I created a magnet doll which we coloured in together with markers. It’s my first ever kid-doll and since it was so well received, I thought I’d offer it as a free download. Get it here and share it with the moppets in your life.
You can get magnet paper kits from major stationary stores. You can either send it through your printer – or if your printer isn’t up to it, you can print it off on regular paper and glue it on to the magnet paper. Colour in with markers or what-have-you, carefully cut her out, stick her on your fridge, and have fun!
In 2008, I went to New York Fashion Week, and I convinced a national newspaper to give me a full page for sketches and notes. With blithe overconfidence in my ability to deliver, I attended three fashion shows by Canadian designers, including Jeremy Laing. Pencil in hand I threw together a brief sketchbook diary, which I jazzed up in Photoshop a bit.
I remember opening the page when it ran, and my heart fell. Great, the entire nation gets to see this? I thought as I pushed the paper away from me. The images lacked punch and didn’t reproduce well on the newsprint – and somehow, the sketches from Laing’s show were cut from the final layout. At the time, it felt like I had messed up my big break.
The takeaway from that experience was that I needed a lot more… experience. I spent the next five years on my own dime, sketching away at fashion weeks, client-less. This time, when I came back to New York, I wanted to make sure I sketched Jeremy Laing right.
I did a few beauty sketches on the iPad using Paper backstage to warm up – one of them did get picked up by WWD, which felt like it went some way to making up for my earlier omission. Then I did something I’ve only done once before – something I love – which was place myself in the photographer’s pit for optimum front views. Behind me, an old school photographer shared his memories of working alongside Kenneth Paul Block with me… I felt like I was in the right place.
It was the last show of the week I used watercolour for, and the flow was really nice, I got several decent drawings done. The sketches turned out minimal and sincere – suited to Jeremy’s style, I think.
This is the last live sketching post from this season for me. This New York Fashion Week was a truly profound one for me on my trip as a fashion illustrator. Revisiting these final few drawings a few weeks later, I still feel I need a lot more experience to achieve what is possible in live runway sketching.
Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.
Gilda Radner, my kind of style icon. Being somewhat scruffy by inclination, it is reassuring to see wild hair and an oversized wool jacket look so… rad. Nice validation for me copping out style-wise at NYFW. Via I’m Fine. It’s Nothing.
Karma for incoming linkers and commenters -
Live runway sketching is a wholly absorbing activity that takes place in mere moments. There’s no time to think, only feel. The fashion comes in through my eyes and ears, down my arm and out my fingertips like an impulse, pure expression, a kind of performance. Although I never anticipated I would do live runway sketching in digital media, it feels like a natural progression and I found the results fascinating.
This post is a collection of the best sketches from New York Fashion Week, drawing major runway shows on Paper by FiftyThree, featured on WWD.com. The sketch above is from the first official show of the project, Yigal Azrouël, just one day after I tried using the program for the first time. This sketch had an added element involved because I was being shot by a photographer from Women’s Wear Daily while doing it. I had to hold the iPad at an unnatural height and angle, and sketch in landscape rather than my more comfortable portrait format. The fact that despite all of these adverse factors I managed to pull out a successful sketch was a total adrenaline rush. The competitive, game-like edge to this project was one I found exciting.
Paper held up to the significant demands of live runway sketching incredibly well. Considering I had only one day to orient myself to the iPad and the application, and I am by no means an early adopter technologically, the results I was able to achieve right away shows what a user-friendly program it is. Paper also keeps up – which is pretty amazing considering how fast I draw at a fashion show. I never had to wait for the program – which isn’t always true of wet paint. Of course, the greatest thrill is being able to easily upload images with total spontaneity – no scanning or editing required – which seems to jive well with what live sketching is truly all about.
The sketches above from Alexander Wang were the purest of the week. For some reason every ideal aspect of that show fell into place for us – we had a wonderful seat next to a tall platform where the models literally walked over our shoulders, and we had perfect 360 degree views of every single outfit. The palette was limited which allowed me to concentrate more on line – and the lines of the clothing were dramatic and architectural. Plus, the music, launching with an instrumental remix of “Eye of the Tiger” was a perfect soundtrack for rocking out.
My partner at that show, graphic designer Becky Brown, also was on a roll, capturing the environment and the accessories with her beautiful style of rendering. You can see lots of other beautiful images by other members of the FiftyThree team at the WWD on Paper tumblr.
The Diane von Furstenberg show was another challenging one because I was being photographed again, this time for Apple’s PR department. I had to stand up for part of the show and standing significantly reduces my ability to do multiple sketches. It was also a totally different mood for this show – strong and saturated, with feel-good disco music, so, seemed to demand a bolder line.
The temptation to use the undo function is truly the most profound difference that digital offers. The ability to take multiple swipes at a line to achieve ideal line quality meant that I did fewer sketches per show but with a much better success:failure ratio. The risk to avoid there is to remember not let the show run too far ahead of you while you’re fussing away at a minor detail.
The J. Crew presentation, sketched above and below, offered another totally different environment. With the audience milling up and down the runway and the models standing on raised platforms on the sides of the space, I had more time with each model I selected, and the models were also aware I was sketching them – which sometimes worked in my favour, and sometimes didn’t. The temptation to over-work and over-think a drawing is stronger in this type of environment and needs to be resisted. The trick is all about knowing when the drawing is finished, and moving on.
The final show, below, was the much-hyped Oscar de la Renta show, and John Galliano’s hands were very visible in every look. Corralled into a standing area for this show, I was struggling a bit, and didn’t move fast enough to grab a perfectly placed empty chair by a table just across the runway. Plus, it was an incredibly intimidating atmosphere, and at that stage of the week I was exhausted and scruffy and felt like a bedraggled little country mouse very far away from home. Still, I managed to capture two sketches which I think are evocative of the glamour and exaggerated femininity on display.
Nailing the final sketch of the project, below, I was proud and happy of what I accomplished. The entire week had felt like some kind of fashion-illustration themed race, and in the end, I felt that I had not only passed the finish line, I had also created a few lovely images. Heartfelt thanks to everyone at FiftyThree and Women’s Wear Daily. I was only one small part of a wonderful team that made this project happen.
The second show I sketched with watercolours at New York Fashion Week was Nicole Miller. It was one of the more celebrity-heavy shows I’ve ever been to – at one point I attempted a photo-bomb behind hip hop star Eve while she was getting papped, shooting a pop-eyed stare back at the cameras from behind my sketchbook. For some reason these particular shots didn’t get picked up by the wire services, haha.
This time, I was sketching at a larger format than ever before, a 14″ x 20″ Arches watercolour tablet, and I believe I have discovered how big is too big when it comes to sketching at a fashion show. Lucky that I was in an aisle seat, so I could place these massive sheets of paper in the aisle to dry. Still, after the show when everyone gets up in a crushing mad dash to get out, I had to sweep up my papers so quickly most of the sketches got smudged.
The other aspect of the larger paper that doesn’t quite work is because the top of the paper is so far away on my lap, I find the proportions of the figures get distorted, which I don’t realize while I’m rocking out to the pop music and absorbing the show. Perhaps this is the reason that in this particular group of sketches, the heads tended to be too small and the legs were too long.
The show was so high-energy, sexy and fun, technical issues aside, I am happy with a few sketches that resulted – or parts of them anyway. Thanks to the team at Nicole Miller for granting me the opportunity!
This is the most exciting project of my career so far. I’m working with FiftyThree, covering major runway shows at New York Fashion Week using their iPad sketching app Paper. Even more incredible – the sketches are being shown on WWD.com! I’m attending terrific shows I would never usually have access to – designers like Yigal Azrouël, Alexander Wang and others.
For live sketching, you need responsive software that moves as fast as you do, with all your tools literally at your fingertips. Paper has got the goods. It’s so amazing – by the end of a fashion show I’ll have about half a dozen drawings, and I can upload them instantly, before the audience even leaves the venue – before the photographers make it back to the lab! Follow the WWD on Paper tumblr to catch the sketches mere moments after the show is over. Once New York Fashion Week is done, I’ll collect my favourite sketches and post them here on Final Fashion.
To have my work displayed on WWD.com is an honour. Women’s Wear Daily played a significant role in the history of fashion illustration in the 60s, 70s and 80s – employing a whole staff of illustrators full-time and giving them prominent attribution, making the artists stars. Several of my heroes – Kenneth Paul Block, Steven Stipelman and Antonio Lopez worked there. This project positions my work as an inheritor of theirs. I am hustling hard to live up to these legacies. Right now, all of my energy is focused on delivering my best work. Sketching runway for WWD is a dream come true.
Of course, WWD also effectively drew the golden age of fashion illustration to a definitive close when they fired their entire art department in 1992. Over twenty years later, to be able to bring the lost art of live runway illustration back to this venerable fashion news source, using a totally new technology, is a profound moment in the history of the art of fashion illustration that I am proud to play a role in.
fashion illustrator. trend theorist.
available for freelance projects worldwide.
historical paper dolls
fashion model paper dolls
Naomi Campbell paper doll
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