Art - Goût - Beauté, Feuillets de l' élégance féminine, Novembre 1931, No. 135, 12e Année, p. 17 1931

This fashion plate, from November 1931, is rendered with graphic lines and bold, flat color. I can imagine the anonymous artist carefully layering each block of color to build up the figures and their chic rain gear. I sympathize with the artist and wonder what it was like to be working in the fashion industry in Paris at this time. Maybe they were thinking about the changing roles of women and expressing a sense of modern femininity through these garments. The artist uses simple lines to convey a sense of movement and rhythm. Take the confident stride of the figures, for example; the umbrellas held aloft, echoed by the smaller umbrellas in the background, creating a sense of depth and atmosphere. I think that an artist who made this was in conversation with other fashion illustrators of the time, like Erté or George Barbier, who were also experimenting with line, color, and form. By embracing new technologies and techniques, fashion illustrators pushed the boundaries of visual expression and helped shape our understanding of modernity.