Art - Goût - Beauté, Feuillets de l' élégance féminine, Février 1926, No. 66, 6e Année, p. 18: Création Jean Patou 1926

This print of a Jean Patou design was made in 1926 by an anonymous artist. Imagine sketching out the cut of a dress or the drape of a coat, feeling the pencil move across the page, trying to capture a sense of style in a few lines. What would it be like to be the artist, hired to draw the mood of a Patou dress design in a fashion magazine? I guess you’d need to capture the moment of parting, of setting off, and the way the woman embodies forward motion. The use of gentle color washes creates an illustration that seems a little melancholic and very elegant. It reminds me a bit of other artists who have worked with fashion design, like Sonia Delaunay, and her experiments with geometric abstraction in textiles. Fashion illustration, like painting, is a way of capturing the movement of life in still form. Artists always respond to one another, and each new creation is a continuation of an ongoing, timeless conversation.