Art - Goût - Beauté, Feuillets de l' élégance féminine, Juin 1932, No. 142, 12e Année, p. 24 1932

This image, from an edition of *Art - Goût - Beauté* published in Paris, presents a very particular image of the fashionable woman. You get the sense that the artist, H. Rouit, was thinking about ways to translate the real feel of silk into a drawn line. I really feel for Rouit here; it’s a real challenge to create a sense of materiality on the page! It's almost like trying to describe a color to someone who's never seen it. The drawing is quite flat, but Rouit adds texture to the page with little graphic gestures. It looks like he carefully builds up layers of color. And there's something so fascinating to me about fashion illustration, that strange combination of art and commerce, a tightrope walk between individual expression and what sells. Artists keep looking, borrowing, and responding to each other, even across different eras. It's this ongoing conversation that keeps art alive and kicking.