David Downton
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“I think the most important thing is the sense of the body in the clothes. After that, proportion, colour, a detail.”
Dior Couture ~ Spring/Summer 2004 (Erin O'Connor)
Image above is courtesy of: http://www.nytimes.com/
In the halcyon days before video live streaming and instant uploads, before the mega-celebrity, multi-media events that today's shows have now become, the sole method through which a couturier's designs were conveyed to the masses was via the now nearly-lost art of illustration. Magazine editors and a few cherished clients would attend showings, sitting on pert little gilded chairs in the salons of some of Paris's leading fashion houses. Among them would also be present a few of the best illustrators of the day - René Gruau, Paul Iribe, Christian Bérard or Cecil Beaton, for instance - hired by the top magazines of the day, Vogue and Harper's & Queen, who would make quick sketches of the latest models and styles parading before them. Eventually, the magazines would reproduce their sketches and illustrations of the lines, featuring a designer's looks of the season, in their pages (as well as on their covers) as part of their editorials. Over the decades, however, the metier and art form of the fashion illustrator has declined nearly to the level of oblivion; the photographic (and video) image has steadily replaced illustration as the means by which we view and consume sartorial imagery.
Nearly lost but not quite: every now and again, a golden name with an equally golden talent, such as that of 1970s New York-based illustrator and one time constant companion of Karl Lagerfeld, Antonio Lopez, rises to the heights of fame with his masterly images. And, considering the high-tech, electronically-obsessed world we currently live in, the few remaining present-day illustrators are more of an anomaly than ever. One of those 'anomalies' who's managed to carve a very nice niche for himself on the international fashion scene is the acclaimed Englishman, David Downton.
Christian Dior Couture ~ Spring/Summer 1997
Image above is courtesy of: http://harrisonfashion.wordpress.com/
If you had looked for one of the present day's foremost and acknowledged illustrator's work before he became recognised for his portraiture of some of the world's most celebrated women, and before his fashion illustrations (as fashion drawings used to) once again graced the pages and covers of trendy or stylish magazines, you would have come across David Downton's work in such unlikely places as cookbooks.
David Downton was born in the south of England, Kent, in 1959. He studied at Canterbury from 1977-78 and at Wolverhampton (where he attained a Bachelor of Arts degree in illustrations and graphics), from 1979-1981. In 1984, David decided to move to Brighton and it was there that he began his illustration career. Ironically, he never set out to become one of the world's leading fashion illustrators; in a sense, it all happened gradually, in measures. For the next twelve years, he worked at a variety of jobs as a freelance illustrator in such diverse genres as advertising, packaging, fiction, children's books, and the aforementioned cookbooks. (Source: daviddownton.com, undated)
Book cover of 100 Years of Fashion Illustration
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For a man who values the tactility and earns his living through his chosen medium of paper, his first cover was, paradoxically, for a computer magazine in the early 1980s, Which Computer. Due to his style of drawing, he had only produced a few fashion illustrations in the past. His breakthrough came in 1996 when the Financial Times commissioned David to illustrate the couture shows in Paris (his first ever couture show was Versace's). The experience of attending and drawing the Paris shows - the most beautiful women, the theatricality of the presentations, the lavish settings and atmosphere - was extremely inspiring for an illustrator of David's ilk.
Since that time, the focus of his work has mainly been on fashion illustration. For small scale pieces, for example, he prefers to use gouache, Indian ink or watercolour but he also utilizes cut pieces of paper to create collages in order to create a surface of flat, saturated colour. Commercially, some of his clients to date have included such establishments as Tiffany & Co., Bloomingdales, Barney's, Harrod's, and Top Shop, as well as such worldwide brands as L'Oreal, Chanel and Dior. Magazines have also come calling, commissioning David to illustrate their pages in accompaniment to profiles of notable individuals and fashion layouts; the likes of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, V Magazine - even the V&A Museum - have all been his clients. His illustrations have the unique ability of seizing the elusive mood of the moment and his work has subsequently appeared on some of the world's most coveted magazine covers. (Source: daviddownton.com, undated)
Image above is courtesy of: http://agaudi.wordpress.com/
Two years after the Financial Times' initial commission, in 1998 David began to venture into the genre of portraiture. Just as his entry into the realm of fashion illustration had been, his initiation into that of portraits also came about in an incidental way. The former 1970s model, Marie Helvin, came to an exhibition of his in London where the two met; when David enquired if she would allow him to illustrate her portrait, she agreed. The drawing was so successful that David decided to assemble a book of drawings of the world's most beautiful women - an ongoing project which he is still in the process of completing. (Source: daviddownton.com, undated)
Erin O'Connor ~ 2002
Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I
In the years since then and as the illustrators Antonio, Gruau, and Bouché - whose works he greatly admires - before him had done, his hand has precisely captured the likenesses of some of the most famous, fashionable and worldly women of his time - from models, to actresses and every recognizable name in between: Anouk Aimée, Catherine Deneuve, Marisa Berenson, Marie Helvin, Paloma Picasso, Linda Evangelista, Carmen Dell'Orefice, Iman and Erin O'Connor, to name but a few, have all been sitters. Once, when asked by an interviewer as to whom he would have liked to draw, David expressed his wish to have illustrated Josephine Baker, Lee Miller, Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner and, unconventionally, Edith Sitwell.
In 2007, David Downton launched the first ever fashion illustration journal called, Pourquoi Pas? (http://www.pqpmagazine.com/). He is currently a visiting professor at the London College of Fashion. In 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from the Academy of Art University of San Francisco. (Source: daviddownton.com, undated)
Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I
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Christian Dior Couture ~ Autumn/Winter 2009-2010
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The above three illustrations: Christian Dior Couture ~ Autumn/Winter 2009-2010
The above four images are courtesy of: http://www.daviddownton.com/
Erin O'Connor
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Absolut Downton 2 ~ May, 2010
Absolut Downton 5 ~ May, 2010
The above two image are courtesy of: http://www.fashionillustrationgallery.com/
The above two image are courtesy of: http://www.fashionillustrationgallery.com/
Absolut Downton Vodka
Erin O'Connor ~ 1999
Anouk Aimée ~ 2001
Erin O'Connor ~ 2000
Tiffany & Co. ~ 2007
Tiffany & Co.
The above four images are courtesy of: http://www.appendix-mag.com/
Image above is courtesy of: http://decoymagazine.blogspot.com/
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Anna Piaggi ~ 1999
Linda Evangelista
The above five images are all courtesy of: http://fashionjournalistinthecity.blogspot.com/
Erin O'Connor ~ 2003
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YSL
Chanel ~ 2008
Anna Piaggi
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Kate Moss
Erin O'Connor ~ 2005
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Paloma Picasso ~ 1999
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Valentino ~ 2008
Christian Dior Couture ~ Spring/Summer 2007
Dita Von Teese
Elizabeth Hurley
Linda Evangelista ~ 2004
Carmen Dell'Orefice ~ 2003
The above seven images are courtesy of: http://www.art-dept.com/
Chanel à Londres
The Face of Chanel
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Linda Evangelista ~ 2004
Image above is courtesy of: http://cars-are-stars-remotely-far.blogspot.com/
Catherine Deneuve ~ 1999
Valentino
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Julia Roberts
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Linda Evangelista, Vogue UK ~ 2004
Image courtesy of: Pinterest
Image above is courtesy of: https://idratherbeshopping.wordpress.com/
Image courtesy of: Pinterest
Kate Moss
Dolce & Gabbana ~ Fall/Winter 2009
Linda Evangelista ~ 2004
Dita Von Teese ~ 2008
The three images above are courtesy of: http://fashionista514.com/
Carmen Dell'Orefice ~ 2006
The Golden Age of Couture exhibition at the V&A, London
Sketch for The Golden Age of Couture exhibition at the V&A, London
Image above is courtesy of: http://www.daviddownton.com/
Naomi Campbell for Versace
(Autumn-Winter 2013 Haute Couture collections)
Image courtesy of: Vogue UK
(Autumn-Winter 2013 Haute Couture collections)
Image courtesy of: Vogue UK
Above left image, courtesy of: Vogue UK ~ 2003 | Above right image, courtesy of: The Telegraph ~ 2013
The above two images are courtesy of: The Telegraph
Cate Blanchett
Celebrates 50 Years of Vogue Australia
The above four images are courtesy of: http://projectrungay.blogspot.com/
Dita Von Teese
Both images above are courtesy of: http://blog.lafraise.com/
Suggested readings:
100 Years of Fashion Illustration (2007), by Cally Blackman: Laurence King Publishers
Fashion Brands: Branding Style from Armani to Zara (2008), by Mark Tungate: Kogan Page Publishers
Masters of Fashion Illustration (2010), by David Downton: Laurence King Publishers
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