i was fortunate to visit dior illustrated, rené gruau and the line of beauty at somerset house in january. this exceptional illustrator worked with dior from the 40's to the late 1980's and mostly drew for the dior perfumes, despite this being a time when fashion houses were turning to photography for their advertising. dior met gruau when they both worked on the fashion desk at le figaro in 1936, from then on the two men had a lasting friendship and working partnership.
responding to the zeitgeist but with a strong individual style he produced some of the most iconic images in fashion (and even appeared in the dior cook book)
truly gruau was the master of the minimal, conveying so much with only the few strokes of a brush:
miss dior, 1971
miss dior, 1961
diorissmo, 1959. from a series known as the flower women
miss dior, 1949 the hand of mitzah bricard (muse to dior)
No comments:
Post a Comment