Fashion Illustration Research Articles

According to the Artists: Professional Fashion Illustrators' Views About Their Art Form

The purpose of this study was to gather information and opinions from major contemporary fashion illustrators in order to enrich classroom teaching of the subject and to compensate for the void in literature about post-1960 artists and their work. Individualized letters were sent to artists, most of whom were producing advertising or editorial art for New York stores, designers, firms, or publications. The artists were asked to respond to two pages of open-ended questions about their careers and other fashion illustration topics. Fifty-five artists replied in written form regarding their educational and professional experiences, suggestions for content and teaching approach in a beginning fashion illustration course, sources of poses, preferred artists' tools and media, and work setting. They also assessed the dominance of fashion photography over illustration in editorial portions of fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar and cited current trends and influences. in fashion art. The quantity and time span of the artists' responses produced a chronological overview of fashion illustration trends from the late 1960s to the present, together with speculations about future use and status of fashion illustration.

The Rise and Fall of It All: The Hemlines and Hiplines of the 1920s

That the hemline of women's daytime costume became increasingly elevated during the 1920s, and that this costume often evidenced stylistic emphasis around the anatomical hipline, are two traditional concepts promulgated by most costume historians. In the current investigation, 1,978 women's daytime fashion illustrations, published within Good Housekeeping between February 1920 and December 1929, were measured to test the accuracy of these often communicated beliefs. While the data did substantiate that hemlines rose and hiplines were emphasized during the 1920s, it was noted that the actual transitional movements of these two style details, as plotted by the results of the study, were not so simply described. Hemlines, for example, lengthened during 1922 and 1923, before beginning an upward trend in 1924, reaching the most elevated position in 1927. A relatively stable period ensued until October 1929, when the dress skirt again began to grow longer. Thus, the publication of longer skirts predated the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, by approximately one month. Similarly, the specific location of waist/hip emphasis dropped between the years of 1920 and 1925, thereafter followed by a gradual rise. A modest inverse relationship was noted between the fluctuating positions of the waist/hip design features and hemline locations. It was discovered that data collected from sketched fashion illustrations reflected slightly more exaggerated versions of a concurrent style than did data collected from photographs.

Relating Fashion Change to Social Change: A Methodological Approach

Fashion authorities recognize that social changes and fashion changes are related. How ever, their observations are largely speculative, rather than being based upon empirical testing. This research was designed to determine whether patterns of stability and change in attire coincide with periods of societal stability and change. A data recording form was developed and a method to quantify the data for likelihood ratio tests was designed.A sample of 112 costumes, either photographs of portraits or fashion illustrations, was used to pilot test the methodology. Eight male and eight female costumes were spaced throughout each of seven of the traditional historic periods between 1715 and 1914 in France. Political and institutional stability and change do not always coincide. Therefore, for hypothesis testing, the traditional periods were classified as periods of institutional stability or change or political stability or change. Two hypotheses concerning patterns of change in dress fashions, one related to institutional change and one related to political change, were rejected when the composite silhouette data were subjected to maximum likelihood ratio tests with the data pooled by sex and by stability and change periods.

Adult Costume in Iowa Towns, 1870–1880

The purpose of the research was to describe the outer clothing and hairstyles worn by men and women living in Iowa towns between 1870 and 1880. The clothing studied came from the collections of nineteen museums in Iowa, Iowa State University, and 6 private collectors. Data were also found in newspapers, magazines, photographs, tintypes, census figures, court records, city directories, and personal diaries. Surviving women's and men's clothing was described on charts prepared for this research. Photographs and line drawings of the clothes were also made. Clothing for both men and women was similar in style to fashions advertised in national magazines and newspapers of the 1870's. However, women's dresses had high necklines and full‐length sleeves, unlike some contemporary fashion illustrations. Men's suits were subdued in color and loose in fit, much like the suits advertised nationally. Cotton, wool, and silk fabrics appeared in extant garments. Surviving work clothing was limited to housedresses; patterns for a man's working blouse and overalls were illustrated in an 1876 periodical.

Images of Childhood: An Illustrated Social History. Anita SchorschChildren of the Past in Photographic Portraits: An Album with 165 Prints. Alison MagerThe Way We Wore: Fashion Illustrations of Children's Wear, 1870-1970. Linda Martin

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsImages of Childhood: An Illustrated Social History. Anita Schorsch Children of the Past in Photographic Portraits: An Album with 165 Prints. Alison Mager The Way We Wore: Fashion Illustrations of Children's Wear, 1870-1970. Linda Martin Karin CalvertKarin Calvert Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Winterthur Portfolio Volume 15, Number 4Winter, 1980 Published for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/495997 Views: 2Total views on this site Copyright 1980 The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur MuseumPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Body Proportions of Fashion Illustrations, 1840–1940, Compared with the Greek Ideal of Female Beauty

Comparisons of the body proportions of the Greek ideal of female beauty with mean body propor tions of fashion figures of costume silhouette periods, 1840 through 1940, revealed that fashion illustrators in general have not adhered to the Greek ideal over time. In addition, comparisons of mean body proportions as well as the popular types of hair styles, face shapes, and shoulder slopes of sketched figures from three periods of stable costume silhouettes and two periods of transition from one silhouette to another revealed that the mean body proportions and the popularity of specific types of features changed during both.