Fashion Books: 1940's Fashion Illustrations from the House of Jaques Heim

Full color fashion illustrations of the Jaques Heim French couture collections from the late 1940's are available online through a publication by the Melbourne Fine Art gallery, Sept. 2012, found HERE titled "Fashion Illustrations from the House of Jaques Heim".

Lavish water color illustrations show this French couture designer's genius, and provide a wide range of styles, arranged in chapters. This would be a 'must' for any fashion library, but it is amazing to find it now through issuu.com, without charge. The exhibit was curated by Mara Sison and Peter Jago, under the direction of Bryan Collie. This e-book is divided in chapters on coats and furs, ball gowns, spring and summer, and suits.

A second e-book, "French Fashion and Design: The Art of Fashion Illustration", found HERE was published in 2011, and curated by Mara Sison, directed by Bryan Collie. This book has more variety. In addition to the Jaques Heim fashion illustrations, it also features fashion photos from the 1930's and late 19th century costume illustrations.

Together, these two e-books provide a valuable resource of Jaques Heim during the late 1940's, also a wide variety of skillfully painted illustrations, along with inspiring fashions from that important era and are worth noting.


Fashion Illustrations from the House of Jaques Heim, published Sept. 2012 by the Melbourne Fine Art gallery

The Art of Fashion Illustration published 2011, by the Melbourne Fine Art gallery

David Crystal: Red Dress from 1959

This is the first of several David Crystal magazine advertisements from 1959 for dresses created in knits. They have such gorgeous illustrations in primary colors that I had to share and a Holiday red seems like the best place to start! (more to come)

p.s. The illustration is original, but the graphics are mine.

1960 Fashion Illustration: Brian Stonehouse

This dramatic fashion illustration from the fall of 1960 shows a tunic shaped over blouse and gathered skirt in an eye popping black and brown stripe. It was designed by Bud Kilpatrick for I. Magnin in California. This type of graphic fashion pattern was gaining in popularity as a modern, sophisticated trend towards a newer, more urban style. Clean simple styles and bolder prints were starting to dominate the lingering prints and silhouettes of the post-New Look era.

Brian Stonehouse, 1918 to 1998, was the fashion illustrator. Born in England, he was trained in fine art in the late 1930's and entered the fashion illustration field soon after graduating. Following WWII, he returned to fashion illustration, working for both "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar" in the US between 1946 and 1979. After that time, he retired to England where he produced fine art and portraits of important personalities, including the Queen.

More on Brian Stonehouse can be found HERE.

1944 RBW Fashion Illustration: Davidow Suits

This ink wash fashion illustration is by RBW and shows Davidow suits for winter, 1944. The signature Davidow soft tailoring is already in evidence by the soft belting and shirt-style jackets pictured here.

I include this Davidow set to reference earlier designs from this label (see previous Davidow post HERE). I also have an earlier post on RBW, the sign-off for Count Rene Bouet-Wilaumez, whose illustrations during the 1930's through 1950's were a signature look for "Vogue" magazine, HERE. On Pinterest I am building a Davidow board with both advertisements and garment photos.

Elsewhere online you can find Davidow posts at "The Vintage Traveler" HERE and at "Past Perfect Vintage" HERE.

1964 Bold Wool Checks

The fashion illustrations here date from 1964. They feature shaped wool suits with bold checks. It's hard to think of a more classic 60's wool than hounds tooth, and here it is in full splendor. As examples of mid-1960's fashion, 3/4 sleeves (worn with long gloves) are almost equal to the short jacket length. The rolled collars are heavily interfaced to achieve that carefully curved line. The jackets probably have self covered buttons, in a bold, large scale typical of the Jackie O era.

Most likely drawn using colored chalk on an egg shell finish bond paper, these drawings have a glowing effect achieved by carefully controlling the lighting. For illustrating checks, these illustrations offer great inspiration and show how to not over-draw the details, rather how to suggest an overall effect to a better advantage.

When I can indentify the illustrator, I'll add that information here.

Another 60's Romantic Wedding Look

This 1960's bride creates her own world where Victorian romance and Mod style combine to create a fairy tale princess world.  

Illustration: guache on illustration board, artist unknown