American Vogue, why won’t you use more illustration? I don’t mean the watercolor renderings of featured products, or wistful looks-back on the likes of Antonio Lopez, Rene Gruau, Harvey Boyd, or Rene Bouche (who I’d love to see covering an event right now if he was still around). More than sketched coverage of the Met Gala, I’d love to see illustrated images used in an editorial context. I really enjoyed Steven Klein’s image of distracted luxury for last year’s article Chaos Theory on adult women with previously undiagnosed attention deficit disorder. But an image like, say, April 2011’s Time to Chill? is crying out for an illustrator’s attention. There’s at least one article like this in every issue. I’m not saying that it should be me or someone like me, I’m just saying… There are articles like these, pieces about the challenges and perils of the stylish and successful, in every issue of Vogue. Sometimes a photo-illustration is a perfectly valid and desirable response, but at times there are things that illustrators can do to condense concept or carry theme that just work better. And there’s no reason that drawn images or images that include drawn elements can’t feature product as well.
Spread 1/ Dress/ Giambattista Valli Fall 2012 Couture, Jacket/ Marni Resort 2013, Shoes/ Manolo Blahnik boot and Walter Steiger platform, Bag/ Dolce and Gabbana, Accessories/ Rodarte star barette, Tom Ford sunglasses, Ileana Makri earring, Jil Sander earring, Rabito iphone cover, Delfina Delettrez turtle cuff (made for her Delphinarium exhibition at Gallery Antonella in Florence), LaCrasia gloves
Spread 2/ Dress/ Dolce and Gabbana silk blend dress+Haider Ackermann poly bodysuit, Accessories/ MS Schmalberg Inc. headpiece, Miu Miu earring, Heaven Tanudiredja necklace
