Illustrators | Miss at la Playa

Vogue has been a mirror of the art movements of each period since the first issue was published in 1892.Their commitment with arts has accompanied fashion on its pages, as there hasn’t been a single year without an artist collaboration, whether they were photographers, painters or sculptors. Maybe the most known works are the photographs from genius such as Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Henri Cartier-Bresson or Herb Ritts (in fact, Vogue was the first magazine to publish a photograph on a cover). But there’s also been great painters that created masterpieces for the cover of Vogue, such as Dalí, Miró, and Andy Warhol.

During the first years of the magazine the most usual illustrators were Georges Lepape, Bonnie Cashin, Ethel Wright, Eduardo García Benito… Impeccable drawings that reflected the collections of the season, but also represented the art trends. The covers from the 20′s are inundated with the art-decó spirit, they are my favourites. André E. Marty was one of the main artists that created the covers in the 30′s. Dalí created four covers in total, starting in 1944, and his colleague Marcel Duchamp also appeared indirectly on a cover in which a model posed next to his “The Large Glass” photographed by Erwin Blumenfeld. From that year on, the illustrated covers were more and more scarce as photography was taking over. Nevertheless, there are great examples from René Gruau (check this post to see his illustrations), the Carolina de Monaco’s portrait by Andy Warhol, the cover-painting by Joan Miró…

Nowadays it’s David Downton (check this post) the one that usually collaborates with Vogue, even though there are hardly any illustrated covers now. I wish they were back!

Ethel Wright, 1902

St. John, 1909

Eduardo García Benito, 1926

George Lepape, 1929

Bonnie Cashin, late 20′s

André E. Marty, 1930

Carl Eric, 1935

Salvador Dalí, April 1944

Dalí drawing for Vogue, 1944

Salvador Dalí

January 1948, with illustrations by René Bouché, Picasso, André Derain

July 1945, model poses with Marcel Duchamp’s The Large Glass, photographed by Erwin Blumenfeld

Eduardo García Benito, 1937 – Erwin Blumenfeld, 1945

René Gruau illustration over Erwin Blumenfeld illustration, 1945

Photo by Erwin Blumenfeld, 1950

René Gruau, 1956

Clifford Coffin, 1945

Joan Miró, December 1979

Andy Warhol, 1984

René Gruau, 1985

David Downton, 2009

I love reading Monocle magazine because it is an endless source of inspiration. You can discover an amazing amount of new things, places, shops, trends, and at the same time learn about the political situation of poor countries, today’s military strategies or the state of the industry in Japan. They are extremely cool: in order to improve your life you should buy your own island, get a Berkel prosciutto slicer (I didn’t know what that was before reading the August issue), have a bathing pavilion, and a yacht. But they always play with irony, for example, they recommend you a journey with a map, as it’s the best way to get lost. I love when magazines have a sense of humor.

I always buy the magazine at the airport and read it with calm, then I re-read it after a few days. I keep the old issues because they are great travel guides. They avoid touristic places and give you tips about the most secret places of the cities. The photos are impeccable and they have that classic and polished style that I admit I love. Plus, the art direction is perfection.

One of the best things about the magazine are the illustrations. They always hire the coolest illustrators and they add that artistic and unique touch to their pages. Even though the illustrators have different styles, they all have in common a vintage and colourful air in their drawings. The works are not realistic, they are closer to cartoons, like Hanna-Barbera’s animations (The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Wacky Races), and Jean-Jacques Sempé’s book illustrations.

Let’s see who belongs to the Monocle’s A-Team of illustrators:

Satoshi Hashimoto
Satoshi is one of my favourites. He was born in 1971, studied Photographic Research at Kuwasawa Design and works as a freelance for several magazines, has illustrated books and done advertising. His work reminds me of Sempé’s drawings (he illustrated “Le Petit Nicolas” stories), another of my favourite illustrators. Satoshi has a great use of colour, and his characters have an air of fun and honesty, maybe a little innocent. He has made a world map drawing the countries’ characteristics, and the scheme of the Perfect Serviced Hotel is just awesome.

Illustration by Jean Jacques Sempé

Nishant Choksi
He lives in the United Kingdom and collaborates with lots of magazines and newspapers, like The New York Times, the New Yorker, WIRED, The Wall Street Journal… He uses brush and ink, and his work usually contains critics about political or economical situations. You can follow his Tumblr to be updated of his latest creations.

Rami Niemi
He uses digital techniques to create these simple and funny illustrations. If you wanna see more of his work (here), I recommend it, it is so cool.