In a decade defined by digital media platforms, there are clear-cut signs that millennial art collectors are harking back to an exclusive art form that can only be achieved by using the antiquated drawing board.
Chanel, Prada and Gucci are just a handful of high-end, luxury fashion brands that frequently commission stylish sketches of their latest collections. Meanwhile, names like artist-in-residence at Dior Beauty Bil Donovan (@bildonovan) and Canadian creative Meagan Morrison (@travelwritedraw) are commanding thousands of social media followers.
William Ling, founder of Fashion Illustration Gallery, said collectors have a renewed appreciation for the illustrations his gallery exhibits. “Enthusiasm for the genre is shared by both the most discerning professional working in the field of visual art and the non-professional who has never bought an artwork before,” he tells MOJEH. “Almost all buy because the imagery connects with them emotionally, and the desire grows within them to acquire the piece and, in a growing number of cases, add to their collection.”
William Ling, founder of Fashion Illustration Gallery
Since opening Fashion Illustration Gallery in 2007, Ling has strongly believed that the popularity of the art form would increase. “I was offered a space to open a gallery by my friends,” he reveals of the gallery’s inception, “on Golborne Road in West London. They had no need for their space on street level so invited me to use it. At the same time, online shopping was taking off and I thought that the combination of a physical presence and an online shop specialising in fashion illustration might just work. I wasn’t wrong!”
When asked to name the gallery’s biggest achievement to date, Ling struggles to decide upon which accomplishment means the most. “It would be a toss up between our project with the V&A [Victoria and Albert Museum] in 2011, who we helped acquire a collection of contemporary fashion illustration for their prints and drawings department, and an exhibition we mounted at Christie’s in 2013, which helped us reach and connect with collectors and opinion formers in the best possible way.”
The latter featured world-renowned works produced by the likes of Andy Warhol, Cecil Beaton, Antonio Lopez, Mats Gustafson, and Jean-Philippe Delhomme. So what does it take to become a household name as an illustrator? “Many things,” Ling explains, before resolutely adding, “execution, originality and talent.” Prominent pieces have previously proved to be lucrative financial investments. A gouache drawing by René Gruau fetched AED 383,800 at Christie’s in 2010.
“The best artists use line, colour, texture, composition and mark with supreme confidence and without any hesitation,” says Ling. “A great fashion illustration is never overworked and appears to be complete.” He adds, “The artist will have their own style that is original and belongs exclusively to them, although the most talented are usually the most copied.”
Fashion Illustration Gallery is preparing to unveil a handful of talented new artists for the upcoming year, as well as host the second and third editions of the Fashion Illustration Gallery Art Fair (FIGAF), the world’s first and only art fair dedicated to illustration. Ling reveals that plenty of thought goes into which artists the gallery will showcase. “We look at the artists’ career as a whole and make sense of it by grouping works together and identifying them according to their importance,” he explains. “This then helps us price the work. Over time, supply and demand also becomes an issue. It’s important that we get the right pieces for the artists as they only get to sell the work once.”
