HAMBURG.- This unique overview demonstrates that the genre of fashion drawings is justified in being seen an art form in its own right. True, fashion has been depicted ever since ancient times, and since the 19th century also illustrated with drawings in magazines and series of prints, but the fashion drawing as an independent format only came into its own with the rise of fashion magazines such as Vogue, Gazette du Bon Ton or Harper’s Bazaar. The “Drawing Fashion” which the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MKG) is showing from 19 December on are from those in the possession of the renowned gallery owner, collector and great expert on the art of illustration Joëlle Chariau. The original drawings from this collection give us an idea of the essential nature of fashion drawing and their quality on the highest level of artistic excellence.

The 165 drawings celebrate the creations of the big names of haute-couture, from Paul Poiret and Coco Chanel to Christian Dior, up to and including Christian Lacroix, Alexander McQueen, Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons. Their astonishingly delicate touch and precision of detail often convey, far more convincingly than a photograph could, the elegance and the extravagance of the newest collections and creations of the moment. Joëlle Chariau’s collection shows this development in seven sections, illustrating each with a selection of exemplary work. The first two chapters present a particular style or epoch. The extravagant Art Déco of the tens and twenties of the 20th century is followed by the dignified tastefulness of the thirties and forties.

The next decades are represented by their outstanding illustrators: the fifties by René Gruau (1909-2004), the sixties to eighties by the New Yorker Antonio (Antonio Lopez, 1943-1987) followed by the Swede Mats Gustafson (*1951), the Swiss François Berthoud (*1961) and, the youngest artist on show, the Parisian Aurore de La Morinerie (*1962). The exhibition has been made possible with the generous support of the Hans Brökel Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Kultur.