With a sketch, you are immediately connected – through each choice of colour and through every mark on the page – to the person who drew it. It is a powerful medium for translating an idea and for making something abstract real as it shows the presence of hand. Sketches used to be one of the sole means of fashion communication. The need for them has somewhat declined with the digital age, but there is a reason why we keep coming back to them.

 

At the beginning of the year, the Design Museum held the exhibition Drawing Fashion, celebrating some of the most remarkable fashion illustrations from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. With original works from the collections of Chanel, Dior, Comme des Garçons and Poiret, as well as Viktor & Rolf, Lacroix and McQueen, I remember attending the exhibition and being completely awestruck.

 

I was so used to seeing fashion through the lens of a camera that it felt refreshing to witness another medium – the original medium, in fact. One that not only managed to capture the spirit and style of a decade, but that also offered a greater sense of immediacy and insight into the creative process.

 

In an age when products are consumed endlessly and often thoughtlessly, the initial sketch of a design is a lasting remnant of an individual vision. Unlike a photograph, it documents the making of and the completion of an idea.

 

Fashion illustration “is so important because it gets to the soul of creativity. All designers start with drawing and that’s the link,” Colin McDowell, speaking to Vogue.com.

 

LOOKK’s expanding fashion illustration community is held very close to our heart. Not only because this was the first step for us, but also because by bringing sketches to reality, we continue to highlight the bond between designer, product and consumer. Being able to understand and appreciate the origin of a product allows you to see past it and into the mind of the designer. Being able to see the original sketch of the dress or the shirt you wear is quite amazing as it enables us to become part of the story.

 

Drawings, diagrams, illustrations and in some cases – indecipherable scribbles (usually my personal contribution) – are integral to the way we express our ideas at LOOKK. As a company, we grew from a few lines, to a small sketch, to an even bigger picture – of which, we’re still filling out the detail. Fashion illustration as a technique will continue to flourish and we will continue to bring sketches in our community to life. That’s a promise.

 

Sketch calls are now announced on a monthly basis. To see the current sketch call or vote for your favourite sketches, come this way.

 

Main Image courtesy of Coco Gerrard-Morgan 

Tags: alexander mcqueen, chanel, coco gerrard morgan, colin mcdowell, comme des garcons, design museum, dior, drawing fashion, fashion illustration, illustration, lacroix, lookk, poiret, sketch, viktor and rolf