Tuesday 24 August 2010

Inspiration Illustrated


   Thanks to the diligent dandiacal detections of Matt and Charles at Fine And Dandy, I recently learnt a little about a favoured illustrator of mine, John E. Sheridan, who produced a cornucopia of fashion plates for Hart Schaffner & Marx during the Gilded Age, as well as covers for the Saturday Evening Post and propaganda imagery for the United States' World War I campaign

   Although his male subjects were less openly dandified than those of his contemporary and my favoured sartorial sketcher, JC Leyendecker, they connoted the fine tailoring ideal that HS&M wished to impart upon the world with a rarefied aplomb. These fictional men were depicted as carrying themselves with a certain perfection, as well as an athletic gait; unsurprising given Sheridan's background in college sports advertisements. And pleasingly, some of the 1920s designs look covetous today, as evidenced in places like Junya Watanabe Man's Spring/Summer 2010 Paris presentation

   A little sporty elegance goes a long way

4 comments:

David Toms said...

Wonderful illustrations. I always think that fashion illustration especially can convey so much more than a photograph

ADG said...

I still love Laurence Fellows of Apparel Arts and Esquire fame.

Anonymous said...

I like the illustrators from that period, they could portray light and body perfectly. And the style is timeless.

Barima said...

I agree with all of you

Best,

B

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