The art of fashion illustration
“Drawn to Glamour” documents the work of Jim Howard and how retail illustrators help shape style trends for consumers
Long before the invention of Instagram, people got information about what was new in fashion from looking at beautifully rendered illustrations. Newspapers and magazines were loaded with pages of advertising showing what stores were interpreting as a season’s most desirable suits and dresses.
Given how ubiquitous photography is today and the fact that anyone with a smartphone or digital camera can make highquality images of street fashion as well as runway shows, it’s hard to fathom the importance that illustrations once held in the world of high style.
An upcoming exhibition at the Denver Art Museum brings that era back into focus. “Drawn to Glamour: Fashion Illustrations by Jim Howard,” which runs from March 25 through July 22 at the museum’s Hamilton Building, documents not only one artist’s work, but also the evolution of drawing as a medium and the importance of it to American retailing in the second half of the 20th century.
Howard, who has lived in the Denver area since 2002, had a career spanning four decades. The Texas native started at Neiman Marcus in the 1950s, then made a name for himself in New York City, where he worked as a freelance artist with such stores as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bonwit Teller and B. Altman.
More than 100 of Howard’s
illustrations — along with newspaper clippings, portraits he created and a dozen garments from the museum’s archives — are included in the show. The exhibition was organized by Florence Müller, the museum’s fashion and textile curator and an internationally known fashion authority, as well as Jane Burke, senior curatorial assistant.
“Advertising created the desire in people to buy things,” Müller said, adding that the rise of department stores in Europe and America and their translation of designer looks for a wider audience also “democratized fashion.”
Müller, who met Howard in late 2016, said she was impressed with his talent as well as his personality. The artist kept a lot of his work through the years, which gave the curator ample material to tell the exhibition’s story. “I suddenly saw this as an opportunity to show how from the 1950s through the 1980s illustration was the way fashion trends were communicated,” Müller said.
Howard’s career paralleled the rise of fashion illustration in the 20th century, and he rode the wave until the late 1980s, when photography became the norm. “Jim was in the Golden Age and had an artistic and elegant style,” Müller said, noting Howard’s use of shading that made his subjects appear photographically lit. Many of the works in the show were done in charcoal pencils.
Among the other qualities that sets Howard’s work apart from artists of the day were his use of lifestyle settings and the fact that he drew detailed facial expressions. “He didn’t just focus on the garment,” the curator said. “He used the landscape of his drawings to create stories.” Among the backgrounds in his work are scenes of airline travel, elegant parties, beach scenes and, especially in the 1980s, office environments with both men and women working together. “He liked to play with subtext and make you wonder what the people were doing,” Müller said.
Howard also was known for his drawings of men, and for doing illustrations for fragrances and cosmetics as well as clothing found in every section of a store, from lingerie to swimwear, as well as jewelry.
With his neat beard and carefully groomed mustache, bowler hats and penchant for wearing suits, Howard captured Müller’s attention with his personal style as well.
“The way he dresses, the way he behaves and his sophistication are so attractive,” she said. “He’s a dandy.”
Howard, who will turn 87 in June, hasn’t given up his artistic pursuits. On a recent morning at the artfilled Lakewood home he shares with Walter, his Boston terrier, Howard was at work on his latest book of fashion paper dolls. The drawing table in his studio was covered in charcoal pencil sketches of outfits he chose from pages in his collection of period fashion magazines.
This book, called “The Other Sixties,” is about the early part of the decade when ladylike style prevailed rather than the miniskirts, neon colors and pop prints that became synonymous with the later 1960s. Howard creates and colors the drawings, then sends them to the printer for sizing and production. He’s done a dozen books published by Paper Studio Press.
Howard isn’t afraid to admit that his personal taste runs to the earlier part of the 20th century, and readers can see that influence in his paper doll books that highlight fashions from the 1910s through the ’ 50s. By the end of the 1960s, fashion had “too much tacky,” he said.
Howard had no early art training but said he started drawing about age 8. Born in tiny Sterley, in the Texas Panhandle, Howard was the son of a railroad worker and a homemaker. He had two older sisters, and one is still living in Kansas.
Following studies at junior college in Arlington, he went to the University of Texas at Austin, where he was in the ROTC and became an army officer stationed in Europe. Howard saved his leave time so he could visit Paris and Italy and soak up the culture. When he returned to Austin, he found work as a window dresser at a department store. “They let me draw some and I started getting a sense of style,” he said.
Next, he landed a job as an illustrator at Neiman Marcus’ flagship in Dallas. He was thrust into the world of fashion and design in a busy department that employed eight artists sketching live models, an art director, copywriters and production people. Neiman hosted top designers; among those Howard met were Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent.
Early on, Howard developed a technique of drawing models starting at their head and going to their feet rather than sketching the body first. He was also prolific, creating eight figures in a day.
“Lucky for me, it was a pretty good period to draw. I loved clothes,” said Howard. His style was realistic, which is what the stores wanted.
A former Neiman’s ad director, Jane Trahey, had moved to New York City. She hired Howard to join the Franklin Simon department store, marking the beginning of his successful career in New York. He soon got an agent and freelanced for many top retail clients.
Store executives would plan promotions, then have the advertising department create layouts. “The stores would send me big boxes of clothes. I’d hire models to wear them, and start sketching,” he said. His longtime partner Wayne Lemanski, who would later become his agent, modeled the men’s looks.
“Fashion illustrators were the connecting link between product, the store and the customer,” said Cynthia Petrus, an instructor at the Art Institute of Colorado who had a career in the retail industry at such stores as Saks Fifth Avenue before becoming an educator. “The merchants would direct the artists on what to show in their newspaper ads, which were the promotional key to retail. But the illustrators were allowed leeway to execute their work. It is an art form that speaks volumes about image and possibilities.”
Howard was so wellestablished by the 1970s that art directors would have their junior artists copy his style. It was the era of such models as Patti Hansen, whose likeness is evident in some of Howard’s work. Cosmetics models in some of his illustrations bear a not- coincidental resemblance to such beauties as Isabella Rossellini and Audrey Hepburn.
When it was time to retire, Howard and Lemanski moved to Santa Fe and Albuquerque. “I was bored, so I became a theater geek and did a stint as actor, and worked on sets and costumes,” he said.
Along the way, he met fellow illustrator Mel Odom, creator of the Gene doll. Howard next got into the doll collecting world. He visited Denver for a doll conference and says he
“fell in love” with the city.
Howard then moved to Denver and got involved in such organizations as Fashion Group International while continuing to work on his art projects. Looking back, he said he never could have predicted how a “hick boy from Texas” would develop a career in fashion illustration.
While Howard’s work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this is his first major museum show.
He’s honored by the recognition, simply noting, “Florence ( Müller) sees something in me that I didn’t see in myself. It is gratifying to have people look at what I did and give it value.”