drawing fashion

A couple of weekends ago I went to the Design Museum, London (writes Peter) to see The Brit Insurance Design Awards, billed as "the Oscars of the design world". I wish. Unfortunately, I soon found myself overwhelmed by the mess of projects, exhibits and unclassifiable stuff I couldn't understand or relate to. Nothing like as exciting as the 2009 show.

Luckily on the floor below was an exhibition of fashion drawings which made the trip worth the effort.

The exhibits and exhibition are small but the scope is as vast as it is fascinating, featuring a whistle stop tour through haute couture fashion from the 1920's onwards. And all seen through the eyes of some amazingly talented fashion illustrators.

Some captured a 'look' in a few gestural brush strokes...

Mats Gustafson, “Red Dress”, Yohji Yamamoto 1999

Others with painstaking filigree detail in watercolors...

George Lepape, Vogue cover 1919

While others adapted contemporary pop art techniques to show off 60's pop art fashion...

Antonio, New York Times Magazine 1967

Glamorous, inspirational and absorbing. Plus not one pixel of computer-generated images on display.