Thumbing through fashion magazines, we are used to see colorful photo sessions of fashion designers’ recent collections, make-up novelties or accessories. However, recently they have been harmoniously coexisting with illustration, which was ousted from the fashion world in the 1930s due to technological progress. It was quite fair, for back then, before the age of photo cameras, it was illustration that did what photography does nowadays: present the latest fashions and demonstrate the new outfits and trends.
The 21st century saw the rebirth of fashion illustration: there have appeared numerous illustrators demonstrating various techniques, yet most of them draw inspiration from the works of the founding fathers of the art.
To popularize this genre in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Fashion Week and partners have started an International Biennale of Fashion Illustration IMAGO, which traditionally includes a sketch competition. The Biennale organization committee offers the participants a variety of themes, from fashion and human life in the post-industrial world to unexpected beauty to fashion’s social role in modern society.
Drawing by Anna KHOMENKO
The applicants need to fill out a participant’s form on the website of the Ukrainian Fashion Week. Participation is not limited to professional or age groups and is open to candidates from any country. The applicants for selection shall send one to three of their works in digital format, image size 600 by 900 mm, or 900 mm along the bigger side; color model: RGB; resolution: 112 dpi; vector graphics: EPS original, raster graphics: TIFF format. Applications will be accepted until September 8, 2016.
COMMENTARY
Lilia PUSTOVIT, fashion designer:
“I start working on a collection from a sketch. This is a normal working process for fashion designers all over the world. Yet there are people, circumstances, or epochs when apparently conventional sketches become works of art, leaving a deep imprint in generations’ memories. Bakst or Erte became symbols of their epoch. Try yourself in this wonderful trend bordering on fashion and fine arts.”
