Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/175740
On Line Through a process of reduction, David Downton has found his signature. BY RACHEL WOLFF T David Downton sketched this look by Giambattista Valli for Madame magazine in 2008. 84 BAL HARBOUR here's something about David Downton's oeuvre that exudes a sort of effortless perfection—a mood, a vision, an era, all encapsulated in a few deft strokes. It's economy of language, color and line. Less is more. Indeed, Downton's ethereal fashion illustrations convey limbs, hems and au courant cuts, styles and silhouettes with expertly placed strokes. Dior cocktail dresses and Valentino evening gowns are rendered as bursts of gradient color. Chanel suits are referenced unmistakably with lightly sketched checkered swaths. Feathery blots of flesh-colored ink denote slender legs, sharp cheekbones, enviable cleavage and full lips. Reductive shapes and cluster-like vignettes cleverly suggest headpieces and gems. And great beauties like Catherine Deneuve, Carmen Dell'Orefice, Cate Blanchett, Rachel Weisz, Linda Evangelista, Dita Von Teese, Erin O'Connor, Jerry Hall and Iman are pared down to their essential features, as if Downton is documenting not the women themselves but the dizzying, unforgettable impressions they tend to leave wherever they go. "Impression" is a fitting term, in fact—auras left both by great subjects encountered fleetingly and the minutes-long spectacle that is an haute couture fashion show. Downton starts with an abundance of detail. He executes dozens of drawings of shows and sitters, grabbing every possible detail he can. Yet the final process is one of reduction, examining his sketches and eliminating anything extraneous so that a clean, stylized and singular impression remains.