Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/384868
platforms for promoting budding artists looking to break into the fashion industry. And then there are the independent online and glossy magazines that turn to illustrators as a way to re-create "fashion shoots" out of drawings. It's a particularly useful tool when access to the hottest pieces of the season is not an option. In 2007, the Fashion Illustration Gallery was founded in London in reaction to the growing demand for new talent. "A fashion illustration reveals so much more about the artist than a fashion photograph ever can," says William Ling, the gallery's founder. "The photographer is hidden in the shadows whereas the illustrator stands in the light. The photo is mean whereas the illustration is generous. Photography steals time whereas illustration gives time." One of the most interesting ways that fashion illustration is getting a new lease on life is how its artists are moving from being observers of the industry to central participants in the creative process. Many leading illustrators are finding success collaborating with fashion houses on bespoke drawings. Ricardo Fumanal for Moncler, Richard Haines for Prada, Zoë Taylor for Marc by Marc Jacobs and Tanya Ling for Louis Vuitton are just a few examples of modern illustrators using their talents to create artwork that instantly have a global reach. Downton certainly has no fear that illustration will ever truly disappear from the fashion landscape: "We are still talking about it, still feeling its power and witnessing a creative revival. Long may it continue!" "PEOPLE ALWAYS ASK ME, 'WHEN DID FASHION ILLUSTRATION COME BACK?' BUT AS FAR AS I WAS CONCERNED, IT NEVER WENT AWAY!" —GLADYS PERINT PALMER iPad drawings by Gladys Perint Palmer of photographer Bill Cunningham and a python dress from Azzedine Alaïa's Spring/Summer 2014 collection. 186 BAL HARBOUR