Rene Gruau Fashion Illustrator, Illustrations, Italy.

Setting a Standard
Rene Gruau’s fashion illustrations set the standard for fashion illustration and today his work is studied at colleges, universities, and fashion design schools throughout the world. Yet, his life was not always easy.

Born an Italian Count - Bio
He was born in 1909 to Italian Aristocracy and could have chosen to use his title, but never did. Initially, however, because his parents were divorced when he was three, he did not have the luxury of his father's connections. He was taken by his mother to Paris after she divorced and it was left to him to forge a path for himself. His talent for illustration, particularly fashion, showed up early and by the tender age of 14, some of his work had been published locally. Such was the impact that by the time he was 18, he was published internationally.

Unique Illustrator Style
What set him apart from the other fashion illustrators of the time was his rendering of long slender women with red lips and elegant clothing. He was able to do this with only a few lines, and those lines were so skilled and spoke with such eloquence that fashion houses actively sought him out in order to promote their clothes.

Collector and Museum Pieces
The Moulin Rouge posters he designed have become museum pieces. His work was hosted at the Bartsch and Charlau Gallery in Munich in 1980 and is on permanent display at the Louvre in Paris.

A Career
The love of art is, of course, inborn. One of the paths that one can chose is become a fashion illustrator and do fashion drawing. As with all things, anybody who wishes to make a career of it needs training. Fortunately, not only are there many different ways of obtaining that training but there are many schools and institutions that offer training courses.

Young
Quite often, those that wish to become fashion illustrators know at a fairly young age that they do. They spend time doodling figures, drawing fashion items, and gravitate towards fashion books,fashion movies, Art classes, specializing in fashion illustration and drawings will provide an element of satisfaction and skill.

The best time to start art classes is to start when one is young – the sooner, the better. This does not mean that one will not able to manage at a later age. It’s just that there will be some catching up to do.

Parental Responsibility
To some degree, there is a parental responsibility involved in noticing a child’s talents while s/he is young enough to gain an advantage through early training. However, not everybody has that option.

Read Books on Fashion Illustration and Attend Class
Once you know that you want to be a fashion illustrator, it’s best to go buy some, ‘how to illustrate’ books and begin to practice. This means that when you sign up for your classes, you won’t feel such a lack of confidence. It’s natural for artists to feel particularly sensitive about their artistic ability, so reading up and studying it on your own before you sign up for a class is a good way to build confidence. It also means that you are a little ahead (hopefully) when you do your first classes.

Art Schools
Some schools also have a better reputation than others, so do some investigation before you sign up. Once you are attending classes, it pays to broaden your scope by doing related classes like fine art, graphic design, and other classes that might have an impact on your fashion illustration.

Intern
Internships are excellent ways of getting your work out there. If it’s necessary to work without pay for a while (hopefully it isn’t, because everybody should be paid for their work), do so for a short time, and use that as a springboard when you finally graduate.

Self Taught
If you do not wish to go to University or an art school to obtain a degree, nevertheless you will need a few classes. Even the greatest artists have had other artists to teach them.

Selling Your Skills
If your teachers tellyou’re your work is good and you are receiving unsolicited compliments, set up a website with your portfolio. Then email anyone that will use the services of a fashion illustrator with the link to your site. Offer to work for reasonable rates. And, of course, make sure that any work that you have received is reflected on your website. People are more confident hiring you if others have hired you.

Good luck with your career as a fashion illustrator.

Gruau’s fame spread quickly and he was hired by virtually all the major fashion houses of the day. These included Pierre Balmain, Christian Dior, Jacques Fath, Balenciaga, Elsa Schiaparelli, Rochas Lanvin, Elizabeth Arden, and Hubert de Givenchy. In 1947, he was appointed artistic director for Dior's designs. The two worked well together, with Christian explaining the designs and Gruau translating them onto paper. Gruau mentioned that it was the closest relationship he ever had. Christian Dior’s New Look of the 50s was put on paper by Gruau.

Grau's Theater Designs 1956 - 1963
Rene Gruau was invited to design for theater and subsequently designed posters for Moulin Rouge, La Dolce Vita, French Cancan, Les Ballets Roland Petit and the Opera Comique.

Rene Gruau was born a Count of Italy and died a Prince of International Fashion Illustration. He was still working at the time he died when he was 95.