Drawn to Style

A new exhibit recalls the time and people captured by Kenneth Paul Block's lush fashion illustrations

"It was never fashion I was interested in; what I wanted was to draw beautiful women in beautiful clothes," says Kenneth Paul Block. Sitting on a white canvas sofa under an elaborate Venetian mirror in the apartment he shares with long-time companion Morton Ribyat, the legendary fashion illustrator continues, "In the '30s the American couturiere Elizabeth Hawes wrote a book called Fashion Is Spinach. I don't know if that phrase can possibly mean anything to anyone now, but I understand it completely. Her concern was to make something very beautiful, very useful, that retained its quality no matter what the fashion of the day might dictate. Shakespeare described fashion as `the deformed thief,' and I agree. For me it's always been about drawing something beautiful and thrilling."

Honored with a special exhibit that opened June 2 at the Society of Illustrators' Museum of American Illustration in New York City, Block's drawings for high-fashion retail giants Bonwit Teller, Bergdorf Goodman, and Lord & Taylor, and--since the mid '50s--for fashion bibles Women's Wear Daily and W have been exactly that: beautiful and thrilling. In the tradition of his inspirations, Christian Berard, Rene Bouche, Eric, Count Rene Bouet-Willaumez, and all the Bon Ton Magazine artists, Block's drawings are transporting, bringing us into ratified atmospheres, letting us see how people of great style looked in those clothes, in those rooms, at those moments. His choices of what he wants us to see are inevitably far richer and more emotionally descriptive than any photograph could ever be. How disheartening that art that emanated from such a highly refined and personal point of view. became obsolete with the advent of Cindy, Linda, Christy, Claudia, and Naomi--the now almost equally obsolete "supermodels."

Having drawn "since I could hold a pencil," Block was not always encouraged in his career choice. Even a chic aunt who had written for The New Yorker and later Harper's Bazaar begged his mother, "Elizabeth, for God's sake, don't let that child become a fashion artist!" And Elsie Brown Barnes, head of the fashion illustration department at Parsons School of Design, warned him that it was a "very embarrassing role for a man" and that such a career might not last very long at any rate."

"I was discouraged from the beginning," Block says. "Why I persisted is a question I still ask myself."

The Society of Illustrators' retrospective of Block's drawings runs until June 26. It affords us a rare opportunity to live some moments with Babe Paley, Diana Vreeland, Gloria Guiness, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Gloria Vanderbilt at their most glorious as they waft across our mental video screens in their Galanos, Norells, Halstons, Geoffrey Beenes, and Diors.

Richards, a renowned artist and illustrator, has been drawing in New York City since the '60s and, to his amazement, still isn't bored by it.

Find the location, times, and more information about the Block exhibit at www.advocate.com

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