Artwork: Eight female models in fall coats from different French fashion houses, 1991, March 4–11, 1991 Kenneth Paul Block (American, 1925–2009) Watercolor and charcoal on watercolor board.
There was a time when illustration was the preferred mode for the fashion world. With the hand of an artist, a look could be rendered with ease and fluidity, creating a sense and sensibility about the clothes themselves. The illustrator rendered works with panache, using watercolor, opaque and acrylic paint, black ink, markers, crayon, charcoal—or any combination of the aforementioned, to luxurious effect, creating a mood unlike anything else.
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Kenneth Paul Block was one of the foremost fashion illustrators of the twentieth century, working as the in-house artist for Fairchild Publications, owner of Women’s Wear Daily and W, for forty years. As chief features artist, Block helped to transform WWD into the must-read paper in1960s and ‘70s by combining a precise mix of society and fashion in his illustrations. His sitters included the grand dames of the time, including Babe Paley, Gloria Vanderbilt, Jacqueline de Ribes, Amanda Burden, The Duchess of Windsor, and Gloria Guinness. Add into the mix his signature illustrations for designs by Norman Norell, Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Coco Chanel, James Galanos, Givenchy, Pauline Trigère, Bill Blass, Halston, and Geoffrey Beene. The recipe was irresistible and the result was success.
Three female models in space age-type fashions by Courreges. Kenneth Paul Block (American, 1925–2009), about 1965. Opaque white paint and black marker.
In celebration, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, presents Kenneth Paul Block: Illustrations, on view now through August 14, 2016. Organized as a chronological survey, the exhibition presents approximately 30 works spanning Block’s career from the 1960–1992, when he left Farchild. The exhibition opens with a crayon, opaque paint, and tonal overlay titled “Kennedy Elegance,” from the November 10, 1960, edition of WWD. Here we see Jacqueline Kennedy in Mme Grès in the period before her husband was sworn in as President, soon to be followed by a portrait of the Dutchess of Windsor, dating from the April 9, 1962, edition. Here Block presents Wallis Simspon during the couple’s visit to New York. She wears Balenciaga, while simultaneously denouncing him without second thought, observing, “Balenciaga is such a trying man. He makes one pull everything on over the head. It’s ruinous to the hair.”
Undoubtedly, it’s the 1964 portrait of Barbara “Babe” Paley in charcoal and opaque white paint, which helped to define the era, putting American style on the map. “More than any single designer, he gave New York fashion its sophistication. Because he drew Babe Paley and Jackie Kennedy a certain way, they became what he had envisioned,” designed Isaac Mizrahi observed in Drawing Fashion: The Art of Kenneth Paul Block by Susan Mulcahy (Pointed Leaf Press, 2008).
Female model in brown poncho with blue glasses. Kenneth Paul Block (American, 1925–2009), February 18–25, 1991. Watercolor and black marker.
Block revealed Mulcahy, “Gesture to me is everything in fashion. It is in the way we stand, sit, walk and lie. It is in the bone.” This understanding is brilliantly communicated throughout Block’s work, which underscores the tension inherent in bringing life to the still image. Block’s use of brushstroke and color, combined with his choice of inks and paints, reveals the texture of life and the fluidity of movement across the landscape. In a Block illustration, fashion is fully integrated so that it becomes a means by which one experiences the world, and in doing so reveals themselves as a person who takes pleasure in the sartorial comforts of life itself.
All artworks: Gift of Kenneth Paul Block, made possible with the generous assistance of Jean S. and Frederic A. Shar. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.
