Swide Magazine by Dolce&Gabbana

London-bred illustrator, Blue Logan has made a name for himself as the "pencil paparazzi" from his ability to quickly document fashion happenings through an unexpected medium, illustration. Blue recently exhibited his work during this past New York Fashion week and has now moved the exhibition to Milan. Swide was fortunate enough to catch up with Blue and get to know one of the fashion industry's most respected illustrators.

 

How did you initially get into art? Something you grew up wanting to do or merely fell into?
I kinda fell into art. My family are all artists, you could say I grew up in the whole scene. My uncle is a celebrated sculpturer, party person and founder of Alternative Miss World that involved artists like David Hockney, Brian Eno, Zandra Rhodes and all sorts of crazy people. Never went to art school. I just always liked drawing.

 

Did you ever study fashion?
No, never studied it. I don’t really have a huge knowledge of fashion other than what seeps in through working in it for the past bit. My mother was a hat designer.She made hats for Ossie Clarke and also had her own successful brand of her own in the 70’s. And my uncle also crosses into the world of fashion; he does jewellery and knows all sorts of fabulous fashion people. So, I suppose I’ve never studied fashion, but I’ve been in the rungs of it for a long time.

How did you come up with idea to sketch runway shows?
It was very weird…I was drawing buildings while sitting with a friend and expressed an interest to try and draw things fast. It was London Fashion Week, so my friend was like, “why don’t you go to show?”. So I phoned up my friend Gianluca Longo about taking me to a show, which he did. I drew the collections of the girls coming down, but soon that became kind of boring. So, I started drawing the front row which then was real interesting because you’re drawing little vignets of that elite society where all sorts of observations are to be made within that.
I wanted to try and say “this was the show” and “these were the people there”, as opposed to just drawing the collection.

Fashion shows go by fairly quick, how long does it take you to sketch a look or a collection?
It depends. If it’s a good show and suits my drawing, I can bash out 1 every 20 seconds. There’s nothing to be gained about being ludicrously speedy. Sometimes I don’t draw anything. It all depends on who’s there or what you see. At the end of the day, drawing is nice to do, but you gotta do something with the drawing,

In terms of your aesthetic, what remains constant?
Using watercolors and lines.

Can you explain the Playing Card collection? Are the cards a sort of reference to something?
I don't know... At one point, I'd been doing these drawings from a Galliano show and they were all scattered around, upside down and right way up, and I thought that it was quite nice. The fashion drawings that I do for exhibit work is very different to my other work (that is more social reportage). This collection is very straight forward...18 or so dresses that are defining designer pieces. Cards? I guess it was nice to play around with that imagery and I thought having fashion playing cards was kind of cool.

 

Where are you most proud to have had your illustrations displayed?
In print. It was great having some stuff in Vogue. It's kind of sad though when you're putting these paintings together and you think to yourself, "I'm never going see Issey Miyake again". You sell them and that's it, they're gone .But, it's nice to think that my illustrations are in someone's house and that they've become something that they will always have in their house.

 

With all your party and fashion show invites, we can imagine you're quite popular. Can you balance socializing and sketching a party at the same time?
Yeah. I like drawing drunk, drunk drawing...haha. At a party, I dont spend the whole time drawing. When I do find myself wanting to draw, I start and then bish, bash, bosh and it's done.

 

Who are your top 3 favourite people you've sketched?
I like drawing Diane Pernet, she's fun. It's always good to draw Suzy Menkes. They're all fun... I don't have really have a favourite.

 

The front row at a fashion show is kind of like a courtroom jury, where they eventually arrive at a verdict concerning that show season. Could we see you doing courtroom illustrations for celebrities like Paris or Lindsay?
No.Court drawing is very different, it's very detailed. My stuff isn't detailed liked that and I don't like drawing suits.

 

How did you come to exhibit in Milan?
Thanks to Natasha Slater of PWP (Punk Wears Prada). The show started in New York, then I brought it over to Milan. To show in Europe is exciting.

 

With special thanks to Blue Logan, for more information on Blue Logan's exhibition, visit the PWP gallery website. The exhbition goes through March 4th, 2010.

 

Check out some of the photos taken from the opening night of Blue Logan's Exhibition:

Model, Lindsey Wixson alongside Blue's illustration of her from the S/S 2010 Prada show.

Illustrations from Dolce & Gabbana and Louis Vuitton runway shows.

Blue Logan and guest.

 

Timaj Alwan

 

Source & illustration credit: With kind permission from Blue Logan 

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