Q&A: Illustrating Paris A/W 24 Womenswear With Jade Anthony

Before fashion film, there was fashion photography; before fashion photography, there was fashion illustration. Dazzling the pages of many of fashion's most revered publications, wondrous illustrations adorned the covers (and continued to decorate the inside pages) of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Flair, Tatler and many more throughout the first half of the 20th century, proving quite an asset to the quintessential style bible. Having always believed in the power of illustration, primarily when used to communicate a mood or palpable presence, SHOWstudio have long been inviting fashion's most talented illustrators, on and under the radar, to offer their unique talent in interpreting the latest season's collections.

Jade Anthony's artistic style lies in her flexible approach to illustrating. In short, she doesn't have one. Each artwork dramatically varies from the next - sometimes taking the form of a simple sketch, other times, acting as dramatic recreations of the runway drenched in colour. Details are often pared back but the structural composition of Anthony's silhouettes is always identifiable, particularly when they delve into a more cubist realm (see her Dries Van Noten depictions for reference). Intrigued by the way Anthony's illustrative style ebbs and flows based on the fashion she's presented with, we interviewed her ahead of her collections coverage to see what makes the artist tick.

SHOWstudio: Why do you illustrate?

Jade Anthony: I am interested in drawing as a language, and a way of processing language. It feels like second nature, which I think makes sense considering drawing can be traced back to the Paleolithic Age; even the Neanderthals made art. For me, when I draw, it's as if there is no barrier between the internal and external world, it allows us to process not just the physical world but the layers of abstraction, thoughts, ideas and emotions that colour our lived experience. 

SHOWstudio: What are you looking for in the collections this season?

Jade Anthony: I am looking for anything that alters or obscures the body, clothes that transform the model in some way or explore the relationship between a garment and its wearer.

SHOWstudio: What makes a good fashion illustration?

Jade Anthony: I'm not typically a fashion illustrator, though I often use fashion as inspiration in my work, but when I think of good fashion illustration I think of Yoshitaka Amano's work for Vogue Italia. He was able to transpose the clothes into his own universe. You could pick out details and the iconic designer pieces, but they were also distinctly Amano and took the clothing and models as a jumping-off point to create something new. A good fashion illustration should expand on the ideas present in the clothes and create something new. 

SHOWstudio: Why do you think makes illustration important and relevant in 2024?

Jade Anthony: There is a concept in neuroscience called Mirror Neurons. These are neurons that fire both when we act and when we see someone else perform the same action. I am not a neuroscientist of course, so this is all speculation, but when I look at a drawing or a painting or an image made by hand, it's as if I can feel the marks the artist made, the movement of the brush. I think we are hard-wired to recognise these things, to see ourselves and each other in the things we create, and so I don't believe we will ever not feel something when we look at an illustration. In this way, I think illustration allows us a glimpse into another person's language, a more direct person-to-person connection.