GLITZ, GLAMOUR AND GLADYS

Gladys Perint Palmer, or GPP as she is often known, started sketching fashion in the 1960s. Soon her irreverent and instantly recognisable style catapulted her into the industry’s elite. Now executive director of fashion at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, she has illustrated international catwalk shows for publications such as Elle, the New Yorker and Vogue, and has drawn for fashion houses including Dior, Missoni and Versace. Such is her reputation that in 1998, “The Fashion Book”, an encyclopaedia of fashion, named her one of the 500 most influential people in fashion since 1860.

The only child of a dentist father and dressmaker mother, Perint Palmer was born in Budapest (she keeps her age a secret) and moved to London when she was a toddler. She trained in fashion design at St Martin’s College of Art under Muriel Pemberton—a painter who took fashion training out of the strictures of the couturier system—and Elizabeth Suter, an illustrator and lecturer, and continued her education at the Parsons School of Design in New York.

Eleven of GPP’s drawings from this summer’s haute couture shows in Paris now make up a tiny, jewel-like exhibition at London’s Fashion Illustration Gallery. In a serene, white, basement room—a world away from the flash and dash of the shows—these energetic and movement-filled pictures perfectly capture the world of high-end fashion. Models stride forth, long-legged, slim, but curvaceous. Skirts waft, hair bounces, jewellery glints. GPP’s distinctive outlines in black ink contrast dramatically with fabrics portrayed by assured sweeps of colour. Spots of twinkling glitter and splashes of pink and red on fingers and toes add glitz and glamour.

Standing out for its sauciness is the picture of a model wearing a Galliano-designed Christian Dior short, swingy, bright yellow dress, split to show stockings, suspenders and the briefest of briefs (pictured top). Glitter on the bodice and the model’s earrings catches the eye as she marches down the catwalk, hips forward, elbows back, head topped with a daring, bouffant “do”. Another shows a bare-legged blonde in crotch-skimming, grey Jean Paul Gaultier frock with a long, gauzy scarf swooping behind her (right). Two dashes of pink on the cheeks, a rosebud red mouth and tiny dabs of brilliant nail polish draw the whole together. This picture is so full of motion that the model appears about to leap from the frame.

There are many talented fashion illustrators but GPP is notable for bringing a refreshing sense of humour to an industry that can often take itself too seriously. On a damp English winter day, this little exhibition is guaranteed to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

“Gladys Perint Palmer: New Work on Paper” is at the Fashion Illustration Gallery FIG c/o The Mayor Gallery, 22A Cork Street, London until January 29th

~ HELENA DOUGLAS

Illustration credit: FASHIONILLUSTRATIONGALLERY.COM