#LOFFICIEL100: The Illustrious Legacy of Fashion Illustrator René Gruau
Turning couture silhouettes into fashion illustrations, René Gruau captured the fantasy that comes with such spectacular designs.
Renowned fashion illustrator René Gruau was one of the most significant figures to leave his mark on the pages of L’OFFICIEL. Often drawing comparisons to the great French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Gruau’s Japonisme-inspired use of color and commanding sense of line transformed the fashion image, evoking the elegance and high style of the couture-dominated era. Gruau’s collaborations with L’OFFICIEL spanned more than 55 years, throughout which he illustrated 11 covers and countless spreads. His first cover for L’OFFICIEL was published in 1947, and effortlessly captured a moment when Haute Couture was experiencing a post-war surge of newness, sparking a lifelong connection between the illustrator and the elegance of French couture.
Born in 1909 to an Italian nobleman father and an aristocratic French mother, Gruau was originally the Conte Renato Zavagli Ricciardelli delle Caminate. After his parents separated when he was just three years old, his mother moved them from Italy to France. The young illustrator left his title behind as well, preferring to take on his mother’s maiden name. Maria Gruau posed as her son’s first model, and left a profound impact on the artist, having instilled in him an early interest in Haute Couture and a devotion to elegance in all its forms.
Illustrations by René Gruau for L'OFFICIEL 1940-1991.
Gruau pursued his talent and interest in drawing from a young age, despite having no formal education or training in the subject. By age 14 he was supporting himself and his mother by selling his illustrations to local magazines, with Lidel offering him his first commision in 1924. Gruau moved to Paris in 1930; however, it wasn’t until 1936 that he made his first contribution to L’OFFICIEL. Gruau’s black-and-white drawings of hats designed by the fashionable Danish milliner Erik Braagaard showcased the illustrator’s use of bold lines and his distinct approach to portraying his model’s features. Appearing alongside these first drawings for the magazine is Gruau’s iconic signature, which shows an asterisk aboe his last name—a flourish he added after an ink blot mishap earlier in his career.
Gruau knew better than anyone that fashion was not only about the physical garment, but also the fantasy and image associated with it. Fashion was a mood, an idea, and magazine readers were parched for images that translated this feeling for their viewing pleasure. The artistic style perfected by Gruau satiated their thirst.
The illustrator prioritized the line. He once remarked: “If you draw a line with a pencil and it is well-made, that is art for me. The same law that makes a good fashion drawing art allows for a Picasso painting to be bad.” Applying the rules of fine art to fashion illustration, Gruau recognized the emotionally transformative power of the fashion fantasy. It was his purposeful and impressive use of line that matched so perfectly to the couture that he illustrated. The rough, wide brush marks that bordered his famed silhouettes were inspired by methods of Japanese calligraphy, according to the artist himself, offering a mode of illustration that was entirely fresh to the European fashion publication.
Gruau spent World War II in unoccupied Cannes, where he helped his friend, Christian Dior, find work, meanwhile making drawings for Marie Claire. It was during this time that Gruau claims to have inspired Dior to open his own maison. After the war came a revival of French couture, signified by Dior’s 1947 New Look. The illustrator worked as the artistic director for advertising at Christian Dior after this seminal moment in fashion history, ultimately becoming so central to the house’s identity that he was offered the late designer’s role of creative director after Dior’s untimely death 10 years later—Gruau did not accept.
Gruau befriended many of the couturiers with whom he worked, among them Cristóbal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy, and even a young Yves Saint Laurent. His closest friends, however, were Dior and Jacques Fath, whom he met early in their careers, and with whom he shared longstanding professional and personal relationships. In a 1989 interview with L’OFFICIEL, Gruau recalled the many parties they attended together in post-war Paris, when they considered a night eating a typical bistro “slumming it,” and their tuxedos seldom had the night off.
Gruau’s ILLUSTRATIONS REFLECT the PINNACLE of THE COUTURE WORLD, BRINGING TOGETHER ITS tangible ELEMENTS and DEEPEST FANTASIES.
Never referring to himself as an artist, Gruau preferred to be called a commercial illustrator. Indeed, some of his most famous works are the advertisements he created for the Miss Dior perfume, the lingerie and stockings of Scandale, and the infamous advertisement for Rouge Baiser, in which a blindfolded woman’s bright red lips exude a provocative sensuality. And while these famous works were born to be temporary campaigns works, they live on over half a century later as works of art in their own right, lining the walls of the most stylish homes or residences and hanging in some of the most respected museums in the world.
Gruau passed away in 2004 at the age of 95, carrying the legacy of couture illustration long beyond its heyday. His talent and significance lay in his ability to understand the changing climate of fashion while staying true to his unique aesthetic and point of view. His iconic style remained sought after even during his later years, with the illustrator producing a final cover for L’OFFICIEL in 1991. While the spirit of couture had shifted endlessly throughout the long span of his career, Gruau’s work always spoke to the cultural fashion zeitgeist.
