RENE GRUAU

Rene Gruau, master of fashion illustration was born in Italy in 1909 of an aristocraic Italian father and a French mother, Marie Gauau, whose name he took. He settled in Paris in 1924 and embarked on his career as a fashion illustrator. His earliest drawing were published in Italy, Germany and England.

While in his young teen years, he managed to sell some of his fashion sketches to magazines in France, Germany and Italy in 1923. He there upon took the maiden name of his artist mother, Gruau, and reinvented himself as Rene Gruau. His mother introduced him to painters and fashion magazine editors who encouraged him to pursue his craft. At the age of 15, he already had a promising career as a fashion illustrator awaiting him.

During the post-war period, he reached the summit of his career as he worked with the most brilliant fashion designers such as Dior, Givenchy and Lanvin, and high class music-halls such as the Moulin Rouge and the Lido - clients whom he continued to work with later on. He also designed costumes and sets for the ballet. By 1940 his drawings appeared in Marie Clarie, Femina and L’Officiel. In 1948, he left for the United States to work for Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, before becoming the exclusive artist for Flair.

His art is characterised by his fluid, expressive, and seemingly effortless lines, and by his ability to distill his subjects to their essence for maximum effect - a mouth, a coiffure, a gesture, the structure of a garment is each described so convincingly, and with such graceful economy of means.

Later in his career, he devoted himself to the promotion of fashion accessories, for example, perfumes. He also worked with cosmetic houses, fabric manufacturers, and ready to wear clothing couturiers. Then in 1956, with his posters for Moulin Rouge and Lito, He would storm the Paris fashion scene with his most well known advertisement campaigns, created for Schu-Schu perfume by Schuberth and Bemberg’s fabric manufacturers. A fashion innovator definitely worth commemorating, Gruau’s fashion ascendancy and augmentations can still be seen all over the world.