A long-awaited collection from an illustrator synonymous with fashion, David Downton offers classical glamour with portraits of the world’s most stylish women.

Often imitated, but never equalled, it’s amazing to learn that the career of fashion illustrator David Downton only really started in the late 1990s with his first official portrait of the model Marie Helvin. So prolific, accomplished and recognisable is his work that it would be easy to assume that he belonged among the legends of golden-age commercial illustration. Recently featured on the cover of Vogue, Downton is proof that illustration can still hold it’s own in an industry obsessed with manipulated photography.

Collected in this beautiful hardback are nearly 200 pages reproducing Downton’s deceptively impromptu brush and ink style, capturing goddesses of the screen and catwalk including Carmen Dell’Orefice, Catherine Deneuve, Cate Blanchett and burlesque star Dita Von Tease. A short interview and selected sketchbook pieces hint at his artistic process and reveals an apparently humble illustrator full of all of the insecurities that so often plague us creative types. As an eager follower and fan of David Downton’s work this book was a highlight of 2015 and receives my highest recommendation.

David Downton: Portraits of the World’s Most Stylish Women
Laurence King Publishing
25.4 x 2.5 x 33.7 cm
192 Pages