Red carpet, pink carpet: There’s a great appetite for glamour of the dress-up variety at the moment. The artist Piet Paris (Pieter ’t Hoen), whose work has always fed that appetite, is celebrating 35 years in fashion with an exhibition in his hometown of Amsterdam.
“Strike a pose, there’s nothing to it,” sings Madonna in her hit song “Vogue”; if only it were so easy. Just as ballroom culture preserves while transforming the attitudes and gestures of the golden age of fashion in much-practiced movements, so Paris often does on paper, drawing, cutting, gluing, spraying, painting over and over again, until the body animates the clothes.
Fashion is a universal language with many idioms. Paris’s work is distinguished by his marvelous graphic sensibility, his ability to enhance a look through a process of reduction and balance and an inherent grasp of the concept of ma (a Japanese notion of negative space). What I’ve always loved about illustration, and what drew me to Paris’s work in the first place, is that it leaves room for imagination. Minus the barrier of realism (though this can be used effectively in drawing as well), there are often many entry points into a fashion illustration. Just like a dream, it is an approximation, an interpretation, and usually an enhancement—if not an exaggeration—of a fashion statement.
In an age of endless scrolling, uncountable snaps stored in and displayed on screens, a drawing stands out. Served up by Paris, it’s the most delicious eye candy imaginable.
Here, the artist talks about his work and why, as he says, “there’s always room for fashion illustration.”
Vogue: How did you become a fashion illustrator?
Piet Paris: I remember drawing easily, quickly. I felt happy doing it very early on, from toddler days to preppy high school. Then there was fashion. It came out of nowhere—the Netherlands isn’t famous for it. I wasn’t hit by lightning; it grew on me. Getting into fashion illustration happened very intuitively but step-by-step, from drawing Farrah Fawcett in my notebook at college to studying the masters like Mats Gustafson, René Gruau, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri Matisse, and Egon Schiele. It was a great fortune to study at the Art Academy of Arnhem (called ArtEZ now) under the guidance of the famous department head, Elly Lamaker, who totally encouraged my talent for drawing.
What was your entry into the field professionally?
Leaving Arnhem with a portfolio of fashion designs and fashion illustrations under my arm led me to Milan, where, after three months of waiting to get in, I got an illustration job for Vanity, the famous magazine run by Anna Piaggi. The rest is history, as they say.
Vanity was pre-internet. Can you tell us a bit more about it?
It was the style bible for the fashion industry in the late ’80s and early ’90s and was filled only with fashion illustrations. It was one of the hippest magazines at the time. Major fashion illustrators such as Antonio Lopez, Lorenzo Mattotti, and Tony Viramontes were regular contributors. My first assignment, in 1988, was to illustrate a series of 15 famous Italian actresses. It was a prestigious job, and therefore I received a lot of publicity when I returned to the Netherlands. Then I was asked to become a fashion illustrator by de Volkskrant, the largest Dutch newspaper. That was the start of my 35-year career.
What was the publishing landscape like when you started working, and how has it changed?
When I started out I was always asked, Why would you make an illustration if you can make a photo? Nowadays it is: Why do you do it by hand if you can do it on the computer? I always answer those questions by saying: It’s not about how to produce the image; it’s the quality of the outcome and the story you are portraying.
The publishing landscape was dominated by magazines in the early days; you had to get in them to be seen. Once in, it provided commercial jobs. I never doubted fashion illustration, and therefore I’ve always believed there is room for it. Somehow there was room for me and room for me to grow artistically and professionally. I strongly believe in my talent—always did—and I promised myself at a very early age to cherish it and never to neglect it. Being friendly and delivering on time also helps.
What are your thoughts on digital drawings?
I remember the first digital illustrations from Jason Brooks in the early ’90s—they were a revolution. Since then everything has changed, for the better, in my opinion. I like how easy it is to connect with fellow illustrators from all over; I feel part of the global business by seeing the work of others and being aware of the competition. It feels like there’s even more room for illustration in this digital age. Besides the traditional publication channels, new ones like Instagram have enriched the market. Personally I’m a fan of IG because it feels like you’re in control of your own image and branding—almost as if you run your own magazine. It’s like my portfolio and can be updated in an easy way. Animated illustrations are another new digital highlight for me. Specialized creatives have done that with my work in the past, and I love it.
Now there is an enormous digital explosion with NFTs, animations, and the rise of AI. But what you see is that people immediately feel for the opposite. So the manually made drawing is immediately relevant again.
You contributed a lot to Vogue Japan after it launched in 1999.
There is a huge reverence for illustrators in Japan. We come from a world in which painters predominate; in Japan the visual culture is based more on drawing. That Vogue Japan approaches fashion illustrators worldwide has everything to do with that history; it’s culturally determined. I made monthly drawings for this for eight years in the ’90s. This has had a major influence on my work, from trends to shoe specials, drawings for articles about jewelry, and many advertorials.
Your final drawings employ different techniques. Do you start with a sketch?
At this stage of my career, it feels like I’m making illustrations using the language of a designer. It’s more than just making an image; it’s developing shape, composition, and a color scheme before going to the next step. It’s a process that needs sketching, tracing, redoing, rethinking. The only way to do this is working from the heart to the hand. There’s no room available for an instrument, machine, computer to be involved in this. The older I get the more I focus on this way of working. It still gives me room to grow as an artist.
I like to illustrate an invisible fashion story, a story not to be seen in real life, editing and styling the chosen subject as much as possible. The ultimate goal is to create an illustration with a clear and clean fashion message. To reach this goal I do a lot of sketching by hand—and I mean a lot. I’m able to trace by working on a light table. After a few hours of sketching, a one-line sketch appears. Following the lines in the sketch with a scalpel, I make a stencil, a cutout. The stencil can be filled with ozone-friendly spray paint or acrylic paint. At this moment I’m very much into paper cutting. So I use the same procedure as above, but instead of paint I use all kinds of colored paper and use that to transfer the black-and-white sketch into a colored final one.
What is it you’re looking for in a drawing?
The ultimate goal is to give my illustrations as many layers as possible. It has to tick a lot of boxes: I’m searching for a strong composition, sharp shapes, movement in the pose, a defined look, dealing with white space, fashionable shoes, perfectly drawn hands…. There’s quite a list. I know by feeling when the illustration is right.
I’ve always been impressed by your beautiful graphic sensibility.
Working with a very strong graphic vocabulary doesn’t mean my work is lacking emotion. The best illustrations are the ones that show a lot of energy based on the thrill of the look, bag, shoe, or other fashion subject. I still can be blown away from a design. The newness, originality in the work of some designers—JW Anderson is the best—can give me a lot of positive energy. I use that energy—it almost feels like I’m battery driven—for making the illustration. Although my work can be interpreted as mechanical, it all starts with the adoration for the fashion designer and their work. Without being struck by lightning by a collection, look, or detail, my work will miss the essential spark.
What are some of the changes you’ve seen in fashion in the past 35 years?
Fashion is all about branding nowadays. The scale and system has become bigger and even more money driven. I applaud the idea of bringing a designer like Phoebe Philo back into the market under her own name. So many original designers work under the umbrella of a brand. It’s time to put their names on new brands; it would be a creative injection for the industry and a lot of new energy in a field dominated by conglomerates.
The work in this show is fairly current. Why did you choose this format rather than a retrospective?
Showing new work instead of a show based on a retrospective has a kind of practical reason. My work, from sketches to finals and everything in between, including contracts and briefings—everything—is already being filed and conserved in one of the Dutch National Archives, where it’s kept in a safe, museum-like environment. Every other five years I hand over my studio archive to the Gelders Archive. They file it in acid-free boxes, they digitize everything…. They take care of my work in such a way it will last forever. This means a lot of my older work is safely in the archive. Besides this, a lot of originals are sold through the I Love Illustration Gallery.
But most of all I want to look forward. I consider my last illustration as the best one; there’s no reason to look back at the moment. The biggest question is: What’s next? In which way to go? How to develop and grow, how do I stay relevant for the business, and how do I stay fresh?
So what is next?
Ask me in about five years because at this moment I don’t know, but I’m still in love with fashion and I want to put my mark on it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
“Piet Paris: 35 Years” is on view at the I Love Illustration Gallery in Amsterdam from September 8 through October 15.
