With her drawings, Megan Hess became a fashion icon

Who said that fashion icons are only made on the catwalk?

At the tip of a pencil, watercolor and stylograph, the Australian cartoonist Megan Hess space was made in this world as one of the most creative, revolutionary and credentialed illustrators.

Cartier, Fendi, PradaGivenchy, Tiffany, Valentino, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Christian Louboutin. Do you recognize these names? These are some of the fashion brands that Megan Hess has on her frequent customer agenda. She has also been flirted with by prestigious magazines such as Vanity Fair y TIME Magazineand even for entertainment giants, such as Disney.

As if that were not enough, the Australian blonde is the author of twenty best sellers. He has published illustrated biographies of legends such as actress and model Audrey Hepburn (whose filmography would be pivotal for Hess) and fashion designers. Christian Dior y Coco Chanel. He is also responsible for other hits like The Dress: 100 iconic moments in fashion which, as its name indicates, recovers, in illustrations of course, the moments starring women’s dresses that have remained etched in the collective memory.

But, without a doubt, the work that propelled her as an illustrator is the illustration in 2006 of the best seller Sex and the citythe anthology of the columns written by Candace Bushnell in The New York Observerwhich was originally published in 1997 and from which the successful television series and movies starring Sarah Jessica Parker.

Hess is also the author of the beautiful series of children’s and young adult books about Claris the Mouse, a little dreamer who, together with her friends, explores the big world around her, a vast world full of fascinating and colorful objects.

But what makes Megan Hess’s work so special and coveted?

In the first instance it should be noted that women and their dresses are the protagonists of Megan Hess’s work. Regardless of whether you are related to the fashion industry or not, the fine work of the Australian woman will seem distinguished, that sense of priority and practicality that give her drawings sobriety and character, delicacy and presence.

While his characters are drawn with silhouettes in black ink, with the occasional color detail, earrings or lips, it is what they wear that finally shines through its predominantly pastel tones, the detail of the folds, without falling into the excesses, its amplitude, and the posture and determination of the models it illustrates, as if they were real life models. It is life in rose, Hess’s leitmotiv, for two very focused audiences, the elite and the aspirational.

Audrey peeking out the window

Megan Hess was one of the guests at the 41st edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair, in the United Arab Emirates. The Economist took advantage of his visit to the fair to request a conversation with the cartoonist and undisputed figure of fashion.

When did you realize that you could combine your talent for drawing and your passion for fashion?

“Since I was very young I realized that I loved to draw, obviously at first I didn’t draw fashion themes. But one of those days I saw “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (a tape starring Audrey Hepburn that in Mexico was titled ‘Diamonds for breakfast’). I saw Audrey, you know, in that famous scene where she looks through the window of Tiffany & Co., wearing a wonderful dress. That was the first fashion object I tried to draw. Maybe it was terrible, but it was my first approach. Later on I decided to study graphic design and the rest is history”.

The work as an illustrator, I imagine, is a job where you never stop evolving.

“Yes, I think there is a point in the work of any creative person where you find your own rhythm and your own style. It seems to me that I have them very clear and I do not try to reinvent them. Finally, what makes a person happy in her work is what she loves to draw and the way she likes to draw it. However, there is always a path of change in the creative world. And yes, of course I am changing within my own style. That is to say, sometimes I look at my first drawings and I am honestly horrified (laughs)”.

Your work shows that the world of fashion can be revolutionized from the table, from the drawing. What do you think?

“Absolutely. I think it’s interesting how fashion drawing has the same weight as fashion photography, although both have their differences. Now, photographing fashion is a bit of a literal job, while drawing it allows you some freedom of interpretation. In other words, it allows the artist to fit her own style, in such a way that the same piece of design can acquire different styles, depending on who draws it”.

Megan, if you could change one thing in the world of fashion, what would it be?

“Let me see, it’s hard to define… but I think it would make some aspects of fashion much more accessible. How to achieve it? I don’t know, but I think fashion is loved by many people in the world even though many people can’t access it as much as they would like. I think we should make it more accessible, of course, without changing anything in what is designed, because that is ultimately where the magic is, but we could change other things around it. For example, it is now possible to see many catwalks online and this has allowed a much larger public to feel involved in the world of fashion. Before you couldn’t see a Louis Vuitton catwalk if you couldn’t physically be there and now you can literally see it in your pajamas. And that is already revolutionary.

Learn more about Megan Hess’s work here: https://meganhess.com/

ricardo.qurioga@eleconomista.mx