Déjà Vu, Viewed

Joe Eula (1925-2004) was a fashion illustrator whose career spanned from postwar New Look through the new millennium. His sketches were often just outlines that captured, in a few quick strokes, personality, identity, and movement. During the course of his career he also branched out into theatrical and housewares design, album and concert posters, and a longterm association as the creative director for Halston.

This photo (above) from Vogue Beauty Italia is very reminiscent of the signature Eula style. The upward momentum of the pen as it captures the nimbus of hair, the energy, the focus on one strongly defining characteristic and the secondary suggestions of others without such strong artistic gravitas.

Here, two from Eula's sketchbook.

Note how Marilyn is defined not so much by her face as by her left nipple and the cut of her dress, and how Gia's druggy, haywire energy and mischief are captured in firefly-like dashes of hair and the lack of symmetry in her eyes.

Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe, The Prince and the Showgirl





Gia Carangi








Vogue scan from Foto Decadent