Fashion

A unique polaroid print by Andy Warhol

Upon graduating from Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) with a degree in Pictorial Design, Andy Warhol moved to New York in 1949 to become a commercial illustrator. He was quickly hired on by the likes of Glamour, Vogue, and Harper’s Bazaar magazines. According to Simon Doonan’s foreword in Andy Warhol: Fashion: “From his whimsical line drawings of cats to sleek renderings of ladies’ shoes, Warhol’s work became a hit in the fashion publishing world. Warhol sketched hundreds of drawings of shoes, handbags, jewelry, and gloves.”[1]

Warhol’s interest in fashion, however, was not limited to commercial illustrations and advertisements. Over the decades, Warhol would befriend, collaborate with, and create portraits of designers including Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, and Diane von Furstenberg. Models, especially in the 1960s, were a new kind of celebrity, and Warhol capitalized on this notoriety. He is recognized as one of the first artists to print his work onto clothing and sell it exclusively to high profile clientele. At one time, Warhol himself could be booked as a model through the Zoli and Ford Models agencies. As to the importance of fashion during his time, Warhol captured it best: “Fashion wasn’t what you wore someplace anymore; it was the whole reason for going.”