Fashion illustrator David Downton, discusses the highs and lows of putting together the first issue of Pourquoi Pas? with Jo Moore.



JM: What made you decide to launch a magazine?
DD: I’ve been asking myself that a lot recently. Last year I had an exhibition at London College of Fashion, it was an important show for me and I thought I would put together a catalogue. But, by the time it came to it, I was sick of the sight of my own work and boredom and inertia pretty much put paid to the idea. Thinking about it again earlier this year, I realised that it wasn’t a catalogue I wanted to do, it was - Ta Dah! a magazine.

JM: As simple as that?
DD: In a way, yes, at that point it all seemed pretty clear, although, of course, there were plenty of obstacles to come…

JM: Apart from the impetus of your show, what do you think inspired the timing of it?
DD: I think it was the realisation that the world had changed. Today you don’t need a record deal; you can make a record in your bedroom. You don’t need a publishing deal; you can self publish and distribute on the net. Someone, before long, will make a film on their mobile phone and win the Palme D’Or with it. For good or bad we are all artists or creators now, or at least we have that capability. The question became why NOT do your own magazine?

JM: Hence the title?
DD: The title was an attempt to be amusing, but it rather backfired when I realised how many people – including my bank manager – didn’t know what it meant (pourquoi pas? means why not in French). But by then I was already committed to it, it looked great on the page and somehow fitted the mood of the magazine. I did, though add the subtitle ‘A journal of Fashion Illustration’ just to be sure...

JM: Was it always going to be a magazine about fashion illustration?
DD: Yes, firstly, I suppose because it’s what I’m actively engaged with, but also, long before I became a fashion illustrator myself I loved the work of the masters in the field; Gruau, Bouché, Antonio, Mats Gustafsson. I always saw them as artists first and foremost, and I personally think that fashion is as valid a subject for art as anything else – and that includes the Mont Sainte-Victoire and Tracey Emin’s emotional life. I also wanted to celebrate drawing in an industry almost completely dominated by photography.

JM: You make it sound like an illustrator’s revenge.
DD: You could say that. And, as it’s taken me twenty years to get round to, it will definitely be a dish served cold.

JM: Tell me about the look of Pourquoi Pas?
DD: That is down to the graphic designer Karen Morgan. We divided up the labour; I got the material in, she gave it pace, sharpened it up and really tied the whole thing together. We knew from the start we didn’t want it to look like a directory or an album but a real ‘magazine’ and, thanks in large part to her, that’s what we have. I know that she found it frustrating on occasion because the mantra from the start was “everything in the service of drawing”, and there were times when she had to hold back on the design, but I am very happy with how it worked out.

JM: How long did it take you to put together?
DD: It took about seven months, much, much longer than I anticipated. We kept getting more ambitious in terms of the quality of work we wanted to show, the calibre of the writers.

JM: And you did manage to get some of the Fashion world’s most highly respected writers involved, how did that happen?
DD: I work a lot with Lisa Armstrong on the Times, and I know Sarah Mower and Tim Blanks well, professionally, which certainly made things easier. I really have to thank them for stepping up, they knew that the focus of the magazine would be visual, that it would be image-led and I must say they were very game about it.

JM: What about Cathy Horyn of the NY Times?
DD: I worked with her on the New York Times a couple of years ago and have seen her periodically since. Actually, she was the first well-known writer I approached. It was at the Dior Couture show in Paris back in January, we were in limbo, waiting for something to happen (a Dior show can run anything up to two hours late), so she was a bit of a a captive target. I knew that she had worked with the legendary illustrator Joe Eula towards the end of his career (he died in 2004) and I asked her if she would write a short, personal remembrance of him.

JM: How about the illustrators in the magazine?
DD: I wanted to feature the lesser-known work of two of our most celebrated illustrators, Jason Brooks and Richard Gray. They have wildly different styles and approaches, so it was fascinating to see that they are both inspired by the same thing – the act of drawing and mark-making. Sarah Mower is very well known as a writer and columnist, but outside the Far East (where her drawings feature in Japanese Vogue) I don’t think many people know that she also an illustrator, so it was great to be able to show her work. I also wanted to look at three very distinctive and influential illustrators through the eyes of people who knew them. So, In addition to asking Cathy Horyn to write about Joe Eula, I asked the illustrator Gladys Perint Palmer to write about her mentor Muriel Pemberton and the couturier Bruce Oldfield to write about his friend Colin Barnes...

JM: Let’s talk about Erin O’Connor and Carmen Dell’ Orefice.
DD: Let’s do that…

JM: They both feature frequently in your work and also prominently in the magazine. Obviously, they are from different generations, but there does seem to be a common thread.
DD: It’s true. Of course they are both ‘supermodels’ (whatever that means) and great beauties, but more than that, they have a very sophisticated ‘visual intelligence.’ They are image-makers, by which I mean that they understand the business of being a model, how to project, how to pose.

JM: How hands on were they?
DD: As much as they could be, given their schedules; Erin came to my studio in Brighton and, after a quick detour to the pub for cheesy chips, had a look at everything, made suggestions, rearranged things – for the better I might add. She also wrote a commentary for the Vive Couture section. Carmen gave over a whole day in New York for a sitting and treated it just as seriously as if it were Harper’s Bazaar and I was Richard Avedon. It’s no secret I adore them both.

JM: So, you’ve totally raided your address book then? Is there anyone left for issue 2?
DD: My address book is looking pretty depleted – but I do have one or two aces up my sleeve. I may have to make some new friends, quickly.

JM: Have you discovered skills you didn’t know you had?
DD: I have developed a pretty good eye for a quote, and I am a charming bully.

JM: What was the most challenging part of putting together the magazine?
DD The whole thing was a challenge mainly because, to all intents and purposes, there were only two of us working on it and we both had heavy commitments with our ‘real’ work. I looked at a copy of Vanity Fair the other day to see how many people it took to put it together and I stopped counting at 200. Then there were all the details; copyright, captioning, I could write a book about writing a magazine!

JM: We should talk about that, you actually did do some writing for Pourqoi Pas?
DD: Yes, but it was done early on, before I realised I could get REAL writers involved. Next time I would shoot for the moon straight away.

JM: So, What about “next time”?
DD: Well I have some great ideas for a second issue, but we will have to gauge the reaction to this one first, let’s see if it has an audience. I hope so, if not, chacun à son gout!





JM: So, six months on and here we are talking about the second issue of Pourquoi Pas?
DD: It must have something to do with the pleasure/pain principle.

JM: Did you always intend to do another issue?
DD: I genuinely didn’t know. I waited to see how the first one would be received, and then the V&A sold something like 400 copies and we sold another 1000 or so from the website and through various outlets, so it began to seem like it wasn’t such a mad idea. Then I began to get emails asking about a second one and, best of all, offers of contributions…

JM: It would have been rude not to have done another one!
DD: Something like that. I called the designer, Karen Morgan, and sounded her out and before I knew it we were thinking about it seriously.

JM: So tell us what’s in Issue 2.
DD: It’s very exciting. We have a piece on my hero, René Gruau, who I happen to think is the greatest fashion illustrator of all time, written by the equally legendary Suzy Menkes.

JM: Quite a coup! How did you persuade her to get involved?
DD: Well, I asked her and she didn’t say ‘No’. I sent her a copy of Issue One, she liked it and agreed to write the piece. I asked for 1000 words and I think I got 999 and a semi-colon. All perfect of course.

JM: And what else?
DD: Well there’s quite a lot more, we have more pages..

JM: And a higher price tag, I notice.
DD: Yes, but in my defence we also have heavier paper and two different paper stocks, and a gloss finish cover and foiling… and the price does include postage!

JM: Let’s get back to what’s in it.
DD: Okay, well we have a piece on René Bouché, another of my heroes, by Robin Muir, using images from the Vogue archive. There’s an extract from Gladys Perint Palmer’s new book You Are Not On The List. Tim Blanks has written brilliantly about François Berthoud, and Avril Groom interviewed Christian Lacroix.

JM: Another coup.
DD: Absolutely! I’ve met him once or twice, and after his couture show in January I was getting ready to gush and tell him how wonderful it was, when he pre-empted me, saying what a fan he was of the magazine…I was dumbfounded, speechless.

JM: But you still managed to ask him for an interview?
DD: Of course, it would have been rude not to.

JM: He also gave you exclusive access to his drawings of that couture show.
DD: Yes, and they are stunning. Really, he puts us mere illustrators to shame, considering everything else he does so brilliantly.

JM: And Dita Von Teese, is in this issue too.
DD: Yes, someone had to draw Dita, and it definitely felt like an editor’s gig.

JM: Well it is the glamour issue after all…
DD: Actually that idea came later. It’s the glamour issue because Dita’s in it.

JM: You have drawn her before haven’t you?
DD: Yes, a couple of years ago, in Beverly Hills, I love her. I think she had a fantasy of being this amazing creature ‘DITA VON TEESE’ and she has made the whole world see it her way. She is an original, a high fashion pin-up.

JM: Where did the sitting take place this time?
DD: At the Hôtel Crillon in Paris. We had millions of pounds worth of Cartier jewellery and three security guards lurking outside the door…at one point some of the clothes we’d requested didn’t turn up and Dita improvised, by wearing a sheet!

JM: With the diamonds?
DD: Naturally.

JM: Sounds like a dream job.
DD: Not bad for a middle-aged bloke, but as I say, it’s all work!

JM: And you do seem to be leading a one-man crusade championing the work of illustrators from another era.
DD: The magazine is all about drawing. The reason I became a fashion illustrator was not fashion per se, but the work of these great artists, and the reason I started the magazine was in order to pay tribute to them. We do feature contempory artists too of course, but only the very best of them. Pourquoi Pas? is not really the forum for emerging talent, though it is vital that we have inspiring new people coming along all the time.

JM: Are there other artists you would love to feature in the magazine?
DD: So many…

JM: And dare I ask about Issue 3?
DD: Let’s talk in six months.

JM: So, you have no plans to give up the day job?
DD: No, the day job is what I love doing and it’s also what enables me to do Pourquoi Pas? I’ve no plans to give it up, infact I need to get back to it.

Jo Moore is chair of the Brighton Illustrator's Group.
www.daviddownton.com