AN INTERVIEW WITH SAMUEL HARRISON | GROUP BLOG

“The fashion illustrator’s role is to ‘make(s) commercial visuals to sell the finished product” (Barnes, 1998). A fashion illustrator needs to be just as passionate in the business as any other fashion field job, they need to live and breathe fashion. They need to understand fashion, new-trends, styles, fits, and techniques. Harrison does this through the technique of drapery, thus avoiding gender exposure of his models.

Samuel Harrison is a London based Artist and Fashion Illustrator. A recent Fine Art graduate from the Chelsea College of Art, his fashion illustrations focus on “an-other worldly sense of beauty” (Harrison, 2017). He translates his inspiration from the fashion world into his work to create fantastical drawings. Harrison has experienced success, having his art exhibited at SHOWstudio and collaborating with reputable practitioners like Nick Knight. 

Harrisons work is also concerned with identity and self-expression. Men look like men and women look like women, there’s nothing in between. Samuel, dressing as a man by day and a woman by night (taking inspiration from the original supermodels) explores this gender gap, rebelling the heteronormative ideals of the fashion industry. He states, “I like to think of my figures as very femme fatale kind of women. Very powerful, very in control of their sexuality”.

Makeup and fashion are two industries that go hand in hand, and have for many centuries. The materials Harrison uses are distinctly unique; availing of mediums such as eye liner, lipsticks, pigments and glitter which is closely connected to his personal life and passion for Drag “Make-up and the beauty industry, naturally relate to fashion anyway so I think it’s a great cross-over to illustrate these topics” says Samuel.

“I see fashion like a real-life character design. Colours, shapes, movements all combine to create a story and a persona’’ says Samuel Harrison. His illustrations explore various body gestures, which can be seen in the stance drawn in his model’s. This connection involves fashion, art and illustration which can be clearly noted in his drawings and thus the end-result becomes a very unique piece of art. Beauty is an art, fashion is an art, illustration is an art.


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Group Blog Authors:
Millie Hughes (Fashion Design Student - Illustration content)
Caolum McCabe (Fashion Design Student - Gender and Identity content)
Auris (Fashion Design Student - Fine Art content)
Natasha Wilson (Fashion Branding and Communication student - Background Information content)
Rosa Mamuzelos (Fashion Branding and Communication student - Make-up and Influences content)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Samuel Harrison Art (2017). Available from: http://samuelharrisonart.co.uk [Accessed 25th October 2017]. 

Samuel Harrison Art (2017). Instagram. Samuelharrisonart. Available from https://www.instagram.com/samuelharrisonart. [Accessed 25th October 2017].  

Colin Barnes, 1988 “The Complete Guide to Fashion Illustration”, North Lights Books.

Steven Stipelman, 2005, “Illustrating Fashion; Concept Creation”, Fairchild Publications, Inc. New York City.

Diana Crane, 2000 “Fashion and its Social Agendas; Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing” University of Chicago Press, Hartlein, R. (1991)  “Art Fashion illustrations in a new exhibition at FIT.” WWD, p.18 . Available from: http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=aib&id=GALE%7C3OWD&v=2.1&it=aboutJournal&sid=kbart?&auth Count=1 

(2017) “Dreamy Fashion Illustrations From a New Art Show.” The Cut, Available from: https://www.thecut.com/2017/09/the-gray-mcas-annual-exhibit-comes-to-new-york-fashionweek.html?utm_source=nym&utm_medium=f1&utm_campaign=feed-full    

Hunter Reed, 9th February 2016, “Clothing the Gender Gap initiates important dialogue regarding heteronormative fashion”, The Badger Herald. Available from URL https://badgerherald.com/artsetc/2016/02/09/clothing-the-gender-gap-initiates-important-dialogue-regarding-heteronormative-fashion/


BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR IMAGERY

(Image 1) July 26th 2016 [Accessed at 31/10/17] Available from URL http://samuelharrisonart.co.uk/post/147998492532/a-collection-of-my-recent-ss17-illustrations-from

(Image 2) 30th August 2016 [Accessed at 31/10/17] Available from URL http://showstudio.com/contributor/samuel_harrison

(Image 3) October 19th [Accessed at 31/10/17] Available from URL https://www.instagram.com/p/BacTnNFhmTT/?hl=en&taken-by=samuelharrisonart

(Image 4) February 3rd 2016 [Accessed at 31/10/17] Available from URL https://www.instagram.com/p/BQD16Zfg0Ej/?hl=en&taken-by=samuelharrisonart

(Image 5) May 9th, 2017 [Accessed at 31/10/17] Available from URL https://www.instagram.com/p/BT4fAfRB5hI/?hl=en&taken-by=samuelharrisonart

(Image 6) April 4th 2017 [Accessed at 31/10/17] Available from URL https://www.instagram.com/p/BSea8-sh53X/?hl=en&taken-by=samuelharrisonart

(Image 7) August 17th 2017 [Accessed at 31/10/17] Available from URL https://www.instagram.com/p/BX6B_DjB8LW/?hl=en&taken-by=samuelharrisonart

(Image 8) July 20th 2017 [Accessed at 31/10/17] Available from URL https://www.instagram.com/p/BWx26_vBqDZ/?hl=en&taken-by=samuelharrisonart


(Image 9) October 6th 2017 [Accessed at 31/10/17] Available from  URL https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ6BsWNhvfJ/?hl=en&taken-by=samuelharrisonart

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