Paris: Fashion Flair

Book excerpt: The glamour and excitement of the Parisian fashion scene explodes onto the page in these bold portraits and drawings of Paris by rising star and couture insider Marc-Antoine Coulon. With an unwavering hand and a riot of color, Marc-Antoine Coulon captures Paris fashion on and off the runway. His pared-down, ultra-glamorous sketches--portraits of designers, screen stars, and his favorite Parisian haunts from day to night--are rendered here with incisive and unique artistry. Coulon's watercolors, collages, and sketches, paired with handwritten observations and pithy quotations, transcend the page. The artist's distinctive style--inspired by the great masters René Gruau and Erté--is both timeless and iconic, with a decidedly contemporary edge that is at once elegant, sexy, vibrant, and witty. Fashion icon Ines de la Fressange acknowledges his artistic courage: with a bold, saturated background, a confident brushstroke, or the force of negative space, his drawings sublimate his subjects--whether a dress, a monument, or a celebrity. As fashion illustration enjoys a renaissance in magazines and couture campaigns, Coulon's drawings have been commissioned by everyone from Vogue to Dior to private collectors. They offer readers a joyful and breathless tour of everything fashionable in Paris.