Francois berthoud fashion illustration croquis

Swiss artist François Berthoud is among the outstanding fashion illustrators of the present day. Born in 1961 and trained at the School of Applied Arts in Lausanne, Berthoud soon developed a distinctive style for the graphic transcription and illustration of contemporary clothing, shoes, handbags, perfumes, and accessories. His expressive, aesthetically appealing linocuts, drip pictures, and computer graphics have accompanied countless fashion campaigns – from Yves Saint Laurent to Bulgari or Sonia Rykiel. In these works the depicted object and Berthoud’s visual interpretation of it complement one another to generate atmospheric total works of art that substantially shape our perception of a featured product and contribute to its marketing success. This first comprehensive exhibition brings together 100 original sketches and work samples, while also including a cinematic portrait that illuminates François Berthoud’s working process. Particularly fascinating is the use of complementary analog and digital techniques to produce masterly results.

Francois Berthoud Zurich Studio

Francois Berthoud was born in 1961, is an internationally known fashion illustrator and artist. After finishing studies on graphic design in his resident city of Lausanne Le Locle, Switzerland in 1982, Berthoud gone to Milan; there he illustrated cartoons for the ‘Alter-Alter’ and ‘Linus’ humorous strips. Premature fashion illustrations were especially prepared by Anna Piaggi for Condé Nast’s Vanity Fair.

Art of Fashion Illustration by Francois Berthoud, his memoirs, Zurich Studio, Alter-Alter, Linus, His magazines: Vanity & Vogue, Portrait of costumes, perfumes, accessories, shoes and handbags.

Berthoud is at present accepted as one of the great creative fashion outstanding illustrators of the delayed 20th and early 21st Century. Avant-garde fashion designers inquire Berthoud to make their commercial images.

Although Francois illustrates vogue in an apparently ceremonial and attractive technique, in realism he evaluates his theme in deepness and by means of a stylish intelligence to recreating ability in his atelier-laboratory…. He practices vogue with a bright intelligence of irony and an illustration culture entrenched in theoretical art.

Francois Berth