Cristian Vella de

Recently, Rihanna appeared in Essence & magazine; The cover of the February issue.

The "shooting" form of this cover is quite special: a hand-painted work by artist Lorna Simpon is regarded as a "headdress" and "worn" on the head of this female entrepreneur.

In fact, the cover films of this issue of Essence are all in the form of "combination of reality and reality".

What happened in the past year has greatly changed the shooting and typesetting methods of traditional media.

Because of various security factors and personnel mobility restrictions, large-scale outdoor shooting and complex scene setting are difficult; Hand-painted covers seem to be popular again.

In fact, before the popularization of photography technology, the covers of fashion magazines were basically supported by fashion illustrators.

To some extent, it may be better to express fashion in the form of painting, whether it is color, details or the imagination space of picture construction.

The first half of last century was the golden age of fashion, during which many excellent fashion illustrators appeared. One of them, now, is the kind of existence that every designer wants to add WeChat cooperation. ...

He is Cristian Vella de.

Belal is regarded as the most "genius" among many illustrators, and in the present words, his status is enough to slash. Illustrators, artists, home designers, fashion designers and many others look.

Christian dior, Gabrielle Chanel and elsa schiaparelli are all his close friends. ...

The New Year's Eve just passed is the 72nd anniversary of his death.

Christian Belal

0 1. Fashion illustration is also art.

The story of Christian Belal has no dramatic ups and downs, and there is no "failure of talent"; Due to his outstanding business ability, Belal quickly became a "star" in the industry as soon as he made his debut.

His works often appeared in French editions of Vogue, Haper's Bazaar and Annabelle in 1930s and 1940s.

His painting style is very individual and highly recognizable. You may not know his name, but you may have seen his illustrations.

Most of them are painted with water, with romantic lines and bright colors; It seems to be a flat sketch style, but the halo is very layered. It's a poetic style that blends neoromanticism ~

The lines are free and easy but restrained accurately, and the dynamics of characters and clothes are vividly outlined in a few strokes.

His works are also very imaginative, showing a surreal style.

Belal's perspective technique and atmosphere description are also superb, showing the depth of field and artistic conception of space incisively and vividly in several seemingly random vignettes.

Undoubtedly, Belal improved the artistic level of fashion illustration, not only simply recording and depicting fashion, but also influenced the style development of some designers in the past.

Mr christian dior once mentioned in the documentary that Belal's works "opened a new world for him. 」

The Bar Jacket illustrations he created for Dior described the beauty of New Look's lines with his unique blooming and sketching methods. It has also become an insurmountable classic in fashion history.

02. Fashion design generalist

Belal is not only a "recorder" of fashion, but also a "creator".

The following is an illustration drawn by Belal for Riley, schipa. He designed three clothes for Schiaparelli's "Astrology" series in autumn and winter of 1938. On the back of this cloak in the middle is a sun that blends into the face, which is a bit surreal.

Later, it became Schiaparelli's cloak, named "Apollo of Versailles", which was embroidered with gorgeous gold embroidery to show the light of the sun.

Besides, Be rard also cooperates with some big companies to design and produce clothes.

Belal also designed clothes for the films of his good friend and playwright Jean Cocteau.

1946 The costume of the French version of Beauty and the Beast is made by him, which is the closest "three-dimensional presentation" of his painting style, with a neo-romantic tone.

Compared with practical ready-to-wear design, Be rard's romantic nature is obviously more advantageous in the field of fashion design.

He once designed beautiful costumes for four ballet companies, including ballets russes and Champs Elysé es Ballet.

Belal worked closely with Tamara Toumanova, a famous dancer at that time, and designed many costumes for her dance drama.

This beautiful tulle ballerina with stars that we wrote before was designed for Tamara Toumanova by Bay Lal in the ballet Tiny World!

03. All-round aesthetic designer

In addition to the costume design of ballet, Be rard can also give consideration to the beauty of dance.

Be rard believes that the role of stage scenery is to add color to the work, not to catch the audience's eye. Therefore, he is always reducing the elements of the scenery and only retaining the essential elements-just like his fashion illustrations, the characters and costumes are the protagonists, and the environment and atmosphere are few, but he is still unfinished.

1936 In Moliere's drama "L'Ecole des Femmes", the background layout of costumes and scenes was completed by Be rard. There is only a small garden, two flower beds and five chandeliers.

Belal's pioneering work is revolutionary, which can be said to have changed the layout design of the theater.

Today, the theater still follows the Be rard way: deep red is used to attract the attention of the audience, and the rest only keep light and soft colors to set off the performance.

The amazing Thai held in Paris after the war? Tre de la Mode (fashion theater), Be rard, as a crucial "commander-in-chief", "created" a show for those exquisite miniature "fashion models". ...

Be rard's talent in space and decoration design allows him to cooperate with some furniture companies and designers to design interior decoration.

Former US Vice President Nelson nelson rockefeller also specially asked Bellard to design a carpet for his apartment on Fifth Avenue to match his original interior decoration style.

Be rard's bold colors and brushstrokes are very close to the decorative paintings of Picasso and Matisse on the wall.

Schiaparelli has a triple screen in the showroom of the fashion house, which was also painted by Bay Lal.

Now in the office of Guerlain's French headquarters, there is a humorous illusion visual hand-painted door, which was also written by Belal.

His paintings influenced many later designers. Is the venue where Prada 202 1 Spring and Summer Men's Wear was released a little subtly related to his paintings?

Belal also designed a lovely perfume bottle for Nina Ricci's perfume Coeur-Joie.

With so many diagonal designs, we can see that Belal is very talented. It is said that even on the way to dinner with friends, he often keeps drawing on tablecloths, napkins and menus and conceiving clothes or scenery designs.

The happiest people are the waiters, who will quickly put away Belal's paintings and sell them to collectors.

04. The designer's "Beibei"

Belal, with blond hair and plump face, is said to look like a baby in a soap advertisement seen on the streets of Paris at that time. So Belal's good friends affectionately call him "Beibei".

As mentioned above, Beibei had a good personal relationship with many fashion designers at that time, and his aesthetics influenced his "girlfriends" more or less ~

Schiaparelli wrote in his autobiography "Shocking Life": "Being appreciated and admired by Beibei and even becoming friends is a great recognition of Parisian social circles and intellectuals. 」

It is said that Belal said, "Isn't pink a lovely color?" It triggered a frenzy of using pink by Paris designers. Perhaps Schiaparelli's use of shocking pink was influenced by him.

As we all know, Schiaparelli and Chanel are sworn enemies.

But Belal and Gabriel are also good friends. Wandering between these two strong women, this kind of personality charm is extraordinary. ...

Chanel hung a decorative painting from Belal (on the ebony screen) in her apartment in hotel ritz.

Belal and Chanel are in hotel ritz, 1938.

Belal's fashion illustrations for Chanel.

And the birth of Mr. Christian Dior's new style is likely to be influenced by him-both of them-Belal's fashion illustrations and his ballet costumes emphasize the curve of women's waist. ...

Christian Belal gave Dior a watercolor painting on the eve of his debut.

Christian dior's fashion debut 1947

Not only that, but now Dior's favorite "Swiss Printing" has also adopted Belal's suggestion.

Dior's first store is located in Montaigne Avenue. The walls, furniture and boxes are decorated with Ruy prints. Mr. Dior's memoir "Dior by Dior" records:

It was Beibei who suggested that we hang Swiss printed cloth in the store and put hat cartons with the name of the store around, including the top of the wardrobe and every corner. At first glance, it seems to be chaos, but it gives life.

Belal also inspired Yves Saint Laurent's love of fashion.

As we mentioned earlier, Belal designed costumes and scenery for Girls' School. After watching the play, the young YSL "felt extremely touched, the most unusual feeling in my life" and began to try to make his own small theater, making clothes out of his mother's waste cloth and old sheets.

I was immediately moved by the power of Belal. He asked me to determine the direction I want to devote myself to, and I want to design scripts like him. He knows how to shape characters, he knows how to make clothes, and he grasps the essence of outline and time. He reshaped clothes.

Belal's designs and fashion illustrations have always been the main source of inspiration for Yves Saint Laurent. From some hand-painted paintings left by YSL, it is not difficult to see that his painting style has the shadow of Belal.

In February 1949, 1 1, Belal stood up from the stage when designing the scenery and costumes for the drama Scarpan's Trick, and suffered a heart attack and fell down on the stage forever. For a genius who loves stage and design, this may be a very dramatic but magnificent way to leave.

Almost all artists and intellectuals in Paris attended his memorial service, and Beibei was deeply missed by everyone.

The fashion circle has never forgotten his existence. In the autumn/winter series of 1987, Givenchy once paid tribute to Christian Bay Rard, and used Bay Rard's illustrations for the show set and costume design.

There are several skirts in anna sui 1995 spring/summer series, all of which are extracted from the fabric designed by Be rard for Zika Ascher in the 1940s, and re-colored to make it glow with new vitality.

Bellard Askell fabric

Anna sui 1995 SS

On the occasion of Dior's 60th anniversary, john galliano, who was in charge of Dior at that time, never forgot the deep relationship between the brand and Christian Berrard, and designed a dress to pay tribute to Berrard.

Schiaparelli 2065438+Spring/Summer 2005 has several look prints, which are deeply influenced by Be rard's painting style.

Christian Belal, a genius who influenced many fashion designers in the last century, deserves everyone's memory.