Art & Statues
Fashion and the Art of Pochoir by April Calahan and Cassidy Zachary
Fashion and the Art of Pochoir: The Golden Age of Illustration in Paris by April Calahan and Cassidy Zachary
Published by Thames & Hudson in 2015, this hardcover gathers three hundred color illustrations from the golden age of pochoir, the hand-stenciling technique that defined French fashion publishing in the 1910s and 1920s. Layers of gouache or watercolor applied through cut stencils produced blocks of saturated color unmatched by other printing methods of the time, and the technique became the medium of choice for avant-garde couturiers seeking an elite readership for their albums and magazines. Authors April Calahan and Cassidy Zachary organize the plates chronologically by publication, drawing from couture albums and high-end fashion magazines of the period. The cover reproduces one such plate, a richly patterned kimono-style gown rendered in the bold flat color characteristic of pochoir. The book closes with biographical entries on the illustrators and designers featured throughout, making it as much a reference as a visual survey.
The plates trace pochoir's arc from its earliest luxury albums through its peak in magazines aimed at a sophisticated readership, showing how illustrators translated couture into striking graphic images rather than straightforward fashion reportage. The technique's saturated color and crisp line made it especially suited to the exaggerated silhouettes and exotic references popular in Parisian fashion of the era, and the book traces that visual language across two decades of publishing before the technique faded from use.
April Calahan is a fashion historian based in New York, where she serves as Special Collections Associate and curator of rare books and periodicals at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Cassidy Zachary is a fashion historian and collections manager based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their combined expertise in archival fashion material shapes the book's chronological structure and its attention to the illustrators and publications behind each image, many of them little known outside specialist circles.
This book is a valuable resource for collectors and researchers interested in French fashion illustration, Art Deco graphic design, and the history of couture publishing. Its large format and generous color reproduction also make it a rewarding visual reference for anyone drawn to the period's fashion imagery.
