With an introduction by New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn, and more than 200 gorgeous black-and-white and full-color sketches and finished illustrations, this deluxe, oversized volume presents the first published collection of the work of Joe Eula, perhaps the most prominent fashion illustrator of the latter half of the twentieth century. Joe Eula's career was so varied and exotic it is almost difficult to understand. He was first and foremost a graphic artist who in a few quick strokes could evoke a modern attitude. Yet he was also a costume designer, stage director, and tastemaker living at the center of an intense world-New York in the 1960s and 1970s. What united these different roles was Eula's remarkable eye. A recipient of the Bronze Star in World War II, he studied under the G.I. Bill at the Art Students League in New York. He was soon drawing for department stores and the influential New York Herald Tribune fashion columnist Eugenia Sheppard. No one better captured the allure, color, and personalities of the Paris openings than Eula. In a career that spanned five decades, he illustrated album covers and/or show posters for Miles Davis, Liza Minnelli, Marilyn Monroe, and the Supremes. He designed costumes for the choreographer Jerome Robbins. He directed a television special with Lauren Bacall. In the 1960s, with the photographer Milton Greene, he formed one of the most progressive studios of the era, responsible for producing tantalizing images-including Faye Dunaway as a stylish Bonnie Parker-in magazines like Life. His friendships were no less extensive, from Coco Chanel, with whom he used to treat to movie dates in Paris, to Andy Warhol, Bette Midler, and Elsa Peretti. If modernity was the hallmark of Halston's fashion in the 1970s, it was Eula, as the label's creative director, who helped clarify it with his spare drawings and fluent ideas. Artful in his life as well as work, with a beautifully rustic home in the Hudson Valley that inspired visitors, Eula was the very essence of a maverick American spirit. All his life he did what pleased him, guided by his incredible eye and a fierce stubbornness. He went on to design ceramics blazing with roosters and flowers for Tiffany as well as to illustrate the now classic Tiffany's Table Manners for Teenagers by Walter Hoving and to illustrate for many publications until his death in 2004. Prefaced by an in-depth introduction that sheds light on Eula's development as an artist as well as his contributions to the worlds of fashion, design, the arts and entertainment, this book brings together a selection of his finest work culled from his archives by the executor of his art estate, Melisa Gosnell. Also included throughout are quotes from Eula himself, excerpted from letters, articles, and interviews over the years. Lovers of fashion and fine illustration will delight in the range of art and diverse clientele within this collectible volume. The book includes fashion illustrations for Chanel, Dior, Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Halston, Geoffrey Beene, Norell, Rudi Gernreich, and Josie Natori. There are show posters and portraits of Diana Vreeland, Liza Minnelli, Shirley MacLaine, the Supremes, Lauren Bacall, Charles Aznavour, Miles Davis, Lena Horne, Bobby Short, Eartha Kitt, and Twiggy. There are also wonderful examples of work he did for Tiffany & Co., Studio 54, Regine's, and Elaine's.
