The Art of Fashion, Audrey Schilt

Fashion artist, illustrator and designer, Audrey Schilt, is celebrating her 22 year collaboration with American tastemaker Ralph Lauren on display at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The show, Art of the Collection, documents the designer’s relationship through illustration as Lauren’s Polo/Ralph Lauren brand became the iconic American lifestyle. As the Creative Director of Collection, VP, Audrey worked side by side with Ralph, conceptualizing and sketching from the design studio to runway. The exhibition, informally presented in the school’s D building lobby and visible by street level, captures perfectly “7th Ave’s” frenetic pace, showcasing Schilt’s flowing gestural line rapidly expressing ideas. The sweeping large scale sketches bring back memories of your favorite Ralph Lauren collections, celebrities seen on the red carpet, and the emotional editorials shown everywhere, but Audrey’s journals, working out the concepts, and mini sketches planning the runway shows, give insight to the symbiotic relationship between design and illustration. Most important, the human form always present while simply gestured in Schilt’s body of work, reminds the viewer that fashion, not just a concept, is intended to be worn, in the lifestyle, with a definite point of view. Visit Audrey Schilt’s site to read more about her impressive biography and see the show before it ends January 27th!