Before the word "INFLUENCERS" gained a steroid persona, with little content or conviction there was Antonio Lopez and Steven Stipleman. Creatives offering something so new, so daring, so beautiful and so bold in fashion illustration, you had to take notice. The noise they were making set new standards in beauty and broke new ground in fashion art. Either with glorious splendor from Mr. Stipleman or the more aggressive approach from Mr. Lopez, they were the influencers who inspired my creative life and thousands, if not millions of other designers, fashion illustrators and fashionistas.
The noise of Antonio is iconoclastic in it's sensuality, sexuality and artistic bravura. The colors so similar to the way YSL understood and juxtaposed conventional color in unconventional ways. There is an underlying comic quality of POP and reference to Roy Lichtenstein. And then, the surreal quality of the portraits with their dismembered anatomy so luxuriously portrayed or fashion drawings with a hidden edge or the transformational drawings, metamorphose figure into fetishistic shoe. All reminiscent of Salvatore Dali. http://www.elmuseo.org/
.......and then there is Steven Stipleman.
The noise Steven has made over his amazing careeer is quite different than Antonio's but just as powerful. For there is a beauty, glamour and elegance which only Steven Stipleman can portray. It appears so effortless and blissful that it produces a a sigh of heaven in every illustration. Steven's girls are the epitomy of pure perfection. His illustrations carry an exclusive understanding and an intimate relationship with the garment, whether it be a dress, coat, gown. This romantic interpretation transports us into the realm of dream, almost like a garden of Eden. Steven has created a representation of the female form setting the standard in beauty then and through today.
Unprecedented in their portrayal of beautiful creatures and fashion, Steven and Antonio have been inspiring me and others for the past 40 years and continue to do so today.
That is the sign of a TRUE INFLUENCER.