Femme Moussgui (Afrique). 1920s fashion Croquis XXXIX, c1922

by Gazette du Bon Ton

Gazette du Bon Ton African-inspired ladies fashion sketch 39.

Original hand-coloured pochoir published in Paris circa 1922 for Gazette du Bon Ton (Journal of Good Style), the exclusive publication where specialist fashion illustrators introduced the latest superior fashion styles of prominent French designers. Gazette du Bon Ton was published by Lucien Vogel in Paris between 1912 and 1925 (with a break during World War I). Each illustration for each magazine was created and coloured by hand. Vogel and his distributor also produced Vogue magazine (with photographic illustrations from 1932).

Pochoir, the French word for stencil, has been used worldwide since this method of illustrating fashion was perfected by the French fashion artists for Gazette du Bon Ton. Pochoir is a labour-intensive method of illustration with up to 20 stencils cut for each different layer of watercolour that was applied with a variety of brushes and tools to create the definition of the fabrics and the depth of tone for the fbrics and background. 

Size of page 24 x 19cm or 9.5 x 7.5 inches.