✂-Designer's Tip of The Day-Who Was Eric?

Eric's 1935 Vogue Cover

In 1945 Eric created suitably joyful and symbolic image for VJ Day.  This was five years after Eric and his family left France after the fall of Paris in WWII.

Four years before his death in 1958, and already in poor health, Eric had not lost his touch.

Eric- Whose true name was Carl Oscar August Erickson, was unquestionably "the most influential fashion artist to emerge in the 1930's.  A master of descriptive line, he recorded the theater of high fashion- the Paris collections, a Broadway opening or cocktails at the Ritz- with an effortless ease and assurance" (David Downton).
Eric's illustrations graced the pages of Vogue for more that thirty-five years, unattained by any other artist.
Eric was born in Joliet, Illinois, in 1891.  He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago and by 1914 had made his way to New York, to pursue a career as a commercial artist.  In 1916, he saw his first appearance in Vogue.  By the time the first Vogue cover appeared in 1930, when he was almost 40 years old, Eric was living in Paris.
Eric died in 1958 and Vogue saluted an irreplaceable, long-term contributor with a wistful obituary, 'He has left his mark on Vogue's history, as on the times.  And for that we are grateful,' if concluded. It was the end of an era.

Source: Masters of Fashion Illustration by David Downton