Antonio Lopez Overview

The following biographical information was taken from fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez's obituary written by Anne-Marie Schiro for the New York Times on March 18, 1987. Lopez died of complications from AIDS the age of 44 in Los Angeles. An artist whose... [more]

The following biographical information was taken from fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez's obituary written by Anne-Marie Schiro for the New York Times on March 18, 1987. Lopez died of complications from AIDS the age of 44 in Los Angeles. An artist whose constantly changing but always flamboyant style has influenced the work of other fashion illustrators since the 1960's, Mr. Lopez also designed advertising campaigns in many parts of the world, including a trend-setting series of advertisements for Bloomingdale's in the last decade. A native of Puerto Rico, he came to New York City as a child. He once recalled that he had started drawing at the age of 2, sketching dresses from fabric his mother gave him. While a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, he went to Women's Wear Daily, the trade publication, as part of a work-study program, where his talent was immediately recognized. The paper put him on staff and he left school. In the early 1960's he began to freelance for fashion magazines, where his portraits of models such as Jerry Hall, Jessica Lange and Grace Jones enhanced their careers. Many of these portraits were collected in ''Antonio's Girls,'' a book published in 1982. In 1969 he moved to Paris, where he and Karl Lagerfeld, the designer, ran a sort of salon for models and fashion personalities. He stayed there for seven years, during which time he introduced many facets of American pop culture to the French. He strayed from the realm of fashion in ''Antonio's Tales From the Thousand and One Nights,'' a book containing sensuous color illustrations and line drawings that was published in 1985 by Stewart, Tabori & Chang. Up until the time of his death, he had been working on a compilation of his fashion drawings to be called ''25 Years of Fashion'' that is scheduled for publication early in 1988. [show less]