Joe Eula

Joe Eula was born in Norwalk, Ct., USA, around 1928-1930.

He began his career in the late 1940's, covering the fashion and social events with Eugenia Sheppard for the Herald Tribune. He then went to London and worked with Ernestine Carter doing the same for the Sunday Times. He also created eye-catching posters for Broadway shows and portraits for many celebrities, including Miles Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Diana Vreeland and later the Supremes and Liza Minelli.

He says "I was considered the fastest pencil in the field, a mannequin need only do her turn down the catwalk at a fashion show, and voila - an illustration." His admirers rightly believe that Eula's dynamic impressionistic watercolours capture the essence of a designer's collection far more effectively than the standard catwalk photographs.

Returning to America in the 1960's, he shared a studio with photographer Milton Greene, collaborating on covers, news and fashion stories for Life Magazine. Their partnership ended in 1968, after which Eula designed sets and costumes for the New York City Ballet, which was under the direction of George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.

He also worked very extensively with the designer Halston for many years.

In the 70's, he diversified into television, directing "fashion specials" for movie stars such as Lauren Bacall and Candice Bergen. He won a Tony award for his work on the Broadway production of "Private Lives" in 1968.

Joe contributed a great many illustrations for American Vogue.

Later in the 1970's, he assisted Diana Vreeland, who was appointed head of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York in 1971.

In 1979, Joe Eula signed an exclusive contract with Italian and French Harper's Bazaar, for fashion illustrations.

In the 1980's, he handled the fashion illustration for such houses as Missoni Knitwear, Chanel, Givenchy, Versace, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves St. Laurent and many others. When he is reporting on international fashion shows, Eula manages with a few rapid strokes of his paintbrush, to reproduce the line, colour and cut of an outfit in the short time that it takes for a model to parade down the catwalk.

Another of Joe's activities for some time, has been the cover designs, artworks and illustrations for music CD albums for such artistes as Liza Minelli and many others.

Joe Eula, is a familiar figure at the international collections, frenziedly sketching as the models saunter down the catwalk. His is still the fastest pencil at the shows.

Joe Eula's tribute to Yves St. Laurent in March 2002, on the great French designer's retirement, was published in the magazine of the Sunday New York Times in March 2002. Joe was there for YSL's first show for Dior in the early 1950's and he was there for YSL's last show in 2002. He has been drawing fashion for 55 years.