Jean-Philippe Delhomme

Jean-Philippe Delhomme

interview by OLIVIER ZAHM
portrait by GIASCO BERTOLI

All works courtesy of the artist

 

The private life of the ironic French fashion illustrator is one of a literary writer and a painter of elegant cityscapes.

OLIVIER ZAHM — So you started off right away in illustration…
JEAN-PHILIPPE DELHOMME — I don’t really like using the word “illustration,” because it implies a subordinate relationship of drawing and graphics to text. I prefer to think of drawing as autonomous, having its own existence, even if it is clearly included in a commercial context. Once I was at an art opening with my friend Martin Veyron, at this Guy Bourdin retrospective, and we ran into the great William Klein, whom we approached, planning to say something nice. Klein was wearing jeans, and for some reason we were both wearing suits. He asked us what we did…