Visual artist Leo Greenfield had the opportunity to hob-know with leading designers and fashion royalty on a recent trip to Paris.
While in the French capital, the young visual artist from Melbourne, Australia, attended Paris Fashion Week and met with leading designers.
Greenfield, who has become renowned for his unique high fashion illustrations, was invited to several shows at Paris Fashion Week's Spring/Summer 2012 collections in October.
The 28-year-old's artistic style borrows traditional techniques of high fashion drawing, where the form is elongated and stretched, and appropriates brush strokes from painting to create angular shapes.
After studying in Japan in 2008, he freely admits that much of his quirky art style has been influenced by the eccentric street fashion that is evident in Japanese culture.
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As documenting street fashion is usually done photographically, Greenfield's approach, which takes the form of illustrations sketched from memory, is rather distinctive.
"I really wanted to use fashion and comment on fashion in a unique way and in a way that felt natural to me," he said.
After attending numerous fashion events in Australia and working with local designers, the ambitious artist dreamed of practicing his profession overseas and "really wanted to be in the centre of it".
Paris posed the perfect opportunity to visit the heart of the fashion world, where he applied to attend fashion weeks.
Despite receiving rejections from top fashion houses like Chanel and Celine, Greenfield was invited to about eight other shows and viewed collections from smaller but respectable labels, such as Damir Doma, Lutz and Gapard Yurkievich, among others.
He met Ralph Lauren's nephew, Greg Lauren, at Café du Flor, and was later invited to sketch pieces from Lauren's personal show room.
Keen to absorb as much of atmosphere as possible while in Paris, Greenfield attended a haute couture show at the Palace of Versailles, where he had the privilege of viewing collections from Christian Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen for Givenchy and Nicolas Ghesquière for Balenciaga.
Turning his hotel room into a temporary studio, he sketched and painted his way through his time in Paris, often forfeiting invitations to parties to create fresh pieces that have pushed his artistic talents in a new direction.
A chance meeting at the Ritz meant Greenfield had the rare opportunity to see Anna Wintour, the editor of American Vogue, of whom he later sketched a drawing.
