Antonio Lopez- Remembering a Great Fashion Illustrator

Antonio Lopez was a world famous fashion illustrator during the time of the 1960’s through the 1980’s. His work was so charged with energy and passion that designers have said that he inspired their work. His work was flamboyant, and glamourous. He generally signed his work with simply his first name, “Antonio.” He worked in a variety of mediums, from pencil, pen, watercolor, Polaroid film and charcoal.

When I was a teenager the person who inspired me the most in the fashion world was Antonio Lopez. There were times I would see a drawing of his and my heart would race with excitement. I remember waiting in anticipation for the New York Times to be delivered on Sunday so I could see what new drawings he had done for Bloomingdale’s or Bergdorf Goodman’s for instance. Each month when Vogue or Bazaar magazine came out it was the same anticipation. His work was exhilarating, capturing the essence of the world of fashion at the time. GQ editor Philp Smith wrote in Art Magazine in 1980 “the images function more as social icons than advertisements (1).”

Antonio was born in 1943 in Utado, Puerto Rico. His family moved to Bronx, NY when he was seven. As a small child he began drawing at age 2, inspired by the dresses and fabrics his mother worked with as a seamstress. His father worked making mannequins and Antonio often helped him. His parents encouraged him to work in fashion. He graduated from New York’s High School of Fashion Art and Design. He then went on to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology. There he met Juan Ramos, who became his art director and partner for 25 years. While a student at FIT he was in a work study program with Women’s Wear Daily. In 1962, he went to work full time for WWD and became one of their illustrators. He dropped out of school, and in 1963 he began working for the New York Times and taking on freelance work as well.

Antonio enjoyed the nightlife scene, clubs, and parties and was friends with and models and actresses such as Jerry Hall, whom he discovered at seventeen, Jessica Lange and Grace Jones, whom he drew often. Eventually these portraits were made into a collection referred to as “Antonio’s Girls,” a book that was published in 1982. He was a catalyst in the lives of many of his women friends. He discovered Tina Lutz, an aspiring model, and later introduced her to Michael Chow, a restauranteur, who became her future husband. Paloma Picasso spoke about how he would even draw in the midst of a party. His male friends included Andy Warhol, Yves Saint Laurent, photographer Bill Cunningham, and Karl Lagerfeld, whom owned the apartment he and Ramos loved in while in Paris in the late sixties and early seventies.

His work appeared in such magazines as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, the New York Times Magazine and Interview. He created ads for designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Valentino and Missoni. In 1985 he published Antonio’s Tales From the Thousand and One Nights (2). Many designers have said that they were inspired by Antonio and his illustrations, or photography. To this day he is remembered as a major figure in the fashion industry. In 2012 a book, “Antonio Lopez: Fashion, Art, Sex and Disco”, was published, about Antonio’s life and career. It was written by Roger Padilha and Mauricio Padilha, and published by Rizzoli.

Antonio Lopez’s life was brief, due to his death from complications caused by the AIDS virus in 1987. He was forty four at the time. His friend, model Susan Baraz, was with him at the time of his death (3). Later that year Baraz and Hossein Farmani, a publisher for Vue Magazine, founded the organization Focus on AIDS, which “raises funds for AIDS research, care, and education through photography auctions (4).”

Antonio Lopez’s legacy unfortunately faded from the spotlight after his death, due partially to the stigma of AIDS at the time, and partially to the lack of internet. In recent years between the book release about his life and recent exhibitions, the hope is that more people will be inspired by his work. In 2013, Mac make- up and accessories released a collection that was presented by Jerry Hall, Pat Cleveland and Marisa Berenson to celebrate and bring awareness to Antonio’s life and work. All three models careers were launched by working with Antonio Lopez (5). He truly was a major inspiration, in the fashion industry to countless lives.