To Richard Haines New York City is an endless runway. When he first moved to the city to pursue illustration, he instead found a successful career as a fashion designer. Through fashion design, working for such brands as Calvin Klein, Perry Ellis, Sean Combs and Bill Blass, he developed a keen eye for the often overlooked details of form, fabric and how a garment falls on the body. This laid a foundation for his illustration work and after years in the world of fashion design, his career has now come full circle allowing him to emerge as one of today's most sought after fashion illustrators.
His wildly popular blog, "What I Saw Today," documents the clothes and attitudes of New York's every day trendsetters and fashion icons of all ages. It is not uncommon to see Haines seated front row at Fashion Week's most desirable shows busily sketching images for magazines and blogs who hire him to record the nuances that cannot be captured on film. His sensitive renderings of his subjects, whether they are men on the street, friends, or fashion models, uncover a deeply sentimental treatment. It is his fascination with the people behind the styles that informs his every stroke, propelling his work beyond mere sketches into the world where art and fashion intersect.
His work straddles the border between fashion illustration and fine art, In July 2009, Haines had his first solo show in New York at the cutting edge art space and gallery, Envoy Enterprises. In 2011 his work was exhibited in a solo show at Fuller + Roberts in Los Angeles.
PRADA
In 2012 Miuccia Prada chose Richard Haines to create the artwork that would become the iconic imagery accompanying the “Il Palazzo” men’s collection campaign. He attended a presentation of the men’s collection from which he drew inspiration to create series of sketches, which over a yearlong collaboration, became a 150 page concept book which was sent out to top global fashion editors. In addition, his illustrations were transformed into a virtual reality iPad app (created by James Lima), and a capsule tee collection sold in Prada flagship stores in New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.
Richard has also covered the men’s shows for NY Times T Magazine and is currently documenting menswear trends for a weekly column for the Sunday Times London.
Among his clients are Prada, J.Crew, Pennyblack, Calvin Klein, Coach, Unionmade Goods, Barneys, Mr. Porter, Grazia, The New York Times Style Magazine, GQ and GQ Italy.
