Artistic Renderings

By Betsy Kroll

Once a fixture at Studio 54 and a pal of Karl Lagerfeld's, Antonio Lopez was one of fashion's most famous illustrators in the 1970s and '80s. Today few people other than fashion insiders and students (his is the most requested name in the library at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City) are familiar with him. With this month's publication of Antonio's People (Thames & Hudson; 176 pages), Paul Caranicas--who was Lopez's best friend until the illustrator's death in 1987--would like to change that. Caranicas' book is filled with hundreds of Lopez's outrageous and colorful drawings and photographs. "He was a virtuoso artist," Caranicas says. "He could draw in any style he chose." Lopez was renowned for his impeccable representation of the human form. His subjects included Pat Cleveland, Diana Vreeland and Audrey Hepburn. Not to mention Jerry Hall, above, whom he discovered when she was 15. Known as Antonio's Girls, his subjects were among his biggest fans. --BY BETSY KROLL