Drawn to drama

Reporting the runway shows in Milan and Paris for the San Francisco Examiner in the late 1980s, Gladys Perint Palmer first began to appreciate the absurdity of the fashion world: “My first moment was when I saw this vision coming at me in a green faux Statue of Liberty headdress and a choker of piano keys.”

That vision was Anna Piaggi, the eccentric Italian Vogue columnist known for her stage makeup and blue hair, and it launched Palmer’s career as a fashion illustrator. As Palmer waited for a show to start, she drew Piaggi. A few days later, the two women sat next to each other at a show. “I said, ‘You are far more interesting to draw than what is on the runway,’ and she asked to see my drawing,” Palmer remembers.

Piaggi, impressed, helped Palmer publish her drawings in several Italian magazines. And now, perched always on the outside of a row, as near as possible to the runway, the freelance illustrator is as much a fixture at fashion shows as the subjects she sketches.

Palmer’s caricatures of stylish personalities -- Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano -- have appeared in the L.A. Times, the New York Times, the New Yorker, Elle and Vogue. Some of her best drawings of models, photographers, designers and celebrities have been culled for a book: “Fashion People” (Assouline). They are accompanied by her wry observations: “A pair of eardrums is far more valuable than a pair of Manolos. It will help you survive humdrum collections that feature a hundred African drummers,” and “ ... If you have never been to Paris, or this is your first stab at the collections, you will confront Le Securite. They are bad. They can say NO in six languages.”

With a shock of red hair and red eyeglasses to match, Palmer, who lives in Marin County, wears a uniform of black T-shirts and pants for the monthlong marathon of fashion shows in New York, Milan and Paris. “I don’t want to be part of the circus, I just want to cover it,” she says dryly. Instead of sketching while watching a show, she takes photos, sometimes hundreds in one day. When she returns home to her studio, the real work begins, as she draws from the pictures.

A native of England, Palmer studied fashion design at Central St. Martins School of Art and Design in London and fashion illustration at Parsons School of Design in New York. She moved to San Francisco in 1980 and became fashion editor at the Examiner soon after. Now, she heads the fashion department at the California Art Institute in San Francisco, teaching illustration and fashion reporting.

Besides Piaggi, Isabella Blow is a favorite subject. The madcap Tatler magazine fashion director helped launch the careers of Alexander McQueen and milliner Philip Treacy, whose hats she wears faithfully. “She has an interesting face and lunatic clothes,” Palmer says. “There was one time when she had a great big bird on her head. Another time, she had on a garment that looked exactly like a parachute. When she walked, it filled with air. We were waiting for the Chanel show to start, and she was running here and there to show how it filled up with air. She caused so much excitement that Karl Lagerfeld came out from backstage to see what was happening.”

Palmer, like other vets, complains about the irrational seating system and the shoving to get into fashion shows. But, she admits, “If they treated us in a civilized way, there wouldn’t be a book.”