Mahila1 à la mode: The auntie-fit croqui

Abstract

The stylized fashion figure or croqui is fundamental to the fashion design process. Highly regarded as a tool for design articulation and innovation, it is also an immensely popular creative art form, enjoying a recent renaissance on social media platforms. Most fashion institutions across the globe teach illustration as a foundation-level skill. Students absorb a strict set of rules dictated by the ten-head body proportion. This article explores the colonial implications of the stylized croqui. The drawings challenge the genre by selectively abandoning and playing with the rules of fashion illustration in order to decolonize this design tool.