Tony Viramontes

I adore, adore that strong 80s vibe in the illustrations of Tony Viramontes! 

Born in 1960 in Los Angeles, USA, of Mexican parents Tony studied fine art and photography in New York, afterwards switching to fashion and beauty illustrations and moving straight to Paris. Living in Europe he scored an immediate success and worked for fashion magazines like Marie Claire, Lei, Lui, Vogue, The Face, Le Monde and high fashion brands including Yves St. Laurent, Valentino, Versace and Chanel. Designing album covers for Janet Jackson in 1985 or directing Madonna's music video for 'Each Time You Break My Heart'! The inspirations for Tony's intense and flashing style he found usually in his daily surrounding on the streets and in the spheres of music and dance. He was also inspired by artists like Antonio Lopez, Man Ray, Matisse, Egon Schiele, Picasso, Fellini and his almost aggressive style was in the late 70s absolutely a marked contrast to the prevailing soft pastel school of fashion illustration! At the peak of his career he was diagnosticated having AIDS and died in 1988 at the age of only 28...

"I look for new ideas because I always want to be in a state of creative anxiety and insecurity. If I feel sure of myself I cannot be creative."

"Tony was part of that Paris scene — young, arty, fashionable, drug-fuelled. It was centred around the Club Sept and Le Palace. He was a Party Boy; he lived at 1,000 miles an hour, the same way he worked. His best friend at the time was Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis."