DADU SHIN ‘I DON’T LIKE CLOTHES’

New York illustrator Dadu Shin’s personal project ‘I don’t like clothes’ is a series of whimsical drawings assembled from visual reference, fashion and folly.

‘I don’t like clothes’ came about when the volume of Shin’s editorial workload drove him to find an expressive release without a brief. Shin’s figures are mute, their clothes owning the person and dictating their identity; the street girl in Converse high tops and an army bomber jacket, the glam diva in a full-length golden gown, the black and white checked muse, the Lagerfeld-inspired zigzag, the kimono-ed geisha, the psychedelic guru, all relishing in their timelessness.

Like most illustrators Shin is a constant doodler, his nimble fingers racing to keep time with the creative pace of his work. Early in his vocation he’d tried to pigeon hole his style, but he found instead this quashed his creative expression. Working with mediums from pencil through to ink, paint and gouache, his drawings are diverse in character and meaning. Embracing his eclectic flair has ensured that his work is now found everywhere from Harper’s Bazaar to the New Yorker.

Credits: Dadu Shin