Gladys Perint Palmer is an esteemed illustrator, journalist, and educator. She studied at two of the finest fashion schools in the world, Central Saint Martins, and at the Parsons School of Design. She is currently the Executive Vice President of Artistic Development at San Francisco’s Academy of Art.
Born in 1947 Budapest, Hungary, Perint Palmer and her family moved to England when she was young. She learned to draw from her mother and taught herself to write by reading and rewriting over and over. She studied 3 years of Fashion Design at the Central Saint Martins in London, under the guidance of illustrator Elizabeth Suterand. She then travelled across the pond to study Fashion Illustration at Parsons School of Design in New York.
In 1972, Perint Palmer moved to Hong Kong where she wrote and illustrated a bi-weekly column in the South China Morning Post. In the early 1980s, she moved back to America, this time to California, where she was appointed Fashion Editor of the San Francisco Examiner. Soon she was freelancing as a writer and illustrator for American publications New York Times Magazine, Mirabella, Los Angeles Times, as well as leading European magazines L’Officiel, Grazia, Vogue, and Elle. Covering fashion collections, her witty and spirited drawings were a breath of fresh air in the too often serious world of fashion.
Perint Palmer’s spontaneous and sublime ink work has also illuminated advertising campaigns for Chanel, Dior, Estee Lauder, Geoffrey Beene, Lancome, Missoni, Neiman-Marcus, Oscar de la Renta, The Metropolitan Museum, Valentino, and Vivienne Westwood.
When asked, how long it takes to do a drawing, the answer is, a lifetime. Sometimes seven minutes.
— Gladys Perint Palmer
Making a home in San Rafael, California with her husband, writer and opera producer, Simon Palmer. For nineteen years Perint Palmer ran the School of Fashion at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. In August 2014, she was appointed Executive Vice President of Artistic Development. The Academy of Art University presented her with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
Perint Palmer has exhibited internationally in New York, San Francisco, Milan, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong and London. Notably the Central St. Martins 100 Years of Illustrators exhibition and the V&A’s Vivienne Westwood exhibition. Her work is also in the permanent collections of HK Museum and HK Arts Centre in Hong Kong and Valentino Museum in Rome.
Her illustrations have been featured numerous fashion books. In 2003 Assouline published a book of her drawings and captions, Fashion People. More recently, in 2012 Firefall Editions published Adam & Yves; “a tongue-in-cheek illustrated history of fashion, from the creation of Adam to Yves (Saint Laurent).”
To celebrate Perint Palmer and her achievements Mayor Gavin Newsom dedicated May 24th 2006 as Gladys Perint Palmer Day in San Francisco.
You can find more of Gladys Perint Palmer’s work on her website, Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook. You can also watch her work in this live drawing of Anastazia Louise.