The art of fashion illustration is alive and well at a show on view at the Society of Illustrators through May 2. Some of the top names from its heyday to the present are represented, including Rene Boucher, Joe Eula, Kenneth Paul Block, Michael Vollbracht, Antonio Lopez, and Glenn Hilario, to name a few. Drawings in a staggering array of mediums, and highly finished paintings as well, are supplemented by videos, fashion magazines from the 1950s and 60s, illustrated shopping bags, and a display of Gene Marshall fashion dolls, along with character drawings by Mel Odom.

Left to right; Peggy Moffitt by Michael Vollbracht; YSL by Kenneth Paul Block; watercolor and gouache painting by Rene Bouche, all at Society of Illustrators.

The many different tasks that fall to fashion illustrators are represented here. One of the highlights, titled "Eula's Babies," is a selection of 96 or so palm-sized watercolor and pencil sketches that Joe Eula made for Halston's collections over the years. The project began at the start of Halston's career, when the designer could not afford Polaroid film to document his first collection. Eula quickly sketched each ensemble, capturing the flow of fabric and the essence of female elegance. At the other end of the scale is a half life-size ink drawing of a single figure in a tweed coat, with an appropriately rustic shoe featured alongside. Eula's iconic style is evident in a charcoal line drawing of Halston fitting Jacqueline Onassis, from the early 1970s.

Another standout is a selection work by Kenneth Paul Block, who was a lynchpin of the WWD Design Studio. From the 1950s until it closed in 1992, the studio hired artists to render the latest styles from the runways, from overheard cocktail party conversations and through out-and-out retail spying, according to Susan Mulcahey, here represented in a video of her presentation on the artist at FIT last year. Kenneth, as he is known by insiders, was one of the in-house artists for Fairchild Publications, creating cover and editorial art designed to lure shopaholics as well as industry people to WWD and later to W. Kenneth's style embodied pure luxury and his interests include celebrity portraits and interiors as well as couture.

Some of the most inspired choices in the show mark the swinging 60s, including Michael Vollbracht's flower-power portrait of model Peggy Moffitt, who was Rudi Gernreich's muse; Jane Bixby Weller's grease pencil and collage fashion drawing created for Harpers Bazaar UK; and a selection of drawings by Bil Donovan, a respected fashion arbiter then and now. From earlier days, work by Robert and Bertha Hermann created the Lord & Taylor signature look featured in full page newspaper ads accompanied by the famous script logo; a watercolor and gouache painting of a demure suit by Rene Bouche and a 1927 charcoal drawing that epitomizes male country style by James Montgomery Flagg (of "Uncle Sam Wants You" fame) for Cosmopolitan magazine.

The Line of Fashion, curated by artist and author Robert W. Richards, runs through May 2 at the Society of Illustrators, in association with the Leslie-Lohman Gay Arts Foundation. 128 E. 63rd St., NYC. 212.838.2560.

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