David Downton graduated from the University of Wolverhampton and began his career as a general illustrator in Brighton in 1984. Whilst he occasionally did fashion illustrations, it was not until 1996 when he was sent to the couture shows by the Financial Times that he became known as a fashion illustrator. Since then his reports have been seen around the world and his commercial clients include such names as Chanel, Dior, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Harrods and L’Oréal. In 2007 he launched Pourquoi Pas?, the first journal to be dedicated to fashion illustration. His work is distinguished by its deliberate omissions, where he draws a subject and then begins to remove details and elements until only the barest minimum remains. Although such deconstruction looks spontaneous, it takes dozens of drawings on layout paper to achieve a successful result.