Accustomed to looking at what was then a newspaper, and routinely using it as resource for his undergraduate studies, he knew how fashion art was an essential component so he arranged to show his portfolio there. “It was the first job of my career after graduating. I had excellent teachers at Parsons, and my favorite was Katarina Denzinger, who worked for Harper’s Bazaar. Her approach was very contemporary, graphic and modern. She was emulating how the models were posing in photos.
Jacques Tiffeau Fall 1969 Ready To Wear Advance. Drawing by Richard Rosenfeld. Fairchild Archive/Drawing by Richard Rosenfeld His work with WWD prompted executives at Joseph Magnin to contact him to see if he would fly to San Francisco to interview at the specialty store. “They flew me out. The store did full-page and quarter-page ads in The [San Francisco] Chronicle that were very graphic and unusual,” Rosenfeld recalled, adding a job was offered on the condition that he relocate to San Francisco.
Following a yearlong stay at Joseph Magnin, a recession set in, and Rosenfield exited the company to relocate to Dallas and Neiman Marcus. A year later, he returned to the East Coast to take a job at Condé Nast at Glamour Magazine Promotion, an in-house advertising agency that would pitch sales to advertisers. “I would do illustrations. We did forecast reporting. It was really a big tie-in for advertisers,” Rosenfeld said.
The way he sees it, the demand today for fashion art is “relegated to fine artists and not fashion illustrators. The images are not about idealization — no more rich, white society women as the ideal,” Rosenfeld said.