René Gruau, born Renato Zavagli Ricciardelli delle Caminate in Rimini in 1909 and died in 2004, was a fashion illustrator who changed the way haute couture was presented. Active mainly in the 1940s and 1950s, his painted work, with its exaggerated and elegant line, shaped fashion advertising and anticipated the role that fashion photography would later take on.
The son of an Italian count, he turned away from the military career expected of him to devote himself to drawing. After his parents separated, he moved to Paris with his mother and took her surname. At fourteen he was selling drawings to the Milanese journal Lidel, and soon he worked for Femina, Marie Claire and Vogue. During the war he struggled to find work.
His relationship with Christian Dior was decisive: in 1947 he became the house's artistic director for advertising and, together with Dior, helped shape the so-called New Look. He also worked for Balmain, Balenciaga, Givenchy and other designers. His posters for Miss Dior perfume and the Rouge Baiser lipstick are especially remembered. His style blends Japanese prints and the simplified forms of Toulouse-Lautrec with a bright palette. His work is held in collections including the Louvre, and in 2011 John Galliano drew heavily on it for a Dior couture collection.