The story of fashion illustration is one of change. Through the last century alone, distinct changes in illustrative styles, and the popularity of the illustrated figure, have taken place. Different drawing styles have emerged, encouraged by the development of new media. Fashions have evolved constantly and the representation of the fashion figure has altered dramatically. This chapter will examine why these changes occurred and, more significantly, how styles from the past still influence illustrators’ work today.

The beginnings of fashion illustration

Throughout the centuries, artists have been inspired by costume and fabric. Fashion illustrators have depicted the latest fashions, publicizing not only the garments but their creators. As early as the mid-seventeenth century, the detailed and descriptive etchings by Wenceslaus Hollar represented the beginnings of fashion illustration.

By the eighteenth century, fashion ideas began to circulate via newspapers and magazines in Europe, Russia, and North America. The first engraved fashion plates were published in The Lady’s Magazine in 1759 and, by the nineteenth century, technical improvements in print meant fashion, and the outward expression of wealth it conveyed, was never out of the press. At the turn of the twentieth century, fashion illustrators were strongly influenced by art movements such as Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Surrealism. These were instrumental in determining new styles of illustration. During the same period, artists such as Matisse, Degas, Dalí, and Toulouse-Lautrec demonstrated a keen interest in what their subjects wore. Their work also had a vast impact on the way that fashions were illustrated.

Charles Dana Gibson illustrated for magazines such as Time, Life, and Harper’s Bazaar, but it was the creation of the “Gibson Girl” that made him most famous. This character was tall and slender, and said to be based on his thoroughly modern wife. She was realized on stage, endorsed products for manufacturers, and even inspired songs. Women everywhere tried to emulate the “Gibson Girl” by copying her clothes, hairstyles, and mannerisms. This truly shows the influential power of fashion illustration at the time.

Pochoir images from the book Les Choses de Paul Poiret by Georges Lepape. This technique of simple stenciling originated in Japan.

Pre-1900s

Before the turn of the twentieth century, Alphonse Mucha and Charles Dana Gibson had both begun to make their names for painting beautiful women, and would go on to become famous illustrators of fashion in the new century. Their drawings had a profound effect on the fashions of the time.

Alphonse Mucha created posters in the style of Art Nouveau with swirling, floating, and twisting lines, and detailed patterns. Mucha’s women were languid, with flowing hair and dramatic elegance, and many society women tried to imitate the beauties he portrayed in their styling and dress. In the same way, others emulated the clothes, hairstyles, and mannerisms of the tall, slender “Gibson Girl” created by Charles Dana Gibson. Gibson first worked with paper cut-outs and silhouettes before becoming famous for his pen-and-ink drawings. He illustrated for magazines such as Time, Life, and Harper’s Bazaar.

The early 1900s

The first 30 years or so of the twentieth century were the golden years for fashion illustration. These were the decades before the photographer and camera took over the task of showing fashion to the world. In the early 1900s, illustrators such as Leon Bakst and Paul Iribe captured the true spirit of the new fashion trends and portrayed them in an individual manner, conveying the mood and hopes of the time.

The elaborate Ballets Russes and its costume designer, Leon Bakst, introduced brightly colored oriental fashions to the world, challenging the subtle shades of Art Nouveau. The vivid colors of his drawings influenced fashion for years to come. Through Bakst, an enthusiasm for Orientalism was introduced to fashion, influencing the couturier Paul Poiret to produce his innovative designs. These feature in the colorful fashion illustrations of Georges Lepape, many of which were line drawings, highlighted with watercolor through finely cut stencils. This technique, known as pochoir, originated in Japan. Stenciling is a simple form of printing that is still a popular means of adding color to an illustration today.

Today’s illustrators are also fond of showing their fashion figures in a busy environment. Marcos Chin’s illustration shows a well-dressed woman at a music gig sipping a glass of wine, surrounded by other revelers.

The Teens

Contemporaries of the illustrators discussed above, Georges Barbier and Pierre Brissaud were French illustrators working for an early fashion magazine called La Gazette du Bon Ton, eventually acquired by Condé Nast. Many of the illustrators later went on to work for the company’s prestigious fashion magazine, Vogue. Georges Barbier was the chief illustrator. His style owes much to oriental ballet, theater, and the sinuous lines of Art Nouveau. He also greatly admired the work of Aubrey Beardsley, whose influence can be seen in Barbier’s strong outlines and bold figures.

The illustrative styles of the decade from 1900 to 1910 were landmarks in the development of twentieth-century illustration. Many illustrations now showed fashions in busy social scenes, a trend followed by some of today’s fashion illustrators, including Marcos Chin. Art Deco design also began to feature heavily in illustration, and Cubist geometry influenced the work of illustrators such as Charles Martin. Similar Cubist shapes were revisited in the 1980s by fashion illustrators such as Mats Gustafson and Lorenzo Mattotti.

The First World War had a significant impact on fashion illustration. Printed journals and magazines declined as a vehicle for fashion illlustration, but the film industry grew dramatically. During this decade many fashion and costume designers for stage and film hit the headlines, the most famous being a Russian-born painter known as Erté. Perhaps best known for his elaborate costumes at the Folies Bergères in Paris, Erté also designed many lavish costumes for American movies. His life’s ambition to become a fashion illustrator was fulfilled when he signed up with Harper’s Bazaar, where he continued to contribute fashion drawings for the next 20 years.

The Twenties

The First World War was a period of great social upheaval, which had a dramatic influence on culture and the arts. The emancipation of women resulted in a new female image that rejected unnecessary flounces of fabric and impractical, ornate frills. Two of the most influential women in the fashion world at this time were Coco Chanel and Madame Vionnet. Chanel’s simple styles, teamed with compulsory costume jewelry, and Vionnet’s bias-cut dresses defined a new era. Both designers opened stores in this decade and went on to clothe women for many more.

Until the twenties, the illustrated fashion figure had been drawn with fairly realistic proportions. However, as artwork and fashions became simplified, angular, and linear in the twenties, so too did the fashion silhouette. Illustrations now featured longer and leaner figures. Exaggerated fashion figures appeared in the works of Eduardo Garcia Benito, Guillermo Bolin, George Plank, Douglas Pollard, Helen Dryden, and John Held Jr. In his many memorable covers for Vogue in the twenties, Benito captured the essence of the strong, emancipated women that epitomized the decade. His figures were elongated and somewhat abstract in style, appearing in graphic designs enhanced by subtle color contrasts.

The “flapper” became an iconic figure of the “roaring twenties.” The cartoons of John Held Jr during the “jazz age” adorned the covers of The New Yorker and Life magazine. His style, featuring funny dancing cartoon characters with bright backgrounds and humorous scenes, is still mimicked today, and contemporary illustrators such as Stephen Campbell use character and humor in their fashion illustrations too.

The cartoons of John Held Jr became iconic in the “roaring twenties” and adorned the covers of society magazines.

Modern illustrators such as Stephen Campbell use personality and character to show off fashionable clothes. Campbell’s preferred tool in creating his popular cartoons is the computer.

The thirties

The beginning of the thirties saw fashion magazines truly utilize fashion illustration, in both editorial and advertising formats. The fashion silhouette returned to a more realistic feminine form, and drawing lines were softer, textural, and curved. A new romanticism was reflected in the illustrations of Carl Erikson, Marcel Vertes, Francis Marshall, Ruth Grafstrom, René Bouët-Willaumez, and Cecil Beaton.

Carl Erikson, known as Eric, emerged in the thirties as a remarkable draftsman who would become an influential fashion illustrator for the next three decades. Eric represented every detail of garments with the lightest of brushstrokes. An advocate of observing the human figure and capturing the beauty of real life, Eric drew only from life, never memory.

Vertes worked for Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair. His illustrations characterized by an economical use of line and color. He also illustrated the advertising campaign for Schiaparelli perfumes. Today freelance fashion illustrators still work for advertising companies: the image (below) is an advertisement for the UK retail chain, Topshop, by David Downton. Cecil Beaton contributed amusing fashion sketches and cover designs to Vogue throughout the thirties but became most famous for Oscar-winning costume designs for stage and screen, and his photographs of Hollywood actresses. Toward the end of the thirties, the fashion photographer began to overtake the illustrator as the camera replaced the paintbrush as the favored means of advertising fashions.

Eric, cover of British Vogue, September 2, 1936. Schiaparelli’s flaming red velvet hat and caracul (lamb’s wool) scarf streaked with blue-green owe their wit and inspiration to the Surrealists with whom she was closely involved. Eric’s association with Vogue lasted for many years, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Fashion illustrators still contribute to advertising today. This image shows an illustrative advertising campaign for Topshop, by David Downton. Promotional postcards featuring his work were available in the store for customers to take away as a keepsake.

René Bouët-Willaumez was influenced by Eric, but refined his own style through adventurous use of color, swift, sharp hatching, and vigorous shading. His illustrations had a dramatic sense of style and commanded space on the pages of Vogue for many years.

René Bouché had a firm and accurate drawing style that derived from strict observation. He used pen and ink or crayon, and cleverly merged the character of the garments with that of the wearer, as in this example from 1945. Bouché had a strong sense of color and he passed on his knowledge to fashion illustration students at the Parson’s School of Design in New York, where he taught during the forties.

The forties

During the Second World War, many European fashion illustrators went to the United States, where there were more work opportunities, and some never returned. The early part of the decade saw illustration styles continuing in the same romantic vein they had embraced in the thirties. Dominating forties fashion illustration, along with Christian Bérard and Tom Keogh, were three illustrators who coincidentally shared the name René. René Bouët-Willaumez worked for Vogue in the thirties but continued throughout the forties, using an Expressionist style influenced by Eric. René Bouché began illustrating exclusively in black and white, though in his later illustrations he developed a strong sense of color. His decisive and accurate drawing style was derived from strict observation, and his images often appeared spread across double-page Vogue editorials.

René Gruau is perhaps best known for creating the advertisements for Christian Dior’s “New Look,” establishing a professional relationship with the Dior design house that lasted more than 50 years. He painted in a bold style, influenced by Picasso and Matisse, using black brushstrokes to outline the form, minimal detail, but a generous amount of movement and shape. Gruau’s style gives the illusion of speed and hastiness. However, he admitted that he completed at least 30 preparatory sketches before creating an illustration. A lesson to us all.

The fifties

Following the war, the fifties were a time of development and increased affluence. Technological advances introduced plastic, Velcro, and Lycra, creating for illustrators the challenge of representing new synthetic fabrics. The glamorous life depicted in the movies and on television showed up-to-date images of beauty and the use of illustration began to decline. However, many illustrators from previous decades continued to work in the fifties, while new artists such as Kiraz and Dagmar arrived on the scene.

A self-trained artist, Kiraz, who emerged in the fifties, still illustrates fashion today. From Cairo, he moved to Paris where he drew sexy, sophisticated Parisians as cartoon-style characters. His method of illustrating personality as well as fashion has influenced many contemporary illustrators such as Jason Brooks, who draws gorgeous comic-book girls with character. Dagmar had a simple, clear-cut, and direct approach to representing fashion. She worked at Vogue for 20 years, her modest graphic approach distinguishing her from some of her predecessors.

The sixties

In the “swinging sixties,” youth culture was predominant, and being young, carefree, and abandoned was the fashionable ideal. The emergence of the teenager in the late fifties meant that fashion acquired a younger, modern look. Illustration poses altered from demure to witty and dynamic. However, the fashion illustrator had become less important than the photographer for magazines, so much so that photographers and models became celebrities in their own right.

Just one illustrator shone like the stars of illustration from previous decades—Antonio Lopez. His versatility meant that he went on to illustrate for the next three decades, but it was in the hedonistic sixties that he truly made his mark. Through his illustrations he portrayed the rebellious attitude of the young generation and reflected fashion as it took center stage in this colorful, visual decade. His wide imagination led him to experiment in every possible style using a wealth of media and techniques. Each season he tried a new illustrative technique, discarding styles as they became popular and were taken up by others. He was, and still is, a great influence on fashion illustrators.

The seventies

In the seventies, photography still dominated fashion editorials and advertising. Antonio Lopez continued to work, however, and was joined by a variety of new illustrators influenced by Pop Art and Psychedelia. In the early part of the decade, illustrations featured dramatic colors and bold patterns. New ideas were developed by illustrators such as Lorenzo Mattotti, Mats Gustafson, and Tony Viramontes, whose striking images began to make their mark in the fashion world.

Kiraz is a self-trained artist who emerged in the fifties. The sexy, sophisticated Les Parisiennes cartoon characters from his books became his trademark, as seen in this cover of 1953, and he still illustrates fashion today.

Jason Brooks works digitally, yet draws from historical influences such as Kiraz to capture his infamous comic-book girls. This is a computer-generated flyer for the London nightclub Pushca.

In the hedonistic sixties, Antonio Lopez’s fashion illustrations showed the rebellious attitudes of the younger generation. His huge imagination meant that he drew in every style possible, using a wealth of media and techniques. In this 1964 artwork we see how the background and furniture play just as an important part as the figure.

An illustration in watercolor by Tony Viramontes for an advertising campaign for Valentino couture.

By the latter part of the seventies a highly finished realism emerged in illustration. This is evident in the work of David Remfrey, whose pen-and-ink drawings colored with a faint watercolor wash show realistically rendered women. The artist’s straightforward technique captures the sexy, bold women of the era. Remfrey most recently illustrated the successful Stella McCartney advertising campaign with nostalgic, seventies-inspired drawings.

The eighties

The eighties saw the emergence of a style so distinctive it seemed impossible that fashion illustration would not return with a vengeance. The large shoulders and harsh angles of the fashionably dressed were crying out to be drawn by the great illustrators of the decade. Makeup was expressive, and poses were theatrical—a perfect excuse for fashion illustration to creep back into magazines. Antonio Lopez once again answered his calling to epitomize the men and women of the time. He did so alongside illustrators such as Zoltan, Gladys Perint Palmer, and Fernando Botero who were all producing innovative and experimental work.

Zoltan was one of the first illustrators to produce a series of fashion images ranging from three-dimensional photo-drawing montages to collage with found objects. He used fabrics, flowers, gemstones, and inorganic or organic materials to recreate fashion in the same way that illustrators had previously become more liberal in their choice of artistic materials. Palmer illustrated for magazines and various advertising campaigns for Vivienne Westwood, Oscar de la Renta, Missoni, and Estée Lauder. A well-known artist in the eighties, when asked to capture the French fashion collections Fernando Botero did not alter his artistic style. The result was a series of fashion illustrations featuring large, rounded, voluptuous women. He confronted the view that “fat” can never be “beautiful” by illustrating high fashion with delightful results.

Zoltan became famous for his three-dimensional photo-drawing montages and collages of found objects. He represented fashion with a creative choice of artistic materials.

The nineties

By the end of the twentieth century fashion illustration was no longer considered the poor relation of photography but instead a credible rival to it. Illustrators such as Jason Brooks, François Berthold, Graham Rounthwaite, Jean-Philippe Delhomme, and Mats Gustafson spearheaded illustration’s comeback.

Berthold created a series of fashion illustrations that challenged previous styles. He presented cropped illustrations so that the head, shoulders, calves and feet were missing. The viewer’s full attention was thus given to the garments illustrated.

Computer-generated images and digital technology in the nineties signified boom-time for illustration. There were illustrators who created small subcultures with intense fashionable followings: Brooks produced his computer-generated flyers for the nightclub Pushca, and Rounthwaite created a set of New York street kids generated on a Mac. His ads for Levi’s were projected onto huge billboards on the side of buildings—a true sign that illustration was back in town. Moreover, illustrations of the emerging, couture-clad supermodels by the likes of David Downton were splashed across every newspaper and magazine.

The digital age could not be more clearly outlined than by the work of Jason Brooks. His Pushca flyers became collectables, and his illustrative style is instantly recognizable even when you only see legs and feet!

Graham Rounthwaite’s street kids show how, by the late nineties, fashion illustration began to depict real people rather than focusing solely on the perfection of fashion models.

“Hackysack with Comme Des Garçons” A digital fashion illustration created by Marcos Chin featuring clothing inspired by Comme Des Garçons.

Contemporary fashion illustration showcase

The turn of this century has brought about a new world that reflects on the old. Traumatic terrorist events and natural disasters have encouraged society to crave the comfort and safety of the past. There is an increasing desire to look back to old-fashioned values and explore bygone days.

Advances in technology will always improve and develop the artistic performance of fashion illustrators, but the return to safe traditional methods has brought about a new way to work. Today’s illustrators use established handcrafted techniques such as drawing, embroidery, or collage, and mix them with their digital counterparts to create a modern medium.

The next section provides an in-depth look at a selection of contemporary fashion illustrators from the twenty-first century. It focuses on their varied use of media and examines the way they clothe the body in art. Through a series of questions and answers, the illustrators explain what inspires them, how they create their work, and what it means to them to be a fashion illustrator.

Vincent Bakkum

www.saintjustine.com / [email protected] / www.pekkafinland.fi / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

A painting according to the old school, done with the hasty speed of nowadays. Not because of a hurry, but because that’s the way I like it. A drawing in paint maybe?

Which media and techniques do you use?

Acrylic on canvas.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

I find all fabrics hard to illustrate. Please give me skin, lots of skin, and shadows!

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

Pictures, paints, and brushes.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

I have been “stealing” and “robbing” until I developed this particular style of my own.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

My first illustration jobs were book covers and children’s book illustrations.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

I have a couple of agents. Through agents clients find out you exist. Clients also believe they choose from the “créme de la créme” by using agents, which in some senses is true.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

Through agents, published illustrating jobs, my website, exhibitions, and by word of mouth.

How does your website benefit your career?

It helps to give people an impression of what I do. It’s essential, especially for my mother to see what I have been up to.

Is being a fashion illustrator a good job?

Excuse the cliché but it is a terrific job if you’re passionate.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

Most I enjoy the trust I have been given by the client. It’s extremely pleasant to be able to realize someone’s dream with your own.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

I exhibit in the occasional one-man show. I enjoy painting murals.

What is your greatest achievement?

My greatest achievement is not a job for a magazine or a fashion designer, but I’m extremely proud of certain paintings I did. “Altina” for example is one of them.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

“Rob and steal” until you get tired of it; then you have found yourself. If you don’t get tired, change your profession.

Stina Persson

www.stinapersson.com / www.cwc-i.com / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

Lush watercolors. Edgy ink drawings. Beautiful women. Taken together, this gives my illustrations a kind of “fashion feel.” In reality, I rarely do work for fashion clients. Instead, my work tends to end up with any and all clients who want that fashion feeling, like airline companies to pharmaceutical clients. I think this is quite common as fashion illustration is gaining in interest. More people want it, even if they don’t create clothes.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Watercolor, ink, paper, gouache, and Photoshop.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

I want my work to look spontaneous and maintain a sketchy quality. I do a lot of drawings quickly, maybe 20 until I get it right. So the actual time for an illustration maybe isn’t so long, but to get there takes a while. Then there’s the scanning and computer work which can take forever. That’s why it’s worth getting it right on paper. Making five extra drawings to get the original right is much faster, and better, than trying to digitally fix something bad afterwards.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

I find fabrics with tiny, floral patterns really tricky to render in fluid watercolors when maintaining a loose and fresh feel.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

Ink I think. Which is funny as I mostly use watercolor. But if I had to choose only one technique, I think I would choose ink. Regular, black India ink. And a stick.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

I’d love to work for Vogue Italia. If it came to prints for fabric, I would love to work with Prada, Eley Kishimoto, or Marimekko.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

I have and it’s the wisest and best career move I have made. I get to focus on the work rather than payments, agreements, invoices, and contracts. My agents have also become good friends and colleagues, something that is very precious as a freelancer.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

I do try to keep my website updated, and my agent does promotional mailings. And work seems to generate work.

How does your website benefit your career?

I think it is a great complement to the portfolio. Often even more important as the website creates that important “first impression.”

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

I like the freedom and the variety. And that I get to be creative for a living. And I get to use my brain solving problems daily.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

I work in most illustration fields from museums to perfumes. I would love to make children’s books as I have three sons under the age of six.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Try to constantly get better, and try to stay away from the computer as much as possible. It’s the biggest time thief.

Paula Sanz Caballero

www.paulasanzcaballero.com / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

I think it is quite narrative and based specifically on irony.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Hand-stitched embroidery and collage mainly.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

A hand-stitched one could take from two weeks to two months. A collage may last a week.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

A pencil and fabrics.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

There are so many... Jil Sander, Chanel, Vogue Italia...

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I always knew I was an artist and never dreamed of being anything else.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

I studied Fine Arts in Spain, plus a masters degree in graphic design, also in Spain.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

The main promotion is the published work itself. Then, of course, a website where they can contact me. Books, interviews, etc.

How does your website benefit your career?

As much as I hate the risk of people getting my images in blogs, I assume it’s a necessary tool to be in the commercial art market.

Is being a fashion illustrator a good job?

It is a vocation job, in my opinion, so I love it.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

To work in what I really enjoy.

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

Dealing with clients who try to change the illustrations for absurd reasons, both during the process and after the work is finished, in Photoshop. The lack of respect for our profession from some clients, the lack of confidence in our criteria, taste and ability to interpret what they need.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

Yes, I work as an artist, showing my work in art galleries.

What is your greatest achievement?

Perhaps to rethink the application of materials and techniques traditionally related with “women at home” into a fashion language.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

To learn more about human anatomy, drawing, and human expression, and not to focus so much on fashion.

Tom Bagshaw

www.mostlywanted.com / [email protected] / www.centralillustration.com

Describe your fashion illustration style.

Figurative, painterly, digital.

Which media and techniques do you use?

I predominantly use Photoshop, Painter, ArtRage, and Illustrator but also use some 3D software if I need it in the work. Sometimes analog tools make their way in but this is becoming quite rare for me now.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

My portfolio is based around a few different styles, each taking a slightly different approach, so the timescale can vary quite a bit. Some can be turned around in a day, others can take a couple of weeks to complete.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

Each fabric I try throws up challenges —I love them all. Lace can be a pain to get looking right but usually ends up being quite rewarding when you see the finished result. It’s just the time it can take to do that can drive you mad!

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

Photoshop without a doubt, it’s the core of all my working process.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

I am self-taught with pretty much everything but I do have some graphic design college under the hood.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

An album cover. It sounds totally cliché but was a pretty big deal at the time.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

I do indeed, CIA. They are great and are able to attract clients that might otherwise never come across my work.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

My agent and my website are the main tools for my promotion but blogs, mail-outs, and other marketing are handy for additional marketing.

How does your website benefit your career?

I tend to get a lot of my work via my online portfolio. I can’t stress how important a webfolio is these days, even if you sign up with illustration sites that give you a portfolio space, a dedicated webfolio is a must.

What is your greatest achievement?

Apart from my daughter?—seeing my work in print on the newsstands is a fantastic feeling.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Learn to adapt when the need arises but don’t let your portfolio get all over the place. It’s a tricky thing to juggle but clients and especially agents like to be able to pigeonhole you, even if only a little bit, which can help when a client is searching for a “look.” Conversely if your style doesn’t change with the times, you can end up losing out on work.

Masaki Ryo

www.masakiryo.com / www.cwc-i.com / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

I strive for a style that is not so complex in its organization, but very expressive and daring without sacrificing a delicate feel. I incorporate these elements into my paintings of feminine, attractive women and fashion accessories.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

Mainly through my agents’ websites and my personal website. The agents handle promotional mailings for my own artwork, and have included my work in promotional calendars with other artists that they represent.

Which media and techniques do you use?

I use a painting knife with acrylic paints, and then process the image with Photoshop.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

On average, it takes about one week for the rough sketch and one week to finalize the artwork after that, so a total of two weeks. The duration varies according to the project.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

For me, that would be my painting knife. It’s an extension of who I am as an artist.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

That’s a tough question. I guess I’d have to say Dolce & Gabanna, because their designs are always interesting.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I had the vague notion that I’d lead a painter’s life.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

I focused on graphic design in the art university that I attended.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

Well, since I studied graphic design, it didn’t really provide preparation for illustration. However, it was very helpful for me in terms of gaining knowledge and practice for composition, balance, color schemes.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

Yes, by having an agent, I can receive jobs from clients that I wouldn’t otherwise have received by myself. (I’m referring to my agents outside of Japan.) Also, my agents can take care of the areas that I am not so good at, such as negotiating fees.

How does your website benefit your career?

Yes, I have a website. I believe it expands my opportunities to receive more jobs.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

Yes. I don’t just work for fashion illustrations, but also other different kinds of illustrations. I also enjoyed working in design and wouldn’t mind doing that more often.

What is your greatest achievement?

At present, products featuring my artwork are sold in America, Europe, and Japan. I’m hoping for even bigger accomplishments in the future.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Keep doing what you love. Eventually, it will serve you well.

Marcos Chin

www.marcoschin.com / [email protected]

Which media and techniques do you use?

I use a mix of digital with hand-rendered techniques.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

It really depends on how large or complicated the image is. When I begin a new drawing, I like to spend a couple of days brainstorming, coming up with some thumbnail sketches in the attempt to come up with an idea and image that solves the (client’s) problem. Once I get a sketch approved by the client, it takes another two days to evolve that into a final illustration.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

A pencil.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

I studied illustration at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, Canada.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

I don’t think school can fully prepare a student entirely for the professional world that lies beyond; however it did provide me with a strong foundation in the basic skills of drawing and painting, as well as new ways of observing the world and how to (re)present it as a picture. Being in a school that focused only on fine art and design, encouraged me to learn from, and to become inspired by, the creativity of other students around me, which ultimately helped my work to evolve and improve.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

Yes, actually I have a couple: one who represents me in America, and another in Europe. In terms of benefits, it’s difficult to say as I have only recently begun to work with the both of them. I think there’s a misconception that agents can magically make work appear for an illustrator; in order for this to occur there needs to be some sort of demand for the illustrator’s work before an agent can sell it to a client. Having said that, a good agent helps to bring and champion his/her artists’ work to clients within parts of the industry, such as advertising, which are often difficult for illustrators to access.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

Nowadays it is extremely important to have a website—I would say that if an illustrator does not have a website, then s/he does not exist. A website has truly taken precedence over the (physical) portfolio. Although I still receive calls from clients to send my portfolio, for the most part, clients from all over the world have access to my work via the internet. I also send out promotions (i.e. postcards) through the mail to clients in order to grow new/more business. The work that I do begets more work via exposure, especially within the editorial market. I enter illustration competitions annually, such as The Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, 3x3 Magazine, and Communication Arts, and hope that if some pieces are accepted into the competitions that it will in turn, gain me more exposure.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Work hard. I know that doesn’t sound very inspirational, but it’s true. I think it’s easy to believe that just because a person is talented talent alone will springboard them into success. Being a fashion illustrator means that you are your own business and so have to be aware not only of your talent, but of how to market it to clients. There will be moments when work slows down, or the phone stops ringing, but during these “down days” it’s important to continue to work on personal projects so that your skills and talent will be kept up and your portfolio expanded. Being a (fashion) illustrator is about working even when you are not inspired because in the end you are in a business pact with a client to deliver them your product (i.e. illustration) on time.

Ed Carosia

www.ed-press.blogspot.com / www.ed-book.blogspot.com / [email protected] / [email protected] / www.agent002.com / www.bravofactory.com

Describe your fashion illustration style.

I think I could divide my fashion styles in two: the more formal and classic one with current reminiscences and another “pop” with reminiscences of the comic.

Which media and techniques do you use?

First of all I use a pencil, then I scan or photograph and start the whole creative process in Photoshop, where I incorporate different textures and colors.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

I usually do the illustrations very quickly. I think the time an illustration takes is largely the time taken by the client. Sometimes both the concept and the drawing are approved almost immediately by the client, but often this process takes more time and in the end it takes you more time than you expected at the beginning.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

I don’t think any fabric could be really hard to illustrate.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

I can’t live without the “Undo” tool!

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to draw and make music!

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

My first work was designing and creating games for children, then I worked on cartoons, comic strips, illustrations for newspapers, and lately I began to work in fashion illustration.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

I have two agents (one in France, and one in Spain) and I only have good experiences with them. I’ve learned so much from the work that we’ve done together.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

Through my website and my blog, and by recommendation.

How does your website benefit your career?

Actually I don’t have my website updated, but it takes less time for me to manage with my blogs, and it turned out to be more practical for me too.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

Yes I do illustrations for newspapers and magazines, cover-books, and comics too.

Vince Fraser

www.vincefraser.com / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style. I’m inspired by seductive female forms and love creating fantasy worlds and abstract characters in surreal settings.

Which media and techniques do you use?

I tend to do everything digitally, using Photoshop as my main tool. I use Illustrator for vectors and 3D Studio Max for creating abstract 3D shapes. If I need to hand draw anything, I use a Wacom Intuos 3 A5 widescreen graphics tablet, great if you work on dual widescreen displays because it has the 16:10 ratio format. I occasionally use my Epson scanner and a Canon EOS 400D SLR digital camera with various lenses ranging from EF 50mm to EF70-200mm.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

It can depend on many factors, such as the complexity. Tweaks or final adjustments can be time-consuming. I would say an average illustration can take 1-2 days to complete but I have been known to spend a week or so.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

Armani or Prada because they are household names and known worldwide for their excellent brands.

How do you promote yourself?

Through my website, illustration forums, design blogs, my agent, word of mouth, postcard mail-outs.

How does having an agent benefit you?

Agents are great when pitching for the bigger jobs like advertising campaigns, which you just couldn’t pitch for as a freelancer. Advertising agencies take you more seriously when you have an agent and prefer to work through them for big jobs.

How does your website benefit your career?

It’s vital for a fashion illustrator to have a personal website because it enables you to showcase your skills to a wider audience and potential clients. The most popular artists are constantly producing new material and have sketch blogs in addition to the main gallery on their sites.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

Having extra time to do things I enjoy and spending more time with my family and friends.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Always push the boundaries, be original, be unique, stay focused, and do what you do best. Try not to follow trends and watch what everyone else is doing. Stick to developing your own style. Figure out what your strengths are and what adjectives people use to describe the way you draw. You may not want to categorize yourself, but to a certain extent you will need to if you want to focus yourself and find the places that will actually hire you. If you do put in the hard work, you will eventually get recognized.

Alma Larrocca

www.almalarroca.com / www.almalarroca.blogspot.com / [email protected]

Which media and techniques do you use?

Collage, mixed media.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

It depends on each work, anything from one hour to many days!

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

I don’t think any fabric is really hard to illustrate.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

My scissors.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A dancer.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

Graphic design at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and some painting workshops.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

Very well... but I think that the best learning is to work every day enjoying what you do, and to continue researching new things.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

For a magazine, a series of portraits of famous people.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

To live doing something that I enjoy.

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

I don’t like it when the client asks for too many changes.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

Yes, I do illustrations for magazines, newspapers, and book covers.

What is your greatest achievement?

I think I’m still waiting for it...

Sara Singh

www.sarasingh.com / [email protected] / [email protected] / www.art-dept.com

Describe your fashion illustration style.

Happy accidents. My style is more about lines than volume. I like to get the anatomy right.

Which media and techniques do you use?

I use pen and ink and paint with ink washes and Photoshop.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

I do many many drawings of the same subject until I get it right. But each drawing takes only minutes. The scanning and post-production take more time.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

I find rendering fabrics a fun challenge. I like to try different ways and not go for the most obvious solution. I suppose paillettes and tweed can be hard. Knitwear.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

Parker ink and some nice nibs.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a painter. I remember being five years old and standing for the first time in front of a real (child-size) easel in school. I had a large paintbrush and it just felt completely right and I thought that I’d like to do that when I grow up.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

Rough pencil sketches for an advertising agency. After graduating I did a lot of presentation sketches and storyboards for advertising agencies. I learned to draw everything from VW Beetles to yogurt containers. And this was all before I had a computer. I even wrote my invoices by hand in pen and ink.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

I’m represented by Art Department in the US; by Serlin Associates in London and Paris; and by Agent Bauer in Scandinavia. It’s important to have a good agent. Promotion and dealing with prices are a large part of the job. I’m not good at dealing with these things, so I’d be quite lost without an agent.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

Through my agent, editorial work for magazines, or my website.

How does your website benefit your career?

I find that a lot of people look at the website. I just need to update it more frequently.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

I really like drawing clothes and bodies and movement.

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

People, especially in advertising, think of illustration in the same way they do photography. For me they are two very different media.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Respect your own creative process. As one evolves one doesn’t necessarily evolve in a steady upward curve. Keep some old drawings and have a look at them every so often (perhaps on a bad day) to see your own evolution.

Jeff Nishinaka

www.jeffnishinaka.com / [email protected]

Describe your illustration style.

Paper sculpture.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Paper, cut, layered, and glued.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

Two weeks on average.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

Prada, I dig Prada!

What artistic training have you undertaken?

BFA in illustration from the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, US.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

Art Center pretty much took care of everything for the real world.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

A double-page spread in the Daily Variety magazine for 20th-century Fox.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

Yes, several. They have direct access to clients who look to and depend on them for illustrators.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

Besides my reps, I have my websites, advertise in illustration books, have gallery exhibitions. Of course there’s always more I can do.

How does your website benefit your career?

I have two, but one is more current that the other. The benefit is they reach the world.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

Absolutely! I’ve done book covers, editorial, ads, billboards, TV commercials, public art, and gallery exhibitions in the US, Japan, and China.

What is your greatest achievement?

A paper sculpture installation in the ANA Hotel Tokyo, Japan. The paper sculpture was a tree with birds, grass, flowers, fish and a frog. It measured approximately 6.5 metres square. It was big!

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Be unique, different, like none other!

Silja Goetz

www.siljagoetz.com / [email protected] / www.art-dept.com / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

Elegant, harmonious, witty.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Manual techniques and Photoshop.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

That depends completely on the style and the client.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

Fabrics with folds and a pattern are a lot of work.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

None. There’s always an alternative technique.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Stable hand at a stud farm or illustrator.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

I already had done some work for a children’s magazine during my studies. Afterwards I wanted to get into fashion magazines etc., so I showed my book to several editorials in Germany. My first assignments came subsequently from Elle and Cosmopolitan.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

I am with Art Department. They help me to get new clients and take care of the invoicing, which is a good thing with clients outside of Europe.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

The personal website is crucial, it’s something that anyone will look at before contacting me. I am also featured in a lot of books and blogs on illustration. Over the years I’ve gotten to know a lot clients from Germany and Spain personally at go-sees with my portfolio, and of course there’s the agency. There’s also a snowball effect: people see my published work and find out about me. The important thing is to leave a good impression whenever possible, to be easy to work with, and only to show really good and recent work to possible clients.

Is being a fashion illustrator a good job?

Although it has it’s difficulties, it’s the best job. Definitely better than stable hand. Mind you, I do not specialize in fashion only, I don’t think I could make a living out of that exclusively, and it would also get boring.

What do you like most about being an illustrator?

Being my own boss.

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

Revisions.

What is your greatest achievement?

To get published in The New Yorker.

Kate Gibb

www.kategibb.blogspot.com / [email protected] / www.bigactive.com

Describe your fashion illustration style.

I work as an illustrator, not purely for fashion. In fact fashion dictates only a minority of my jobs. Having said that, I reflect on them as some of my favorite pieces of work. To describe my style I would say it has a strong graphic feel, probably because of the nature of silkscreen. My use of color seems to dominate most prints and often is the strength behind the drawing.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Everything I create is silkscreened, often worked into by hand with brush and ink, paint, pencils.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

That’s a tough question, there are so many designers I love. To have worked for Dries Van Noten was amazing and I would work for them at any time. Other labels would include Vivienne Westwood, Eley Kishimoto, Cacharel, Stella McCartney, to name but a few.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

Quite a lot really, although I don’t think it’s a necessary route to creativity. I’ve completed a degree in textiles and an MA in illustration.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

Not as well as taking a leap of faith and renting some studio space, even though work was thin on the ground. College allowed me time to explore different artistic disciplines and materials but I feel it can often lull you into a false sense of security. Having a studio threw me in to being part of a creative, working environment. It’s amazing how external pressures (such as paying two rents!) can motivate you and often leads you to produce your best work.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

I actually got my first commission while at college, although this was during my MA which was part time so you needed to work to support yourself. I had produced a simple mail-out of pieces of college work and sent them to a few favorite design groups. From this I was commissioned to work on a series of record sleeves for a band called Mono. On reflection I couldn’t quite believe it.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

Yes, check www.bigactive.com. It benefits me in a big way. Knowing that they are actively looking for and showing people my work while I am at the studio printing away is crucial to making a living.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

Most recently it is from starting my blog. With my agent we do regular postcards/mail-outs, globally. They also travel around with all of our portfolios, keep an updated website, and also have their own blog. The internet still blows my mind, it makes your work so accessible.

Do you have a website? How does this benefit your career?

Only through my agent. They have spent a lot of time designing it both artistically and to make it user-friendly. It generates a lot of work for the company. Allowing people from all around the world to access work and portfolios at any time of the day.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

Yes, for the majority of the time. Most of my work revolves around the music industry and publishing.

What is your greatest achievement?

I feel I have had many along the way and for many different reasons. But to be making a living doing something I love, on a daily basis, that for the majority of the time feels like play is probably the best.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Keep taking risks, don’t always aim to please!

Robert Wagt

www.lindgrensmith.com / www.margarethe-illustration.com

Describe your fashion illustration style.

A graphic, colorful style.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Collage, photography, Photoshop.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

It depends on the complexity and the client.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

I don’t have this problem.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

I think any tool could live perfectly well without me.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Painter/artist but before that I wanted to be king and a chimney sweeper.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

Art school.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

I prepared very badly and thus learned the hard way.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

Yes, an intermediate/buffer between me and the client.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

Workbook or Showcase and BlackBook, mailing, the internet.

Do you have a website?

No.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Never follow anything and do what you believe in; it’s in you, whatever you grasp for. You must have love, insight, and a strong point of view.

Victoria Ball

www.illustrationweb.com / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

Eclectic, vintage.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Mixed media, collage, and digital.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

Depending on complexity, at least a day, often longer.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

A scanner, camera, and Photoshop probably.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

Matthew Williamson. I adore his prints, textures, and color palette.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be an artist.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

Foundation studies in art and design at Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education and first-class BA Hons in illustration at Falmouth College of Arts.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

Very well indeed. At Falmouth there was a strong emphasis on professional practice. All the tutors are working illustrators themselves. We all were encouraged to develop our own individual style, whilst being guided on the fundamental techniques of visual communication. Our own interests were nurtured rather than having a “house style” forced upon us... and we were by the sea, what more could you want?

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

It was to create 50 illustrations for a children’s series called Ripley and Scuff for Children’s ITV I found out I had the commission on the day of my graduation!

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

Yes. Illustration Ltd. They’re great because they do a great deal of promotion for me and they deal with lots of the admin that goes with taking on new jobs etc., which gives me more time to illustrate.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

Agent website, my website, word of mouth.

How does your website benefit your career?

It gets my name out there more. It’s just good to have as much of an internet presence as possible.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

Sourcing beautiful pieces of vintage fabric and pattern and making pretty pictures out of them.

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

Really short deadlines!

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

Yes. Alongside editorials for magazines, I create a lot of imagery for greetings cards, wrap, and stationery. Merchandise like aprons, kitchenware, porcelain. Advertising, packaging, book jackets. I also illustrate children’s books.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Work hard and don’t be put off by constructive criticism, it makes your work better. Most of all, enjoy yourself.

Annika Wester

www.annikawester.com / www.cwc-i.com / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

Delicate line work with quite well-shaped silhouettes and much focus on details. Feminine, big eyed-girls.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Ink pens and gouache mainly.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

Organza and tulle.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

Ink pens.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

Fine art studies, such as painting and print.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

It was a cover for Budapest Week, a Hungarian-based weekly paper in English.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

I am represented by CWC and CWC-i and through them I got to work with clients and with projects that I have always wanted to do. These agents are very good at seeing where I fit in for what I draw.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

My agents in New York and Tokyo are well known. From time to time I do send out my own promo cards and e-mail my work to clients in Europe.

Do you have a website? How does this benefit your career?

Yes, and it has been working out very well. I get good responses for my website, which only contains my illustrations and texts. No one else’s designs are there and it looks quite personal.

Is being a fashion illustrator a good job?

If one is devoted, yes. If not, it is not a good idea I guess.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

That I can interpret what I see my way.

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

Perhaps being too niched in many people’s eyes. There are a lot of other things I can draw too, such as food, buildings, landscapes.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

I have done more and more jobs for children and teenagers the past years, especially books. I also do handwriting quite well.

What is your greatest achievement?

Early on in my career I went to New York from Sweden to look for jobs and got some great ones as a result of daring to show my work around, traveling far away.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

The more you work, the better you get.

Max Gregor

[email protected] / www.illustrationweb.com

Describe your fashion illustration style.

I’ve always been a huge fan of comics and superheroes and that has influenced my work hugely along with photo realism and 50’s pin-up art, so I would say my style is idyllic graphic realism.

Which media and techniques do you use?

My work is hand-drawn and then colored on the computer using Photoshop and a program called Corel Painter.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

Shiny fabrics tend to take the longest: PVC, lycra, that kind of thing.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

My camera. A lot of my drawings start off with at least some photo reference. This is because there are imperfections in a real person’s face that you just can’t make up. They are too organic and it’s those imperfections that make the subject seem alive I think rather than just looking like a drawing of a mannequin.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

Well, my friend (George Glassby) is about to finish his first collection and I am doing the promo drawings. It’s important I think, to have a personal element to your work when you do, it tends to be the more successful and create a greater response when you have some kind of emotional investment in the project, like a friendship.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A strong man pulling trucks with my teeth, or an orc.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

I am self-taught. I learnt a lot of the techniques I use from how-to-draw comics books, and my father who is a painter and mother who is a designer taught me a lot.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

It kept me open to reading about all these different schools of thought on how to construct an image and helped me create my own way of thinking.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

Yes and it’s great! You get these nice people who ring you up from time to time and say “So and so wants to give you money, if you would like to do a drawing for them.” Easily one of the best things to ever happen to me was getting an agent.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

Through my agent but I also get a lot of work on more specialist stuff like painting murals and drawing comics through friends I have built up over the years.

Do you have a website? How does this benefit your career?

No, not yet. I am working with a friend to create something for me that is like a piece of work in itself rather than another picture gallery and shop.

Is being a fashion illustrator a good job?

That depends if you like drawing or not and if you are prepared to be on your own in your studio for days on end.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

It’s a hell of a buzz when you see a magazine on a friend’s coffee table and it’s got one of your drawings in it.

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

It’s not a social job at all, you have to get used to your own company.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

There is always someone who is harder working, better looking, funnier, and better dressed than you, who can also draw.

Cecilia Carlstedt

www.ceciliacarlstedt.com / [email protected] / www.art-dept.com

Describe your fashion illustration style.

Eclectic, with a love for contrasts.

Which media and techniques do you use?

It’s a mix of traditional media like pencil and ink and modern techniques including Illustrator, Photoshop, and photography.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

My pencil.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

Someone who really experiments and stretches the borders between fashion and art would interest me... someone like Victor & Rolf or Hussein Chalayan.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

I began my formal studies in Art and Design at Södra Latins Gymnasium. After A-levels I studied art history for a year at Stockholm University. In 1998 I was accepted into the graphic design foundation course at London College of Printing. This led to a BA in the same subject specializing within experimental image-making. The course also offered a five-month exchange program at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

I think it was great to have a few years to really have the opportunity to experiment and explore illustration. It gave a good base and an overall knowledge of the field. What was hard and could have been better prepared for is how the industry works, how to promote yourself when you first start, and how to work to very tight deadlines!

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

It’s always been illustration.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

My first commission was for Swedish Elle and was a fashion illustration for the upcoming trends.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

I have a few agents that represent me in different countries. They benefit me in many ways by promotion and getting my work out there, getting new commissions and negotiating fees, making sure contracts are kept, etc. Basically everything that I’m not so good at doing or don’t have the time to handle myself.

Do you have a website? How does this benefit your career?

Yes, I think it’s a must these days. It’s the simplest and most efficient way of broadcasting your work.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

I do all types of illustrations and aim to move more towards art.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Create a strong personal style, keep up to date with what’s going on in the field to stay contemporary. Get a website, be part of networking sites, make a business card, produce a portfolio, and contact everyone you would like to work for. Agents, magazines, advertising agencies, there’s no way round it. At first you have to show your work as much as possible and even if you don’t always get a response it doesn’t mean that the people you’ve contacted haven’t looked at your work and kept you in mind for future projects!

Tina Berning

www.tinaberning.de / www.cwc-i.com / [email protected]

Which media and techniques do you use?

Everything suitable.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

Sometimes it takes five minutes, sometimes it takes days. It depends on mood and ideas.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

I studied design, focusing on illustration, and I kept drawing and drawing and drawing.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

I was still at college and did drawings for bakery paper bags of happy people with pretzels and baguettes in their hands in front of timber-frame houses. They still sell pretzels in these bags in Bavaria where I studied.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

I have agents in the US, Asia, Germany, Benelux, and Britain. Agents approach bigger markets than you can sitting in your studio. If an agent takes your work seriously and you take your agent’s work seriously, the agent will be a big benefit.

Do you have a website? How does this benefit your career?

A website is essential and it should be maintained very well, which I do not always manage due to lack of time. Your website is where you show what you can offer to a client. You should not only show what you have done but also what you would like to do. To keep your career running for a long time you need to invest a lot of time in experiments and new ideas. Your art is a matter of development every day. If you start repeating yourself, you get stuck. The website, as a display of your work is the perfect place to show your newest ideas that do not neccesarily have something to do with a job.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

Automatically being informed about the latest fashion. Drawing is understanding: when you draw, you see through the surface. For fashion, that means you don’t see brands anymore but an evolution or morphing of volume and shape, lines, patterns, and silhouettes season by season.

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

Having to think about the superficiality of it every day.

What is your greatest achievement?

As a fashion illustrator: a publication in Vogue Italia. As an artist in general, every job I am able to do without any compromises to my art.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

You will always be best at what you love to do most, and do not steal; it won’t help you.

Amelie Hegardt

www.ameliehegardt.com / [email protected] / www.trafficnyc.com / www.darlingmanagement.com

Describe your fashion illustration style.

I would describe it as rather sensitive and sometimes autobiographical. Over the years I have come across people’s comments (the ones that I prefer to remember) that use words such as sensual, timeless, and suggestive. I find them all incredibly flattering.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Pastel, ink, water, and graphite on paper.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

Sometimes it takes weeks, others take a day or seconds.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

Eraser and levels in Photoshop.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

Alexander McQueen is an incredible craftsman that I admire for mixing beauty with the ugly and scary. I love the dark and mysterious aspects of his work and would love to work with those.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I think I was very unaware of what I wanted to do. But in a way that was itself a great awareness to have. Looking back it seems like I had it all planned but that is of course not true.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

Stockholm Art School, Art History at the University of Stockholm, Saint Martins, London.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

I would say that life itself took care of my education. My first foundation year was the most revealing period in my life. I had a lot to learn technically but somehow I felt that I had something to contribute. It was this feeling more than the actual education which spurred me on.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

I remember that I did a job for Vogue Gioiello, Italy, during my studies. It is safe to say that I would have done a better job today. When I came to New York I was selected as one of nine other artists to do six pages each for BlackBook Magazine. I signed with my first agent a few weeks after that.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

My agents promote me but clients also find me through published work.

Do you have a website? How does this benefit your career?

It has yet to be completed. I’ve managed without one but I suppose it is a good idea to get one.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

Late mornings. My studio. The fact that it is a very traditional profession. I find the handcraft in itself very beautiful and poetic. Above all it allows me to be me. Most of the time.

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

The situations which I think we are all exposed to when you cannot deliver and there is a deadline.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Listen to yourself. Never stop daydreaming.

:puntoos

www.trafficnyc.com / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

Our illustrations are contemporary scenes in which silhouettes are drawn over colorful backgrounds, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity. We do photography-based, vector illustration; it allows us to make changes and improve our illustration at any time.

Which media and techniques do you use?

We use Illustrator, running on iMac 24”, with a Wacom tablet and a Nikon D90. First, we look for related information in magazines, internet, personal photos. The information phase is the most important for us. Then we select pictures (personal photographs, magazines, books), shoot our photos, and start drawing over them in Illustrator. We love working on a big screen. When you’re working long hours in front of a computer, the more comfortable

you are, the better, and the sooner and the smoother your work flows.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

The difficult point for us is not in the fabrics. We do create flat color pictures, and it’s not usual for us working with shading, gradations, and realistic textures. Anyway, we would like to think that we are quite professional to adjust our style to what the client is looking for.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

We both studied Fine Arts at Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain), and met each other doing a photography BA (Hons) at Southampton Solent University, UK.

How do you promote yourself?

It depends. Our agent in the US does a great job and finds new clients for us. Depending on the job, we’ve

been insistent when we wanted to work for a magazine, and get in contact with them again and again. But most of the time, people call us and we don’t do so many commercial jobs.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

Yes, we make graphic design as well, and collaborations with interior architecture. We also create our own illustrations for a fine art printing and textile company, and we receive royalties from their sales. Illustration can be applied in so many supports: fabrics, paper, vinyl, mobiles...

Is being a fashion illustrator a good job?

It is, of course. It has good and bad moments, as every job, but we do enjoy it. You must be disciplined when you work on your own, it can be hard to organize your time. But anyway, it’s a way of life. We can listen to music we love during work hours, and have no dress code —isn’t it fabulous?

What is your greatest achievement?

We like to think that the best is yet to come. But working on this is a cool, great achievement by itself. The feeling of creating new things keeps us alive. Every day is a new beginning.

Louise Gardiner

www.lougardiner.co.uk / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

Quirky, fun, more about people and what they wear than fashion.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Drawing, painting, and embroidery with a sewing machine.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

A pen.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A farmer or an actress.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

A foundation, a degree, and a masters in textiles and illustration.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

I learnt to draw and get drunk.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

It was years later for the Guardian newspaper when I had almost given up on illustration.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

I do have an agent but generally I represent myself because I love dealing with people. I only like giving away big commission chunks to galleries and agents who shout your name from the rooftops. These are rare—especially when you specialize in embroidery!

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

I do talks, teaching, and exhibitions all over the country and abroad. Now it is mainly word of mouth. I design and sell cards with a mini artist’s statement on the back. I say yes to opportunity as much as I can and I work a lot.

Do you have a website? How does this benefit your career?

Yes—it makes life easier and people can look at what you do without you having to lift a finger. The only problem is it needs updating so often so get a website you can update yourself.

Is being a fashion illustrator a good job?

It can be absolutely brilliant and sometimes it can be utterly frustrating and stressful. Big ups and big downs. Not an easy ride.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

I am my own boss and I don’t have to answer to anyone (except my mother).

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

Doing my own accounts and paying tax in big lumps.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

Yes—my main area of work is private commission and I exhibit regularly. I also do commissions for hospitals and book illustration. I like variety.

What is your greatest achievement?

To now be able to politely say “no” to the jobs I don’t want to do or don’t pay enough. Or “yes” to the jobs that don’t pay enough but I want to do. To have realized that you must always be honest and work with integrity.

Montana Forbes

www.montanaforbes.com / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

Strong lines, vivid colors, and abstracted concepts.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Pen and pencil sketches transferred into Photoshop.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

Pencils.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

An artist or a modern ballet dancer.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

About 1-3 days, depending on the detailing.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

Brocade, check, and intricate lace.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

It was to produce hair and beauty illustrations for a hair salon in central London.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

I’m currently obsessed with Chloé as I’m inspired by the brand’s creative spirit. It has vintage craftsmanship influences with modern and inventive designs.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

Yes and they liaise with clients on job details and promote my work to a wider audience.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

I get a lot of clients through my agency and I have art prints for sale at a London-based gallery (Eyestorm, www.eyestorm.com), as well as an upcoming personal website.

Do you have a website? How does this benefit your career?

I’m developing a personal website (www.montanaforbes.com), where I’ll feature my illustrations and fine art along with current interests.

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

Working in an isolated environment with minimal socializing.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

Yes, I’m also a fine artist.

Edwina White

www.edwinawhite.com / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

Hand-generated, narrative, character-driven, injected with humor.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Pencil, ink, paint, tea, collage, old papers.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

A sharp pencil.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

House of Prada.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A parachutist or a cartoonist.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

Design school classes and consistent practice.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

Yes. It allows me to live in New York, clients from around the world can find me, and she talks business and handles contracts.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist? How do you promote yourself?

My agent’s website, my own fine art projects, and word of mouth.

Do you have a website? How does this benefit your career?

Am building it now! It will make me a grown-up.

Is being a fashion illustrator a good job?

Sure, I make all sorts of images. It’s very satisfying if I can inject some flavor and character. Then it’s compelling and great fun.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art and design?

Absolutely. I am a fine artist, animator, product designer, and editorial illustrator.

What is your greatest achievement?

Making a living, while loving what I do.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Be yourself, develop your own signature after a good deal of experimentation and adapting to the work.

Wendy Plovmand

www.wendyplovmand.com / [email protected] / www.centralillustration.com / [email protected] / www.trafficnyc.com / [email protected]

Which media and techniques do you use?

My technique is multi-layered with a mix of hand-drawn images and textures and digital drawings in Photoshop. I love to develop my style continuously and experiment a lot! Sometimes I even use details from my acrylic paintings in an illustration.

How long does it take you to complete an illustration?

Hmm, it depends on size, theme, restrictions, level of details, etc. But in general between eight hours to a week!

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

I don’t do much fabrics—I focus more on the pattern.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

Aquarelle and my computer!

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

I’m a huge fan of Balenciaga, Chloé, Anna Sui, and Marc Jacobs, so any of these would be wonderful to work with. I like their personal style, the patterns they use, and they always impress and surprise with their collections. Their clothes inspire me!

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a fashion designer, I sewed many strange outfits and got my classmates to wear them while videotaping a complete self-generated fashion show! Really absurd results came out of this. Later on when I attended the Danish Design School, Fashion Line, I realized I didn’t like sewing and much preferred telling stories, so I decided to study graphic design instead.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

My first client was actually a huge one; when I was still in art school I did a school project to design the 250-year anniversary poster for the Royal Theater of Denmark and the 550-year anniversary poster for the Royal Chapel of Denmark. I decided to show it to the Royal Theater and Chapel and they hired me to do the job! After establishing my own studio, my first client was a Danish fashion magazine. I still work for them today.

How do clients find out that you and your work exist?

How do you promote yourself? A couple of times a year I send out a news e-mail, like highlights from a couple of months. I only send it to people I know or have at least seen and had a meeting with. My work has been in several really nice publications around the world, from all the big book publishing houses, and also I give interviews to many magazines—I think that’s how people find out about my work today, and of course through my agent as well.

Do you have a website? How does this benefit your career?

Yes I do, it’s like a business card. It’s good if it represents your work in a nice way and if you remember to update it once in a while! All my clients visit it to see my work before they hire me I think, so it’s an important tool to have when you work as an illustrator.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

I love to arrive in my studio, turn on my favorite music very loud, and dive into a new, exciting project.

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

That it’s really difficult to go on holiday and turn off your phone and e-mail because you’ve got to be available at all times.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Be unique, don’t try to figure out what sells, better develop your own style as an illustrator, then one day, the clients will come to you because you are unique!

Yuko Shimizu

www.yukoart.com / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

I think the best way is if the viewer describes it. It is always hard to describe your own work.

Which media and techniques do you use?

I draw by ink with brush on watercolor paper, and the color is done in Adobe Photoshop.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

I am pretty good at drawing any fabric. You may think that is a skill of fashion illustrators, but all illustrators in any field should know how to draw different textures. It just makes the work richer. My favorite is drawing sweaters. I love knitting but I don’t really have time to knit right now.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

Drawing. I can live without Photoshop, or color, but I love drawing. Ink, pencil, you name it. As long as I have a material I can draw with, I am OK.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

There are a lot of designers I really love, but if I were to narrow down, I go for the more artistic type; those who treat fashion almost like fine art or conceptual art. Jean Paul Gaultier, Hussein Chalayan, Thierry Mugler, Azzedine Alaia, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Martin Mengele, to name but a few.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to become an artist!

What artistic training have you undertaken?

An MFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts, New York.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

I also majored in marketing and advertising for my BA, and worked in corporate Japan before moving to New York and going back to school. With both of them together, I think it really made me get ready to be working as an artist as well as a small business.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

I started getting work while I was still in the masters program, so my first job was not after college. But anyway, I got a portrait illustration job for The Village Voice and also a small illustration for The New York Times, both of which got published on the same day.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

For the longest time I didn’t, but I do now. Both in London and in New York. There are certain fields in illustration it is really difficult for an individual illustrator to approach and promote, mainly advertising clients. This is when a reliable agent who has a good sense of business and a good group of artists can really help. If you decide to get an agent, it cannot be just any agent, you have to choose the one you really feel the connection to, as well as them being a good agent.

How do you promote yourself?

Mainly through my website, combined with existing work that’s around, including illustration annuals, magazines, books, etc. Also, of course, my agents do promote their artists a lot. I think the web is the promotional tool of choice for the 21st century.

What is your one tip for a new fashion illustrator?

Absolutely love what you do, and work hard. Life is never easy regardless of what you choose to do, so pick “the one” that makes you happiest. As long as you are happy, you are good!

James Dignan

www.jamesdignan.com / [email protected]

Describe your fashion illustration style.

Hopefully it speaks for itself, but either liney and graphic or painty and graphic. A touch of irony, humor, and lots of length in the limbs.

Which media and techniques do you use?

Painty-acrylic paint or gouache and colored inks. Liney-Rotring pens, my lucky Montblanc Meisterst CK, brushes and ink, and Mr Photoshop.

Which fabrics are hardest to illustrate?

Unattractive ones! Men’s suit fabrics are a bit tricky too.

What fashion illustration tool could you not live without?

My imagination.

If you could illustrate for any fashion client in the world, who would it be and why?

Christian Dior Haute Couture, it always knocks my socks off and makes me happy for the whole season. It’s Fashion writ large and unapologetic.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

An archaeologist.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

I studied fashion design and illustration at Studio Berçot in Paris.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

Well it threw me in to the Parisian fashion business at the deep end. Studio Berçot is run like an intense fashion laboratory full of big personalities. They were pretty critical at first, especially as I’d come from somewhere that wasn’t really fashion forward (Australia). So it was a bit of a deconstruction and rebuilding process. All good life lessons for a freelancer—you need to be pretty thick-skinned and resourceful.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

I made the press kit illustrations of the Autumn/Winter collections for both Chloé and Jil Sander. So it was quite a good start when I think about it in retrospect.

Do you have an agent? If yes, how does this benefit you?

I have four agents: in New York, Amsterdam, Tokyo, and Hamburg. They do amazing work on my behalf, I just wouldn’t have the time or the skill for all the work they do in promotion, bridge-building, and negotiations. I love my agents! They really make it all happen.

What do you like most about being a fashion illustrator?

Inspired and inspiring clients and everybody happy with the results.

What do you like least about being a fashion illustrator?

That there’s not more of it. I think we’re poorer for not being exposed to more ways of seeing the world. So many wonderful illustrators and so few formats for them. I also don’t like scanning.

Is being a fashion illustrator a good job?

It’s a very particularly fantastic job if you’re up for it. There really should be much more demand, but that does vary a lot between different cultures and sensibilities.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

Yes, a lot of editorial illustration work, advertising, print design, and ceramics. Basically if there’s a surface, I’ll paint or draw on it. I make some art every day.

Petra Dufkova

www.illustrationweb.com

Which media and techniques do you use?

My favorite drawing medium is watercolor, particularly gouache. These traditional techniques are stamped on my style and allow me always to experience, make new effects and combinations with other drawing media like ink or lacquer.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Fashion designer or artist.

What artistic training have you undertaken?

First I studied art at a technical school for applied arts in the Czech Republic. In 2008 I graduated as a modelist/stylist at the international fashion school ESMOD in Munich, Germany.

How well did this prepare you for life as an illustrator?

During my education I participated in many projects and competitions in Germany, Spain, and China. I illustrated a children’s book and a few pages in Snowboarder Magazine.

What was your first illustration job after leaving college?

I made fashion illustrations for a website.

Do you work in any other areas of illustration, art, and design?

I also work as a stylist and fashion designer for the label Marcel Ostertag.