Fashion Illustrated

This week is all about fashion illustrations...

Unless you went to middle school or high school with me, you probably would not know that I have a deep background in art. I moved to America at age 11 and not knowing a word of English, I spent most of my time at school drawing. In fact some of my teachers really liked my drawings and even allowed me to turn in a drawing related to what we were learning for a grade, since I didn't understand anything in class.

That was when I began to discover my creativity talents, which led me to where I am today, a fashion designer. 

I would like to share with my readers three of my favorite fashion illustrators. They are masters of their techniques and their work exudes an incredible amount of creativity.

The first artist I would like to share is Laura Laine, a Finnish artist who masters the use of pencil and ink. Her style is so precise, yet so fluid and organic at the same time. Her illustrations feature beautiful line work and with extremely intricate details. The atmosphere is eerie and wave of hair seems to be growing endlessly. I love Laura's work because she is a great inspiration for silhouettes techniques, fabric prints, facial expressions, and of course, hair.

"Elle Girl" by Laura Laine

"Oeil de la Mode" by Laura Elaine

"Zara" by Laura Elaine

My next artist is Nuno Dacosta. He is a fashion and beauty illustrator from London. Some of his works had even made it on Vogue Magazine. He mainly use water colors and acrylic gouache, with a bit of media retouching. I love to look at his work for inspirations on facial features, eyes, and skin colors. His faces are so breath taking to me and they are drawn almost to perfection. I can stare into the drawing's eyes and be mesmerized by them!

illustrationweb.com/artists/NunoDaCosta

illustrationweb.com/artists/NunoDaCosta

illustrationweb.com/artists/NunoDaCosta

Last but not least, Masaki Mizuno, a Japanese artist who master detailed handwork and coloring techniques. He has worked with acrylic, air brush, and rollers. His work mainly features faces and fabric prints. He is also great at illustrating a variety of hair styles. I draw inspirations from his faces, eyes, hair, and beautiful shading techniques. His works are also very dark and eerie, sometimes seems like the model has been haunted.

"Alexander McQueen" by Masaki Mizuno

"Body Stoking" by Masaki Mizuno

"The Flower Shirt" by Masaki Mizuno

I hope these beautiful artworks inspired you, too, just like they inspired me. They makes me want to stat a new drawing... right now.

And since we are on the topic of fashion illustration, I thought it would be fun to show you some of my own fashion sketches. 

These illustrations are from a series collection named "Twiggy's Doll House".  It is inspired by Barbies that are dressed in 1920s garments. The focus of the series is on fabric prints, but of course the poses and facial features add some extra spice to each pieces. For this particular series, I used Prisma Color Markers, which can be found at Hobby Lobby or Michaels. My favorite medium of choice, however, has to be water color. I love that it is so free and organic, and it blends so well to create any color that you can imagine.

So there it is. Lots and lots of beautiful illustrations for your eyes to feast on.

Until next time, just remember, "Fashion and art cannot exist without each other."

I Spy With My Little Eyes

Since all of my classmates have shared their studio space/ living space/ both, I thought I should share mine, too. So here it is, my small little apartment room that is an obstacle course when I need to get out of the bed.

I don't think I have gotten adequate sleep the past weeks... actually no... months. And when I am so busy with so many projects and competitions... this is what happens to my room.
So I woke up today and realized that it has gotten to this point, and had the idea to blog about it.

It is disgusting and embarrassing. I know. I don't think in my whole life my bed room had ever got this bad. It looks like a page out of an I Spy book!
HOWEVER, I am cleaning it right now since I have some free time for the first time since forever.

See the brown desk at the top left corner? That used to be my sewing station. When the room started swallowing me in, the sewing and patterning station was now moved to the living room where the mess had also taken over...
Every drawers in the room is filled with fabrics, trims, and notions that I had accumulated over time. My bathroom is filled with fabric bolts and even my is closet filled with garments I have made.

Until next time, just remember, "A cluttered space is a sign of a genius."

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The Little Black Dress Project

This week I am working on a fashion competition garment for The Little Black Dress Project sponsored by The Neal Hamil Agency in collaboration with the Fashion Group International of Houston. A little fun fact from my fashion history class is that the little black dress was introduced to us by none other than Coco Chanel in the 1920s . Ever since, the little black dress has become every women's staple item in her closet. It can be dressed up for cocktails or evening occasions, or dressed down for day wear and lunch outings.
This competition challenge designers to to once again reinvent and create their own version of the little black dress.


I thought it would be fun to show my lovely readers my process of creating this design, from the original sketch to the finished garment.

I was inspired by the artist Carlo Zinelli from the Art Brut Movement. This art movement stems from the the idea of  mental institutions. The subject matters are usually dark, illustrated by rough and rugged scribbles, doodles, and writings. 

This is my favorite painting from Zinelli that I found during my research, which I used as my sole inspiration behind my little black dress design.

I created a series of thumbnails sketches with a variety of silhouettes and techniques before I decided to go with this design. This fashion illustration is a water color painting on paper, combined with some finishing touches of pen and ink. 

My design features a classic 20's silhouettes with a contemporary cut out square back. I used black cotton fabric with a genuine leather neck line. The design utilize ruffles sewn together to create the poof skirt, topped off with intricate hand beading and  hand sewn yarns and fibers to create contrasting textures on the the bodice.

The 1st step in designing this garment is draping and patterning the garment. Then a muslin is created to check the fit and construction issues before it is made with the final fabric.

After any problems with the pattern are corrected, the final fabric was cut and sewn together to create the front and back bodice.

Next is the fun - but tedious part - cutting out the ruffles. Each ruffle is cut from a circle to create a wave as it falls from the skirt hemline. I believe several hundreds of ruffles was cut... I have lost count...

All the ruffles are then arranged to fit to the hemline, and then sewn together.

Last but not least, beading, beading, beading...
I went and dug through my basket of trims and pulled out everything black, gray, and silver that can be used to bead and create textures. I also went to buy some additional glass beads from Joann Fabrics and Crafts store.

Finally, the finished garment that I have painstakingly hand beaded and embroidered... 

Up close of the beading and embroidering...

Thanks for checking out my project! Come back to get updated results from the contest!