Fashion illustration is the forefront for design and sometimes advertising. Before anything gets designed, someone has to draw it first, and even in Vogue’s beginning stages before there were cameras to take pictures of models, Vogue had their own in-house fashion illustrator to draw the women you would see in the magazines.
Fashion illustration got its start in fashion houses, but fast-forward into this century and it’s still used for the same things, just with much more detail and a lot more sass. Here are the top five fashion illustrators you should be obsessed with this year.
1. Hayden Williams
This London-based mega superstar in the fashion world turned his love for drawing Disney characters into a multimillion-dollar career. He’s worked with everyone from Vogue, to Rimmel London, to even doing illustrations for Beyoncé, Naeomi Campbell and much more. Williams has perfected his craft and design aesthetic. All of the outfits he draws are chic and attainable. He’s known for his lifelike and detailed fashion figures.
2. Achraf Amiri
This London-based fashion illustrator draws fashion is in a gruesome and kind of funny way. He stirred up the fashion community when he drew the newest Prada purse full of poop with a band of flies around it, as if to say Prada purses are “full of shit.”
He’s popular in the fashion industry because of his dark, twisted and frankly just weird adaptations of runway shows and fashion brands. He’s been known to say that he’s mostly fascinated by the body expressions, however, fashion is always nice to adjoin to make his work look less eerie and lovelier.
3. Drue Robertson
The man who converts walnuts into famous fashion icons. No really, walnuts. Robertson is also known for his unstructured fashion illustrations and paintings. His practice with famous walnuts is what makes him so famous; He’s been featured in everything from Vogue to in Style to Women’s Wear Daily. His whole goal is to show people that fashion gives off this unapproachable standpoint, but it is nuts.
4. Austen Claire
The new kid on the fashion illustrator block has started to get more and more attention after she won a teen vogue fashion illustration contest. Since then she’s repeatedly done work for Teen Vogue, Dior and many more. Her fashion illustrations are sassy, boho chic and a little corky. They feature soft lines and pastel colors and remind you of something you may have dreamed of.
5. Fabio Rosario (a.k.a Ponyy Boyy)
One of the newbies-quickly-turned-veteran of the fashion illustration world has taken it by storm. He’s as popular as Hayden Williams but is known for how accurately he draws the female body. His illustrations are sexy and mysterious. The one thing I love about his illustrations is that he draws his figures with curves and crazy poses that you wouldn’t think anyone could draw.