Kate Middleton Bridal Illustration

Meet my newest bridal fashion illustration, Kate Middleton Dutchess of Cambridge. I have to admit I was a little obsessed and was one of those people who was up at 4AM tuning into the historic royal wedding.

Weeks before the royal wedding I was contacted by The Nate Berkus Show to collaborate with stylist Louise Roe on a illustration predicting Kate's gown design. Kate's dress was so top secret leading up to the big day, it was kept in a vault and even the designer was kept a mystery. Louise and I had a long conversation about the dress, even referenced a post I wrote with designer predictions, and we were on the same page as to what we thought her dress would look like. I sketched away and two days later I was sitting in the audience watching Nate and Louise discuss my sketches!

Needless to say I had put a lot of time and thought into her dress so I was thrilled when the wedding day came and I saw her step out and into that car. I couldn't believe how dead-on we were! There were some slight differences though to my design and the one Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen did, so I sketched out a new illustration here based the wedding pictures. Here's the listing of the Kate print and if you'd like a sketch of yourself or to give as a gift, here is a link with my custom work.

(I'm also obsessed with this wallpaper shown above; Graham & Brown's "Crowns and Coronets")

Sketches from Fashion Week Spring 2012 {Part 2}

(Rachel Roy)

Sadly its the last day of Fashion Week here in New York. And although we'll have to wait until spring for the collections to pop up in stores (and till Feb. for the next NYFW to roll around) we can enjoy the fabulous designer sketches here and now starting with these creamy neutral designs.

(Pamella Roland)

I absolutely adore the illustration style of the designs from Rachel Roy and Pamella Roland. Both show such fluid movement and have an easy sketchy quality to them while still conveying clear garment designs and details.

(St. John and Cynthia Steffe)

These sketches, by St. John and Cynthia Steffe, are both pretty heavy handed and appear to be drawn with a thick marker, like a Sharpie. This could be a little tough to pull off since the tip is so thick and can easily bleed and become a blurring mess. However these turned out great, and I'm sure were completed fairy quickly. It could be a fun drawing exercise to try out this style and see if works for you. The trick is to work fast and keep that marker moving.

(Pamella Roland)

For more fashion illustrations from the spring 2012 collections you can check out Essence and Pantone Style Guide.

Custom Bridal Illustrations

Over the past few weeks, with summer coming to an end, I've been busy sending out new custom bridal fashion illustrations. I thought now, mid New York Fashion Week, would be a great time to share a few of these brides with you.

(Bride, Amy)

This first bride was a fun client to work with, not only did I love her gown, but her spunky personality as well. She told me she was "very sassy" and wanted her personality to shine through in the illustration.

(Bride Catherine, gift from her sister Christina)

This second bridal fashion illustration is unique for me. The reason being, although I've been doing these for years now she is my very first custom illustration commission for an Asian bride! I was so excited to work on her and absolutely love the chic simplicity of her minimal and modern look.

(Bride Lyndsey, gift from sis Drew)

Last but not least is this lovely southern belle wearing a classic sweetheart neckline, adorned with lace applique and a figure flattering waist-cinching bow on a-line gown. I happen to be a total girly girl, so this bride is certainly another favorite!

If you would like a custom illustration for yourself or to give as a gift you can check out the custom illustration listings in my Etsy bridal shop, Brooklit Bride. You can also read this older post detailing my custom process.

Sketches from Fashion Week Spring 2012 {Part 1}

(ADAM by Adam Lippes and Peter Som)

Its that time of year again, fashion week is in full swing and Manhattan is all a buzz with shows, parties and promotional fashion events. My favorite aspect of fashion week is the abundance of designer sketches from the new collections of corse.

(Lela Rose and Nanette Lepore)

This season I've grouped the designer sketches by color, and today I'm featuring the springy pinks, reds, and oranges with the occasional hint of navy.

(Elie Tahari and VPL by Victoria Bartlett)

When reviewing a wide array of designer sketches grouped together like this its interesting to take note of the different ways that you could approach your own fashion illustrations. There's a simple, stylized and slightly edgy technique used by ADAM (which happens to be my favorite of this post), or the bold and cartoon-esque look of Nanette Lepore and Elie Tahari.

(DKNY and Tommy Hilfiger)

Another interesting technique you could play around with is a mix of a pencil drawn figure with a marker colored-in, garment as seen in both the Lela Rose and VPL by Victoria Bartlett illustrations.

(Milly by Michelle Smith)

Last but not least is the quick looking more gesture-drawing style sketching as seen in the Peter Som, DKNY, and Milly sketches. What's your favorite illustration style?

(Designer sketches from Pantone)

Anthropologie Welcomes Decor8 Holly Becker

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of meeting Decor8 blogger and best selling author of Decorate, Holly Becker. New York was the very last stop of her US book tour and although mother nature almost interfered by giving us a earthquake and then a hurricane, Holly made it to NYC safe and sound.

I've been reading Holly's blog for years, long before I started Fabulous Doodles. I've also taken Holly's class Blogging Your Way, not once but twice! So needless to say it was a thrill to finally meet the lovely lady herself. Anthropologie hosted the event in their Soho store, which started off with a presentation by Holly on assembling a successful mood board.

A funny thing happened, during the presentation Holly talked about the importance of including key fabrics for color, texture and pattern to set the tone. She used a gold and pink swatch as an example of a fabric she loved and treasured. What's so crazy is that I had sent her that fabric about 5 years ago! At the time Holly had asked her readers to send any extra fabrics and trims they had to put together swatch packets as a giveaway. I was working as a designer and stylist and had an entire studio space filled with fabrics and notions so I sent her a nice big box and that swatch was one of them! I had bought it from Mood and used it on design boards for Seventeen and CosmoGirl. I remember it so well because I, like Holly, loved it too and had a big piece up on my office inspiration board.

After the mood board demo drinks, hor derves and cookies were passed around while everyone mingled and the book signing began. Holly mentioned a group was going for drinks after so I hung around waiting for the singing to finsih while having a great time getting to know Rashan Carraway, aka Mr. Goodwill Hunting and Mayne Richardson.

We had fun and did a little impromtu photo shoot around the store before heading over to the Soho Grand for cocktails with Holly and friends. (Including Paul and Marcia Zia Priven, Cristina Batch-Lee of Etsy, Abby Jacobs of West Elm, fellow fashion illustrator Samantha Hahn, stylist Raina Kattelson, and Brett Bara.) It was so nice chatting it up and getting to know such a creative group of people.

If you haven't already, you should go go pick up Holly's book Decorate. Its a fantastic visual guide to decorating and making your space uniquely yours. The book also has stunning images and tips from designers such as Jonathan Adler, Nate Berkus, and Vincent Wolf.