Male Fashion Illustrations {Milan Fashion Week Spring 2014}

 (Roberto Cavalli)

Milan Men's Fashion Week is approaching and in anticipation Women's Wear Daily has published a bunch of designer illustrations, including the chic Roberto Cavalli sketch shown above, set to appear on the runways straight from the designer's drafting tables. Yes, I'm featuring male illustrations ladies and gents, you read that correctly! Over the past four years of Fabulous Doodles I written countless posts on designer illustrations from womenswear fashion weeks but this is the very first menswear feature.

(Les Hommes and Diesel Black Gold)

There are many reasons for this. First, men are extremely difficult to illustrate. Secondly, I was a womenswear fashion design major and spent years of college and subsequent years since, strictly drawing women. Last but not least I never had to challenge myself with illustrating men until my recent foray into live-illustrating at events where I can't exactly turn people away just for being male.

(Z Zegna and Ermanno Scervino)

Men are challenging to draw, every illustrator and designer I know personally admits to that. The line of a man is very straight and angular and its hard to make them statuesque, slim and fit without appearing girly. And if you draw them too big and brute then they come off sort of dumpy instead of masculine. You also have to be precise when drawing tailored pieces (as shown in the Brioni below) and its quite difficult to draw masculine facial features. Put too much pressure on the pencil while rendering the eyes for instance, and suddenly your man can look like he's wearing mascara.

(Brioni)

For me learning to draw men is a work in progress, for years I used to actually turn down projects that requested a male illustration, but over the past year and having to live-illustrate men more and more I've learned and consequently improved. Studying these designer sketches from the men's collections, and how these designers render the male proportions and male features can only help my illustrating and hopefully yours as well. 

These designer menswear sketches are from Women's Wear Daily, and if you click on over you can check out even more illustrations and inspiration from the spring 2014 Milan collections.

Punk: Chaos to Couture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Friday I popped by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to finally see the newest exhibit from the Costume Institute, Punk: Chaos to Couture. I was pretty frazzled with custom illustration orders and primping and packing for a wedding weekend, but I passed by and thought I should check it out before the summer crowds start piling in. Well, this exhibit was just the break I needed and I highly suggest stopping by if you're in New York.

Punk: Chaos to Couture spotlights punk's impact on high fashion from the early 70's to present day. I couldn't resist being a bit punk and snapping a few photos to share and instagram (shown above,) even though "photography is prohibited" in this exhibit.

(Top Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art) 

The  designer fashion, the fabulous punk-fro's, and the entire exhibit space was a wild new look for the formal and sometimes stuffy Met. The walls were textured and graffitied, the lighting was dark with pops of bright color, and the music obviously, was loud punk. The exhibit was broken up into different themes by room, and being the crafty girl I am, I have to say my favorite room was the DIY Hardware room, (shown above, top photo) with studded, pinned, chained and torn designer ensembles from Alexander McQueen, Givenchy, and Gianni Versace.

(Fashion Illustration: Brooke Hagel, Window Display: Bergdorf Goodman) 

As I mentioned I was away this weekend for a wedding and didn't have a chance to sketch anything straight from the exhibit, but I did sketch a few punk inspired illustrations a few weeks ago after live sketching at a Vogue party on the upper east side. After the event I took a little stroll along 5th Avenue and was floored by the Bergdorf Goodman windows inspired by the punk exhibit. I came right home and sketched a bunch of my favorite looks from the punk themed windows. The sketch shown above is a beaded Chanel top and skirt. Instead of drawing a face, I paired it with the outrageous punk pom-pom-fros that are shown throughout the Punk exhibit (shown below) and left the skin white, as shown on the mannequins.

(Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, dresses by Zandra Rhodes 1977) 

Punk: Chaos to Couture will be on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art now through August 14th, 2013 and I high recommend checking it out, as well as the fantastic Bergdorf Goodman windows it inspired.

(Window: Bergdorf Goodman, Fashion Illustration: Brooke Hagel) 

To see more images from the Punk: Chaos to Couture exhibit, click on over to the Met's exhibit page here and to see more of the wild Bergdorf Goodman windows inspired by the Punk exhibit check out 5th/58th, Bergdorf's blog. And to see my favorite looks from the Met Ball, the opening night gala for the Punk: Chaos to Couture exhibit click here.

I'm thinking my Etsy shop could use a little punk fashion infusion, I may list these illustrations as prints in the shop later this week.

Beauty Illustrations {Vogue & Bobbi Brown}

The lovelies at Vogue Magazine reached out to me again about two weeks ago to create beauty fashion illustrations featuring Bobbi Brown Cosmetics new summer collection for a makeup event at Saks Fifth Avenue. They were open to creative input so I suggested something different, using tan craft paper as the background of the illustrations, putting the focus on the makeup and its bronzy colors. I sent this recent doodle I instagramed and this post as examples of what the artwork for this project could look like and they were on board and let me run with it.

I illustrated three different looks, the first and my personal favorite is "Beach Bronze Night" shown above. This look is all about a golden bronze eye and peachy pout. Since it's the evening look I gave her a sparkling drop earring and dark silky hair for dramatic contrast.

"Summer Bright" is next. This look called for a bold and bright passion fruit glossy lip, coral shimmer blush and sharp black ink eyeliner. As the bright day look I gave her a casual and fun side braid with a lavender hair tie and huge pout for that bold lip color.

The third look, "Beach Bronze Day" is the most natural of the group. It consists of a nude cheek tint, bronzed pink lip tint, and sandy gold eye shadows. I complimented this look with a white striped headscarf and bright green eyes. I tried to give each girl her own style and personality since Bobbi Brown is all about celebrating individuality. 

(Top: Brooke Hagel, Saks 5th Avenue. Bottom: Bobbi Brown makeup artists with Vogue's Cara Crowley, Bobbi Brown display in Saks) 

Walking into the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store and seeing my sketches on display for Bobbi Brown and Vogue was quite the pinch-me moment. My illustrations were incorporated on displays in multiple areas of the first floor beauty department and seemed to be a huge hit both with the Bobbi Brown makeup artists, Vogue staffers, and event guests, who repeatedly posed for pictures with and alongside the illustration displays.    

(Top: Beach Bronze Night Illustration by Brooke Hagel on display in Saks, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. Bottom: Cara Crowley Instagram, Brooke and Cara.) 

I'm so happy with how these illustrations came out and that Vogue and Bobbi Brown took a bit of chance and let me use the tan craft paper instead of standard white. This was a wonderful project to work on and certainly a proud moment having my illustrations on display in such an iconic institution as Saks Fifth Avenue.

Bride Notepads {New to Brooklit Bride}

Since wedding season is kicking off I decided to add something new this year to Brooklit Bride, my bridal fashion illustration print shop. I've printed up a few different notepads featuring some of my favorite and most popular brides. They're a cute little gift for any bride-to-be. So far these two options are listed but a few more will be added soon.

You can check out the whole bridal illustration collection here in my bridal print shop, Brooklit Bride.