Bridal Illustrations {A Chic Affair}

Recently I was commissioned by producers of luxry expos and events to sketch a handful of illustrations for two events coming soon to the Washington, D.C. area. The first one is A Chic Affair, a luxury bridal expo with the modern and savvy bride in mind. They chose this romantic and pouty bride as the face of the event, to use on thier site and all event branding.

I also drew an assortment of brides in varying gown silhouettes to be used on large banner artwork throughout the event space. Tomorrow I'll share some more illustrations for their sister expo focused on modern moms and their tiny tots.

(Illustrations by Brooke Hagel) 

Designer Inauguration Gown Sketches {Michelle Obama}

Women's Wear Daily asked top fashion designers to share sketches of designs they submitted to the East Wing for First Lady Michelle Obama to wear at Monday night's inaugural balls. Since I love peeks at designer sketches I wanted to share and discuss a few. First up is Nicole Miller, with this red pleated strapless gown with a double wrapped gold belt that adds a little modern twist. Whats interesting about this sketch is the illustrator chose to leave the guide lines at the shoulders, waist and hips. These lines are often the base of a fashion illustration to guide the illustrator in creating the correct body angles and movement. (Here's an old post about base sketches and illustration poses.) Normally they're erased and just act as a base to work off, but here they were decidedly left in.

The next First Lady fashion illustration is this lovely white lace gown by Vera Wang. I love the simple contour lines of this illustration. It's also a great example of how simply you could render lace without over illustrating or spending hours drawing tiny floral detailing. Its a minimal sketch yet completely readable, clearly conveying the gown's design.

Next is a sexy pale blue Monique Lhuillier gown. Here you see another example of beautifully rendered lace paired with intricate draping across the bodice. Another illustration element of interest is not one of the illustrations featured here include any facial features. Faces can be tough and I know its something many of my readers stuggle with, so take note of what these designers have done and realize that you do not need to render facial features to have a complete and polished fashion illustration.

To check out more designer illustrations for the First Lady's inauguration gown, and even a few for first daughter's Sasha and Malia, click over to WWD and tune in monday to see who Mrs. Obama chooses to don, my money's on Naeem Kahn or Prabal Gurung.

P.S. Happy Birthday Mrs. Obama!

(Sketches: Women's Wear Daily)

Custom Fashion Illustrations

Last year I had some wonderful fashion industry clients who commissioned custom illustrations for their business' branding and I thought I would share a few of my favorites from different categories; makeup, styling and fashion blogging.

First up is makeup artist Alexis Frank. She wanted a sketch representing herself at work doing makeup, in her favorite look of leather pants, a tank top, and stilettos, with layers of gold accessories and her tool belt of brushes. Alexis also asked me to create a business card design. I gave her a few options but in the end we went with this playful yet modern and clean font. I send her a referral link to moo, who I can't rave about enough for their fantastic card quality, and her new fashion illustrated cards were on their way.

This next fashion illustration is of Rebecca, an adorable magazine editor with a side business in personal styling. Her business is called LBD Stylist, so of corse her illustration is decked out in a chic little black dress, pointy toe heels, and a sparkling statement necklace, all inspired by Rebecca's favorite designers.

Last but certainly not least is sweet southern fashion blogger of Just Dandy and new e-boutique owner Danielle Downing of ShopDandy. Danielle was lovely to work with and knew exactly what she wanted with detailed pictures of hair, jewels, a pose and an exact shade of hot pink for the flouncy frock.

It was great working with each of these girls to create a fashion illustration that truly represented them, their style, and their businesses.

Holiday in Paris

(Top: In my Parisian stripes and beret enjoying our view, the Arc de Triomphe early morning, Place de la Concorde. Middle: Louve ceiling, Eiffel Tower, my Paris visual packing list.* Bottom: The Seine, Versailles, Musee d'Orsay.) 

Bonjour! I'm back from a much needed vacation, a holiday trip to Paris, France with two of my best girlfriends. The trip was so wonderful and Paris is so beautiful and picturesque that I had to post some of my photos here on Fabulous Doodles. Within five minutes of arriving from the airport I could see why this city has inspired so many artists, designers and writers. At every turn, around every corner, is another incredibly charming street, building, shop and lamppost.

(Top: Van Gogh's apartment building door, beautiful Montmartre street, "tourist pic" at the Eiffel Tower. Middle: Versailles, Arc de Triomphe with my girls, pyramids of the Louve.  Bottom: entranced by Renior at the Musee d'Orsay, chocolate eclair, the Artist's Bridge.) 

Being there just a week we saw most of the sights, strolled along the beautiful Seine and enjoy our fair share of Parisian delicacies but I can't wait to return, perhaps in the spring next time to relax and take in more of the lovely city. Merci for a wonderful week Paris, I'll be revisting these pictures often. Au revoir!

*Visual Packing List- Every trip I pack for thats more than a few days I sketch up a what call my "visual packing list," a quick visual reference in the form of little thumbnail sketches of all the outfits I've packed. This way I can easily see what I've worn, what I have left, and what I can mix and match. Here's another I posted from a trip to Israel and Egypt years ago.

Live Fashion Illustrations for Vogue & Joie

Last week I live illustrated at another fabulous Vogue magazine soiree, this time a holiday fete with Joie at their gorgeous new shop downtown in Soho. (Coincidently its directly across the street from Piperlime, the spot of the last Vogue party I live illustrated at!) This was a much smaller more intimate party and I actually got to sketch some dashing men this time, as you can see in the photos above.

It was really a fun little holiday party. Live fashion illustrating can be a little nerve wracking but with chic party guests like these to sketch and lovely people to work with like the team from Vogue, its an honor and a pleasure and all trepidation fades fast. 

(Photos and fashion illustrations by Brooke Hagel)

Gap Fashion Illustrations for InStyle Party

Two weeks ago I was hired to create some fashion illustrations for an event with Gap and InStyle magazine! Being a huge fan of both powerhouse brands I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to sketch for them. 

The project involved two parts, first I had to create sketches in advance of the party that would be scaled up and printed out as posters to adorn the interactive art wall/step and repeat that guests would see when they arrived at the NYC flagship store event. The second part was, while everyone was mingling, I live sketched the event hosts; Kimberly Pesch of Eat.Sleep.Wear (shown with her sketch below), Christine Cameron of My Style Pill and DJ Harley Viera Newton. 

All the Gap fashion illustrations shown throughout this post were inspired by the "Outfit's We Love" spotlighted on Gap.com. They're a bright mix of cozy and luxe layers styled with plaids, stripes and colorful basics. Throughout the event I live sketched the three hosts who were decked out in head to toe Gap looks as well. As each sketch was completed it was added to the art wall so guests could take a look and snap some pics. 

This was such a great evening with such positive feedback from all the guests including my [possibly bias] little brother and 90 year old grandma, the fabulous hosts as well as the teams from InStyle and Gap! It really was such a fun event to be a part of and I'm excited to share the sketches and photos. 

(Photo's by Gap and InStyle, Illustrations by Brooke Hagel)