Hugo Boss Holiday Party Sketches

Last week I live-sketched at my first holiday party of the season for fashion and lifestyle brand Hugo Boss. It was their annual employee holiday party and was held downtown at VIP Room in New York's Meatpacking District. The Hugo Boss employees made fabulous models to sketch for the night and were all so enthusiastic about receiving a custom illustration even Hugo Boss CEO Mark Brasher (shown above, left) sat with me for a custom sketch of his own.

It was quite a large party and a line quickly formed for custom fashion illustrations that lasted the whole night but it was wonderful to meet and sketch all the chic Hugo Boss employees and I was so happy to be a part of their company celebration.

For more information about my event-sketching or rates to sketch fashion illustrations at your corporate event or private party you can email me at FabulousDoodles@gmail.com.

Custom Fashion Illustration Gifts for Love Gold

(Sheryl Luke of Walk in Wonderland, Olivia Lopez of Lust for Life) 

Today I'm excited to share a recent project of custom fashion illustrations I was commissioned to sketch by Love Gold of sixteen top fashion bloggers. They had me sketch each blogger and gifted the illustrations to them at an intimate LA dinner party kicking off the holidays and the Love Gold #hintingseason campaign. Each guest received their custom sketch upon arriving at the dinner table where their sketches were essentially used as large place card settings. It was so great to get tweets and instagrams from the bloggers excitedly arriving at their seats to find my sketches!

(Samantha Hutchison of Could I Have That, Jenny Ong of Neon Blush, Aimee Song of Song of Style and Julie Sarinana of Sincerely Jules) 

For this project Love Gold sent me the guest list with links to the fashion blogs they represent and I was given cart blanche to choose posts from their blogs that I thought would make the best sketches. I also needed to incorporate some gold jewelry into each illustration, as the event was showcasing Love Gold. I picked photos with poses and outfits that I was excited to sketch and added in gold bangles, necklaces and/or earrings to compliment each sketch.

You can see more of the fashion blogger sketches I drew for Love Gold in this little video I shared on Instagram. And for rates on group custom illustrations to give at your next party or event you can email me at FabulousDoodles@gmail.com.

Press! Mini Magazine Holiday Gift Guide

A little known fact about me, I absolutely love a gift guide. But even more so when the gift guide includes my sketches! This weekend I received some exciting press, my custom fashion illustrations are featured in Mini Magazine's Holiday Gift Guide 2013! Mini Mag asked Samantha Yanks, Editor-In-Chief of Hamptons Magazine and On-Air Style Expert for NBC, for her holiday gift picks and Samantha included my custom illustration of her adorable daughter Sadie right at the top of her list! She's also quoted as saying: "This is the best gift, truly." I'm so happy Samantha loves my illustrations and I want to thank her and Mini Magazine for sharing it with their "modern parent" readers!

You can flip through the digital edition of Mini Magazine's holiday issue for more of their gift guide (and page 90 to see my exciting feature!) And for all the sketches I made of Samantha's daughter here's the original Fabulous Doodles post from this summer. For more of my illustrations and details about my custom fashion illustration process visit my Etsy shop; Brooklit.

Annual Brooklit Etsy Sale

Its that time of year again, starting today Small Business Saturday through Cyber Monday you can get 20% off your entire purchase in both my fashion illustration Etsy shops: Brooklit and BrooklitBride by entering code "CYMBERMONDAY20" at checkout.

Stock up on fabulous doodle gifts from Brooklit and Brooklit Bride like notepads, cellphone covers and tote bags, holiday gift tags, cards and even signed fashion illustration prints. Happy shopping!

Braid Bar Style Illustrations for DreamDry & Teen Vogue

Recently I had the pleasure of working with Teen Vogue for their 2013 Fashion University weekend here in New York. A highlight of this Teen Vogue project was collaborating with Rachel Zoe's DreamDry team to create sketches for the DreamDry "Braid Bar" hair style menu.

I've selected a few of my favorite hair illustrations from the Teen Vogue Fashion U braid bar to spotlight, the first up (shown above) is my interpretation of DreamDry's soft and romantic waterfall braid, "The Juliette." To best illustrate the details of this braid I went with a profile pose. Next is the classic braid which can be styled perfectly neat or purposely messy and worn back or to the side. I opted to sketch a brunette side braid (with Catching Fire coming out soon and Katniss Everdeen on the mind!) it seemed the ideal choice.

Last but not least (shown below) of my favorite sketches from the DreamDry Teen Vogue style menu is the ultimate crown braid,  "The Bianca." This style is classic bohemian chic perfected for day or night. For her I went with a classic brown eyed beauty with strong facial lines to compliment the symmetrical undo.

I always enjoy working beauty focused head shots and hair sketches but as a Rachel Zoe fan illustrating this style menu for DreamDry was a bit of a dream. (I even mentioned in a print interview years and years ago that a goal was to sketch for those I admire, and named RZ!) Be sure to check back soon for more fashion illustrations from my Teen Vogue Fashion U weekend!

Halloween Throwback, Vintage Costume Designs

(Bob Mackie sketch while working under Edith Head) 

Seeing all the fun costumes out and about today for Halloween has gotten be thinking about all the costume designers and costume illustrations that I love so much. If you've been following Fabulous Doodles a while now you probably know I started out wanting to be a costume designer and even dabbled in the field interning in various wardrobe departments in college followed by a stint as a wardrobe supervisor on an off Broadway show. Although these vintage designs are nothing like the productions I worked on but a girl can dream! I'm mean how utterly spectacular is this Bob Mackie design while working under fellow costume design legend Edith Head?! (shown above)

(Edith Head sketch of Elizabeth Taylor for "A Place in the Sun")

Speaking of, it should be noted that Edith Head is the only woman to have won 8 Academy Awards and a whopping 35 nominations spanning her career. She was Hollywood's leading costume designer, a favorite among leading ladies and even earned a star on the Walk of Fame. Head designed for countless classic movies including A Place in the Sun (shown above), Sunset Boulevard, Roman Holiday, Sabrina, The Ten Commandments, and Funny Face.

(Cecil Beaton design for "My Fair Lady")

This next vintage costume design illustration is by another Academy Award winner, Cecil Beaton. Beaton won the Oscar in Costume Design for this very production (shown above) My Fair Lady. He was also an acclaimed photographer and worked as a staff photographer for Vogue earlier on in his career.

(Edith Head for "Sweet Charity") 

Last but not least is another wonderful Edith Head illustration. This design was for the 1969 film Sweet Charity directed by Bob Fosse. I love modern cut of this 60's mini dress and all the call outs for diamond, palliates and ankle jewels.

To see more of my favorite vintage costume design illustration you can pop on over to my costume design Pinterest board. Hope your having a fabulous Halloween!