Fabulous Doodles Fashion Illustration blog by Brooke Hagel: New Illustrated Books

This past Labor Day weekend marked another "published day" for me with the release of the third volume in the young adult series Chloe by Design, Measuring Up! In this volume Chloe is visiting and applying to colleges and with that comes portfolio prep and college application art tests. My illustrations throughout this young adult series represent the main character Chloe's sketches. Being I myself was a fashion design student, having applied and attended New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, I also consulted on the story outline in the development phase of these books, speaking with the writer Margaret Gurevich, as well as the editor and publishers about my application experiences, art tests and the overall college search for a young student interested in fashion design. I even tutored high school students and helped them prepare their portfolios and fashion art tests for college applications and interviews before I became a full time fashion illustrator!

Chloe by Design Measuring Up is the "bind up" book, as the publisher calls it, containing four books of volume three of the series. But as with the previous volumes the publisher has also printed four smaller books for the school library market. Books 9-12 of the Chloe by Design series are: Back to Basics, Made to Measure, All or Nothing and The Final Cut. I have to admit its exciting to have the books come out and see my sketches on multiple covers. The cute curly haired girl in the yellow jumpsuit on the cover of Made to Measure (shown above) and the redheaded sassy girl in a floral body con dress on the cover of The Final Cut are my two favorite cover girls.

In this third volume of the series I incorporated many ethnicities as well as tried to illustrate many different fabrications, patterns, and design styles. Another fun fact and personal twist is since the author follows me on Instagram and has has seen the "visual packing lists" I often draw for myself when I travel she incorporated them into the books and made Chloe do the same thing! The image below is one of Chloe's casual-chic "airport looks."

Volume 3 was released about 10 days ago and I've already heard glowing feedback from avid Chloe by Design readers in person and through my social media platforms! It's truly so touching to have my work resonate with young girls and feel their enthusiasm for this series I've spent so much time sketching. As of now I'm told this is the final volume, but you never know. As I've been told that before!

Since the bind up and library market books can be very confusing I'm listing the books here clearly for you with links to Amazon to purchase. First up are the bigger hardcover "bind up" books of the three Chloe by Design volumes:

Volume 1 - Making the Cut

Volume 2 - Balancing Act

Volume 3 - Measuring Up

Here are the smaller hardcover "library edition" books:

Book 1 - Design Diva

Book 2 - The First Cut

Book 3 - Unraveling

Book 4 - Design Destiny

Book 5 - Intern Ambition

Book 6 - Design Disaster

Book 7 - Runway Rundown

Book 8 - Fashion Week Finale