R.I.P Oscar De La Renta

Another one of fashions greats has passed away. You brought so much beauty and glamour to the world. R.I.P.

Cassandra Rhodin

The second illustrator I have decided to research is Cassandra Rhodin.

Cassandra Rhodin is Sweden’s most popular illustrator. A lot of fashion management predecessors of mine have also used Cassandra, looking at their blogs and on the internet about her, they have all came to the same bump in the road as myself. It seems that Cassandra Rhodin is an extremely private person and there is not a large amount of information on her as a person, but her illustration work is described a lot in different blogs and articles.

 Cassandra started off primarily as a fashion illustrator, however nowadays she is also a fashion designer. In 2006, she created her first fashion brand, which is a collection of children’s wear, called Mini Rodini.

“Mini Rodini is a Swedish children’s wear brand that was founded in 2005 by illustrator Cassandra Rhodin as a tribute to all children, their imagination and sense that everything is possible. Mini Rodini takes children seriously with playfulness, meaning it is important that children too have clothes that match their own personality, mood and creativity.”

http://www.minirodini.com/about

 “Cassandra represents fashion through her personal point of view in her illustrations, with her drawings inspired by 20’s and 30’s style and flapper girls, with a heavy use of black and white with splashes of colour, which make her illustrations ‘fascinating and suggestive’. “

Cassandra Rhodin is very private with her personal life and it was very difficult to find a large amount of information about her and was pretty much impossible to make contact with her. As well as being an illustrator, Cassandra has also designed graphic t-shirts and has worked with clients such as H&M, Nylon, Urban Outfitters and ELLE. She has a big artistic range, which covers fashion illustrations, art exhibitions, book covers as well as wallpaper prints and, in 2009, she had two solo exhibitions in Stockholm. Cassandra draws and uses watercolours to create beautiful wide-eyed models. She has noticeably been influenced by Paris in the 1920’s and even Coco Chanel herself.

http://lisa-s-harrison.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/info-on-my-first-illustrator-cassandra.html

 http://ladyfairy-scloset.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/cassandra-rhodin.html#
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/artist-cassandra-rhodins

http://fashionary.org/blog/30-fashion-illustrators-part-3/#more-915

Gisela Balestrini

The first fashion illustrator I have chosen is Gisela Balestrini.

Gisela is an Argentinian illustrator, who currently works as a photograph producer. Gisela has been doing freelance illustrations since 2006 and her work can be seen on her blog on BlogSpot (Gisela Balestrini or G Balestrini). She has done many courses and training, in things such as children’s book illustration, creative training, illustration, application of colour and did a technical course in photography. Gisela says she is ‘passionately curious’ and therefore collects everyday things as inspiration, such as books, postcards and quotes/scenes in films. She enjoys drawing, taking photographs and teaching fashion illustration classes in the University of Palermo.

“Today I do artwork on demand, fashion illustrations for publications at home and abroad to advertisements such as graphics for Unicenter and stand in Baf, the magazine Dolce & Gabbana” Swide “in the outside, also work for individuals who make me orders for brands that want to dice with my artwork for your local or design them printed for garments / bags / tags / artwork for catalogs …… also for design studios or advertising agencies for specific projects such as a book of children’s artwork for Cepita or character design for Movistar.”

http://fido.palermo.edu/servicios_dyc/generaciondc/html/detalle.php?id_gen=1479&id_nota=414 Translated from Spanish.

Some of Gisela Balestrini’s fashion illustrations

An example of Gisela Balestrini’s children’s book illustration

As Gisela quoted above, she is highly featured and referenced in the ‘luxury’ Dolce & Gabbana online magazine ‘Swide’. The following link shows her interview with the magazine titled ‘The long legs of Gisela Balestrini’, which gives us an insight into why she wanted to become an illustrator.

“I started my professional career when I was studying fashion design. During that time, I realized I was a terrible perfectionist after all those long hours illustrating the large collections presentations. I fell much more in love with illustration when I could use it as a tool to express the feelings and emotions that came from the deeper inside of me”.

Her illustration style is explained by the illustrator herself, as being ‘ feminine & glamorous’. She feels that you should be able imagine how the garments look in real life on the figures she draws, however she likes to display the garments in ‘a world of impossible long legs ladies’. This can be seen as “Hyperrealism” but in an ideal stylization. Gisela likes to ‘create a reality which doesn’t exist, but seems to be true’. Endless legs seems to be Gisela’s idea of the height of femininity.  The below image is the one that Gisela feels defines her as an illustrator.

The image has her signature long, slender legs, but the hair is also turned into a phrase ‘you are invited to my party’, when translated into English. This adds detail and depth to the image and gives character to the figure.

http://www.swide.com/art-culture/exhibition/a-la-mode-photo-gallery/2011/09/09

Internship is teaching me so many new skills!

My internship with KAM Kouture is helping me develop my sewing and business skills. Here is an example of some hand sewn embellishment I did on a dress for a wedding.

Opening of Shauna Fay’s stand alone boutique

Embracing my inner blogger by attending the fabulous opening of the immensely talented designer Shauna Fay’s new boutique in the Spire’s Mall.

Bugaboo training in Manchester

Given the chance to try out some visual merchandising techniques for Bugaboo. Check out their latest designer collaboration, with a camouflage Diesel pram!

And so it begins….

Trip to the museum in Botanic, Belfast for some background into the origins of fashion illustration and to find some inspiration

Winter is here….

H&M have jumped on the winter is here bandwagon and came up of a novelty way of expressing how to wrap up warm this season. Good if your having a bad mani and hair day!!

Get the layers on boys and girls……its cold out there!

Brrrrr Winter is here!!!!