The Art of Fashion Illustration

Job: 10-42056 Title: RP - Art of Fashion Illustration

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Aix-en-Provence, France

BREAK THE RULES:

LOVISA BURFITT

Lovisa BurÅtt often creates her illustrations using a metal feather that she dips in Chinese ink.

She also likes to mix what she calls high and low, using inexpensive pencils with dry pastels and

colored pens on beautiful, expensive paper. She often uses the classic color pairing of black

and red. “I’m always fascinated with the palette of colors that other artists use and how they

thought of that. I love a sharp vermillion red, almost an orange, and I often Ånd myself com-

ing back to that.” When she has completed a sketch that she’s really happy with she’ll put it in

her archive. “I used to throw them away when I was Ånished, but if I draw a pose that I like, I

keep it because I may draw from it again. But sometimes the sketches are really ugly, then you

just have to throw them away.”

”

“

I’ll walk around the task until I

bite into it. Once I get started I

think, ‘OK, maybe I can do this.’

Lovisa BurÅtt has been illustrating professionally for almost two decades, but her interest

in fashion started as a young child. “I would sew my own clothes out of mum’s old

curtain and I would make a skirt from dad’s old leather jacket,” she says. “When I was

about eleven, a friend asked if I was going to be a fashion designer when I grew up,”

says the Swedish illustrator, who now lives in the south of France. “I asked him what

that was and he said it was someone who made clothes for a living—so I said yes. I

made the decision then to become a designer and I kind of just stuck with it.”

Job: 10-42056 Title: RP - Art of Fashion Illustration

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Job: 10-42056 Title: RP - Art of Fashion Illustration

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THE ART OF FASHION ILLUSTRATION | PART 2: THE ICONS

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Warm Leatherette Ink, aquarelle, and Posca pen.

Job: 10-42056 Title: RP - Art of Fashion Illustration

DTP: LY Page: 109

42056 - Art of Fashion Illustration_int.indd 109 10/31/14 3:26 PM

Job: 10-42056 Title: RP - Art of Fashion Illustration

DTP: LY Page: 110

42056 - Art of Fashion Illustration_int.indd 110 10/31/14 4:26 PM 42056 - Art

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Mlle Fatale Rouge Pouf Ink, feather

pen, brush, and colored pencil.

InÛmences

With the encouragement of her father,

BurÅtt went to fashion school where she

studied to be a designer but took many

classes in fashion illustration. “I had a

teacher who would give us a brief when

we had an assignment. She would say,

‘Of course you can misunderstand, please

misunderstand, do misunderstand.’ She

meant that it was important to interpret

the assignment in our own way, to use our

imagination. For me it worked to break the

rules.” BurÅtt remembers school as a place

where she was pushed to try new techniques

and experiment with style. “Aou would

bring your favorite paper and pens and

brushes to class, and then the teacher would

tell you to swap with the person next to

you. Aou were confronted with what to do

with this brush you weren’t familiar with. It

was a really good way of learning.”

After college, BurÅtt moved to Paris, started

her own clothing line, and began to draw

more—combining her interest in fashion

with illustration. With the help of an agent,

she began receiving illustration commissions

from some of the top names in the fashion

and beauty industry. BurÅtt is known largely

for her work with Vogue, Elle, Glamour, and

Grazia magazines, beauty brands Guerlain

and Sephora, and another Swedish im-

port—retail giant H&M. “It was really fun

and free working with H&M,” she says.

BurÅtt created an archive of more than 120

drawings that the brand uses on the walls

of its stores around the world, including

Singapore, Tokyo, Athens, New Aork, and

London. “I like their attitude and it was

important to them to signal to the client that

fashion is fun. They like a touch of humor,

which suits me a lot.”

Job: 10-42056 Title: RP - Art of Fashion Illustration

DTP: LY Page: 110

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