Big thanks to our friends: Ground-zero from UK and Jantine Van Peski from Belgium, allowing us to draw their outfits on big-size! Their outfits are so amazing! Here is the example drawings of their outfits on Fashionary templates drawn by our illustrator Vikki.

With basic drawing tools, pencils HB, 2B, 4B & 6B, Vikki drew on the super big fashion templates using the simple method, printing 10 A4 papers and make a super big Fashionary templates. It’s about 1:11 of original A5 Fashionary templates to super big templates!! More Jantine‘s collection “WIRES 10.0″ from her master degree at Antwerp Fashion Academy as below. Her work focus on silhouette and craftsmanship with her great technique. And it’s super cool!

Ground-zero was established in 2003 by the talented duo brothers, Eri and Philip chu. Unique graphic print is their icon.They create outfits with moods, thoughts and attitude. Our team love this chinese blue floral vase dress very much and we spent around 8 hours to sketch the beautiful floral prints in details.

Below is ground-zero CHINATOWN SS12 collection.

Another big thanks to Kinokuniya, Sydney! Three big posters are featured on their window display and we raised up a question in the middle poster: Do you sketch faster when using the Fashionary templates?

The result can be viewed online. According record from 10 Apr, 98.78% people say YES and find they sketch faster with their Fashionary! To poll now, please go here.

After a year, we would like to continue our illustrator series :)

Below are the illustrators we loved the most over the past year. If you missed our series, here is PART 1, PART 2.

1) Paperfashion, based in Boston, US

Kathryn Elyse Rodgers is currently working as an apparel designer for Reebok in Boston. She is a passionate, creative thinker and excited about her future and present. I love her way in expression the details of outfits so much, it’s interesting and full of texture!

2) George Stavrinos, based in NY, US  (1948–1990)

George Stavrinos was an amazing artist who sketched those fabulous Bergdorf’s ads in the New York Times. I found the realism of his fashion figures refreshing.  Sadly, the great Stavrinos passed away in 1990 at the young age of 42 due to complications from pneumonia.

3) Caroline Andrieu, based in Paris, France

As an art director in Vogue.fr for 5 years, Caroline has naturaly been influenced by her work and universe. She is fascinated by drawing and realistic outlines, has contributed to magazine such as Vogue, The Hub, So Chic, worked with young brands as Gat Rimon or Pop Cph, and regularly contributes to Diesel Fragrance Factory website.

4) Anna Kiper, based in NY, US

Anna Kiper is a leading New York City based fashion designer and professor at the USA’s two most prestigious fashion colleges, the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Parsons School of Design. Her work has been widely published in books and magazines, and her illustrations have been exhibited at highly respected venues in US. Recently, her new illustration book “Fashion Illustration – Inspiration and Technique” has been published.

5) Autumn whitehurst, based in NY, US

Autumn Whitehurst grew up in New Orleans and now resides in Brooklyn NY as a full time illustrator. She’s done advertising, editorial work, and CD covers for a list of clients which include Ecko Red, American Eagle Outfitters, Penguin Books, British and American Elle, Nylon Magazine, DDB, and Crush Design amongst others.

6) Connie Lim, based in London, UK

Connie Lim’s dark and mysterious works have totally captured my eyes. Her Illustrations are absolutely beautiful and she believe dark, mysterious and somewhat sexual are the qualities she can use to describe women.,  presented above are the dopest set of cards in the world.

7) Audrey Kawasaki, based in Los Angeles, US

Audrey Kawasaki is good at painting with oils and graphite directly on wood panels, bringing unexpected warmth to her compositions. Without exception, Audrey’s characters seem melancholic, captive in their own sensuous, dreamy universe, yet accessible and ready to be unraveled.

8) Erin petson, based in London,UK

An Artist and Illustrator, Erin works at the cutting edge of traditional and mixed media. Her love of drawing, mark making and montage create powerful and provocative images.Her subjects have a mystical energy that is ethereal and edgy.

9) Sylvia Ji, based in Los Angeles, US

With an artistic family, Sylvia Ji have been influenced by both her mother and father’s paintings and sketches. Focusing especially on feminine figures, Sylvia explores beauty, sensuality, social notions in provocative captivating artworks. Some of her heroines are symbolic reflections of her, others are fictional figures, juxtaposed with mystical landscapes, all bursting into passion and decay.

10) Spiros Halaris, based in London, UK

Spiros is a graphic design graduate from Middlesex University. He works with various techniques using collages, hand drawn as well as digital elements. Most of his images embrace emotions, human elements and fashion. He has worked for various fashion publications including Company, Swide by D&G and The Hub, and has featured in a number of illustration books.

11) Amelie Hegardt, based in Stockholm, Sweden

Bleeding ink and splashes of water definitely a trademark of Amelie Hegardt’s illustratior. She is based in Stockholm and her work is amazing. She sketches for mags such as Elle, Maxi, Madame, Plaza and Glamour. At this point we should probably also mention her advertising for Mac Cosmetics and Umberto Giannini.

12) Lovisa Burfitt, based in Paris, France

Fashion designer and illustrator Lovisa Burfitt lives and works in Paris since 2002. She made some great window art for H&M and worked for other clients as Bloomingdale’s, Kenzo, Absolut Vodka, Le Ciel Bleu in Tokyo and magazines as Vogue, ELLE, Sunday Times, THE/END, Fashion Tale, Milk and Costume. Beside the illustrations she also designs for her own clothing label Burfitt in Paris 2003 where her illustrations are a big part of the concept. It’s artful!

13) Martine Johanna, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Martine Johanna’s works are a combination of multiple feelings, sensations, and personal experiences. She finds inspiration in the vastest of cultural, historical and mythological backgrounds she never ceases to explore.

14) Miyuki Ohashi, based in Tokyo, Japan

Miyuki Ohashi is a Japanese illustrator, depicting glamorous women is simple strokes. Her style is unique and her artwork is truly amazing.

15) Julie Verhoeven, based in London, UK

I’m enchanted with artist Julie Verhoeven alluring and provocative illustrations. The London based fashion designer and illustrator has created work for big brands including Louis Vuitton, Versace and H&M. Beginning her career assisting John Galliano, she became a designer in her own right with her label Gibo by Julie Verhoeven.

16) Cassandra Rhodin, based in  Stockholm, Sweden

Cassandra Rhodin is a Swedish fashion illustrator that loves to draw bold, chic, sensual women inspired by the iconic style of the roaring 20s and by silent movie sirens: thin, elongated beauties with smoky smoldering eyes, pouty lips and Parisian flair.

17) Patrick Nagel,Los Angeles, US (1945-1984)

Nagel illustration is simple and streamlined, but Nagel’s woman is complicated – which is the key to her subliminal appeal. She wants attention, sometimes flauntingly, but remains distant. She appears intelligent, self-possessed, but removed. Nagel often said that he didn’t really want to know these women too well. He imagined them as creatures of the night who drank and smoked too much.

18) Carl Erickson, based in NY, US (1891 – 1958)

Leading fashion and advertising artist, especially well known for this work for Vogue and cosmetics. Erickson, indeed, is a hard-working man, a very serious artist who is usually practicing when not actually performing. For every piece of work reproduced in the magazines he has made dozens of studies. In spare moments he is usually busy drawing or painting from the model – he never draws without a model – and his sketchbook goes with him to the restaurant and the theatre.

19) Kelly Smith, based in Tasmania, Australia

Kelly Smith is a freelance Illustrator and she graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Tasmanian School of Art & has since gone on to pursue a career in both portrait & fashion illustration.

20) Anna Higgie, based in Barcelona, Spain

Anna Higgie mix contemporary art with vintage influences, notable technical skills. The grace, youth and style, bold graphic abstraction and honest curves on edges of eyes, shoulders and faces celebrate the human form.

21) Catalina Estrada, based in Barcelona, Spain

Born and raised in Colombia, and living in Barcelona since 1999, Catalina brings all the colors and power of Latin-American folklore and refines it with a subtle touch of European sophistication. Some of her clients include: Paul Smith, Coca-Cola, Sony Music, Camper, Nike, Levis, Smart/Mercedes Benz, Unicef, Motorola, Chronicle Books, Zara Home, among many others.

22) Coco pit, based in London, UK

Coco finds inspiration in a wide variety of places. Living between Paris and London she feels at ease with the visual landscapes of both cities – as art and fashion capitals, they are a byword for innovation, creativity and metropolitan edge. She likes to mix several techniques but aims for restraint and minimalism in the finished work as she likes the results achieved from combining these two approaches.

23) Maren Esdar, based in Hamburg, Germany

German illustrator Maren Esdar was educated both as a stylist and illustrator in Hamburg and London.Her original, surreal and stylish mixed media collages, composed both by hand and computer are her iconic work. She has been published in Vogue, W, NY Times, Esquire and Surface amongst others.

24) Jennifer Busking, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Jennifer Busking is a talented, young fashion illustrator from Netherlands who studied fashion design. Her characters are Mysterious and  share a strong connection with wildlife, impeccably drawn with thin pens and pencils finished by delicate watercolor strokes on paper.

25) Vita Yang, based in Taiwan

Vita Yang holds a BA degree in National Taiwan University of Arts in Visual Communication Design. Her illustration works can be seen in Vogue Taiwan, The Big Issue Taiwan, Elle Taiwan. Also she has collaborated with NIGO’s HUMAN MADE, illustrated  for the 2011 SS collection on the official website. Series work: “This is why I miss London so much.” was awarded of NIGO Prize and also chosen work of American Illustration 30.

26) James Hamilton Butler, based in Manchester, UK

English artist James Hamilton is already adept in a variety of creative media from costume, embroidery and fashion design, as well as a number of print-based illustration commissions from both corporate clients and individual illustration commissioners including Swarovski.

27) Fleur van maarschalkerwaart, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands

The loose way of Fleur van maarschalkerwaart’s illustrations’ techniques is cool and it’s creative that some of the drawings are  using thread as the media. It’s artistic. Her works had been exhibited in Amsterdam, Paris and New York.

28) Marguerite sauvage, based in Paris, France

Marguerite Sauvage has worked since 2001 as an illustrator, art director and animator creating chic modern illustrations that capture the lifestyle of today’s trendsetters. With illustration that is stylish yet accessible, she has been in demand with prominent advertising and corporate clients including PlayStation, Apple, Marshall Fields, Motorola or Orange.

29) Katy Smail, based in NY, US

KT Smail is a Scottish illustrator who graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a First class degree in Illustration. She now lives in New York where she continues to draw tragic girls with broken hearts, faraway lovers and dusty dresses….

30) Paul Iribe, based in France (1883-1935)

His works in the pochoir technique greatly appealed to the couturier because their simple lines and broad, flat, abstract expanses of bright color perfectly captured the simple Empire-style dresses he was then known for. “Les Robes de Paul Poiret”, the resulting publication, was highly influential, and brought Iribe great fame, as well as numerous additional requests from other designers, including Coco Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin, Jeanne Paquin, the Callot Soeurs and Jacques Doucet, for whom he was asked to redecorate his apartment in the newly fashionable Art Deco style.

http://www.ffixxed.com

ffiXXed is a collaborative art and design project initiated by Australian artist/designers Kain Picken and Fiona Lau in Berlin, February 2008. Beside making fashion collection, Fiona and Kain are very active in art exhibition world-wide. Today, we are glad to invite this sweet couple to share the experience with us :)

Where did the name ffiXXed come from?
We didn’t really think about it that much to be honest. Someone mentioned to us that it was related to the idea of not having a ‘fixed’ location for our project, which we like. There is also with the shift in the spelling a kind of reference to ideas or meaning not being so fixed.

ffiXXed was founded in Berlin 2008, what made you start doing your own brand?
We wanted to make our collaboration a more intergraded part of our life, and to be able to make a living from doing what we wanted to do. Making a brand is one way to try and do this. We were already making some collaborative pieces and giving it a name really helped to solidify the project. And this was our first step to making a brand.

Can you share the process of making a collection with us?
It’s kind of quite fragmented, we always work on a lot of different things at once and they all inform one another in various ways. It’s not until there’s the reality of a deadline that we begin to pull it together as a collection. The ideas usually emerge from our day –to-day lives. Often ideas from other projects form the basis of the collection, and equally often they just come from nowhere Butin terms of designing actual clothing we usually go back an forth with ideas,reworking each others input and samples. At least this is when the process is at it’s most coherent!

What is the most enjoyable moments of designing the collections?
The energy and momentum that builds right before we have to finish sampling.There’s a lot of pressure and everything’s happening at full speed. This is when we really start developing new idea’s and reworking everything last minute.

And the most difficult?
This is also the most difficult time, for everyone!

What do you want people to feel when they are wearing ffiXXed?
Comfortable in whatever they’re doing.

Where is your inspiration or research come from?
We just follow our interests in certain things and this flows on through what we do. A lot of the time people, ideas, objects, or situations come along totally unexpected and change everything we’re thinking.

What will you do when you are running out of ideas?
Cooking.

Will you use computer in your creative process? Or you love to keep things in paper?
We use a combination of both. We often make collages on the computer but use paper for quick drawings and notes. We always make these random lists and have pages and pages of notes floating around the studio.

We know that you have Fashionary, which part of it do you love the most?
The size charts for different countries, and the body templates. Neither of us are any good at fashion illustration, so it definitely helps us to quickly draw up some sketches.

What sketching tools you like to use when you sketch your outfits?
We just use whatever is immediately available to us.

BUSAN pret a porter a/w 2011

Do you think Shenzhen/China is a good place for fashion business? Any advantages?
There are unique and exciting possibilities for new spaces and ideas in China right now, and for sure the access to industry is an advantage especially for fashion.

Any advice for the people who are working like you?
Don’t listen too much to other peoples advice.

http://postdecember.com/

Penter and I first met So hyan Bhaak in Seoul fashion week at Oct, 2010.  I remember it’s freezing at that time, we have a cup of mango tea in Sohyan’s white studio and workshop, sharing our views in fashion, art and things happen in Seoul and HK. This time, we are glad to invite her to share her own experience in building her own brand, Post December in Seoul with us!

Where did the name Post December come from?
it came from the idea of  ”13th month”. not exist but in dream or memory.

Post December was founded by you in 2009, what made you start doing your own brand?
Always, I wanted to create something on my own. I loved to make something that i am thinking. No hesitation to start business.

What do you want people to feel when they are wearing Post December?
I normaly put childhood memories into garments. Hope people to feel something vague memory & longing of their own.

What is the most enjoyable moments of designing your collection?
Research step. cause we feel that we can do everything what we want. ( Reality is a bit different though.) And, when we finish the collection, we do fitting on our own, before showing to anybody. Feel great!

And the most difficult?
Actual business circumstances are different than we pursue. Reality.

What will you do when you are running out of ideas?
Going out.

You studied MA in the UK, do you think it helps your career as a fashion designer?
Yes. I have learned what reasearch is about in UK. & Studio system.

Do you think Korea is a good place for fashion business? Any advantages?
Yes. Getting better. Seoul city is supporting Fashion design filed in many ways.

Will you use computer in your creative process? Or you love to keep things in paper?
Computer, Yes. I would love to. Paper work is good as well. But I understand computer work helps work effectively.

What sketching tools you like to use when you sketch your outfits?
Pencle drawing, & Colouring.

We know that you have Fashionary, which part of it do you love the most?
Templates!

Any advice for the people who are working like you?
Well. To find out your own style & concept. Simple but difficult.

Thanks Sohyan for the sincerely interview, we are missing you :)

Can you share the process of making a collection with us?
I start with collecting nice things, thoughts and feelings. This can be from inspiring pictures, a walk in the park, a good conversation, a souvenir from one of my trips. At the same time I keep a scrapbook with me at all times and start to draw, sketch and write everything down that pops in my mind. It sounds chaotic but for me at the end it’s so structured and clear!

What is the most enjoyable moments of designing the collections?
I can appreciate each stage of designing. I love the first stage of collecting, research and observing things. The drawing phase is just as exciting and so real and very practical, you like your design or you don’t. Sourcing all the right fabrics and colour is such a challenge as well and the cherry on the pie is of course the photoshoot! Where you can create the complete feel of the brand and I love to shoot the pictures myself too.

And the most difficult?
All of them as well…you keep challenging yourself in each stage. You want to make a better collection each season and you are getting more critical towards yourself I guess. But I must say the selling part is tough, therefore I have agencies and distributors I work very closely with.

Where does your inspiration or research come from?
I love ordinary daily stuff. I can get inspired by a movie, an icon, a friend, a song, aphoto, a piece of fabric, you name it and I create it!

What will you do when you are running out of ideas?
Take a break and don’t force yourself, the confrontation of feeling uninspired is even worse. I go out for a nice cup of tea and a slice of carrot cake, even better if the placeis somewhere in Paris…. Or watch a good movie, eat in a great restaurant and have agood night out with friends.

Will you use computer in your creative process? Or you love to keep things inpaper?
Both! I’m from the old and newskool. I start on paper and end up translating them onthe computer. I love the mix of authentic art and sketches with digital photography and typography.

We know that you have Fashionary, which part of it do you love the most?
The swift way of sketching and getting the right proportions immediately. Creating the whole outfit at once is also a very cool aspect, I love it!

What sketching tools you like to use when you sketch your outfits?
I always use my ‘special’ black fineliner, if they stop producing this particular pen I will go nuts I think. And I just need my scrapbook or a stack of A4 papers.

Do you think Amsterdam is a good place for fashion business? Any Anyadvantages?
Amsterdam is a great place since there are a lot of opportunities. But it’s also a tough market because of the rise new brands and big chain stores ruling the market.We started our company in 2010, which is labeled as a crisis year supposedly, but I always think that you have to work from your own perspective and ideas, then there’salways a way of creating your own chances.

Any advice for the people who are working like you?
Work hard and believe in what you are doing! Don’t worry too much…

Where did the name S.Nine come from?
S.N. is my initial, and Nine is my birth month.

What do you want people to feel when they are wearing S.Nine?
Just how they feel the best version of themselves – uplifted and inspired, allowing herself to go about her life in her unique ways.

Where is your inspiration or research come from?
Everywhere, inner, outer, sound, images, past, present and future.

We know that you have Fashionary, which part of it do you love the most?
Very portable, very nice collection of references, and of course the dotted figures as a guideline for quick sketches

Any advice for the people who are working like you?
Don’t be afraid, but be prepared and research well. Realize the design and execute it beautifully – let the work speaks.

Editor notes: After talking with Susanna, we feel her energy and the passion. As she was not graduated as a fashion design student from her first degree. But she fought her own way to worked at the internship from Diane von Furstenberg and then as an apprentice of Anne Valerie Hash in Paris. This is really inspiring! Thanks Susanna!!

Did you ever thought of making your own clothes, own label and own shop when you are young? I believe it’s many fashion designer’s dreams! Today, let’s see how my new friend, Poppy, made her dream come true :)

Poppy Lissiman was founded in 2009, what made you start doing your own brand?
It sounds really clichéd but I started my own label after I couldn’t find certain pieces in the market that I wanted to wear. My mother taught me to sew at a young age so I have always made clothes for myself and occasionally friends, starting my own label just seemed like the most natural thing to do. It has always been a goal to have my own shop one day as well, starting my label would be the first stepping stone to getting my name out there and eventually having my own store.

What do you want people to feel when they are wearing Poppy Lissiman?
I want them to feel confident and that they’re wearing something that is unique and good quality.

Can you share the process of making a collection with us?
I usually start with a loose theme but it doesn’t really start to take shape until I see the fabrics I want to work with and then the colour palate. Thats when the designs really start to take form. Prints have always been a best seller for me and a medium I love to work with so I tend to pick out a couple of prints first then work the rest of the collection around them with the other block colours, trimmings, finishings etc. Even right towards the end of the sample making I am still designing extra pieces and editing out ones I dont think fit with the rest of the collection.

Do you have any favorite collection or pieces among your creations?
Every new collection I work on is my new favourite! In my very first collection (Spring Summer 2009) I did a biker jacket in electric blue satin with gold zips. It was my best selling piece for that collection and I repeated the style again with a few slight changes for the following season; AW2010, in a mustard yellow with black polka dots, this piece sold equality as well and I have almost worn this sample to death.

Do you think Australia is a good place for fashion business? Any advantages?
Yes and no, I live in Perth in Western Australia which is quite isolated from other more fashion driven cities like Sydney and Melbourne. Most of the fabric suppliers in Australia are based in Sydney and Melbourne and what is available is limited which is why I source my fabrics overseas. On the other hand the fashion community in Perth, and Australia for that matter is very nurturing of young designers and understand the difficulties of starting a small business. There are a lot of government grants available to designers to help them through the first couple of years of their business.

Any advice for the people who are working like you?
Be prepared for critique, knock backs and lots of hard work that sometimes doesnt feel very creative at all but after a while it all starts to pay off. Always keep a positive attitude and if you truely love what you do it will never really feel like work anyway.

For global fashion brands, Brazil is a land of opportunity. Just last year, Diane von Furstenberg, Gucci, LV, Missoni, Chanel and Burberry have made, or are making, investments here, opening stores in major urban centres, São Paulo. Today, we are happy to invite Satiko and Isabel from Sao Paulo to share their own experience with us!

We do not create collections with unique themes, but with a harmonious composition of colors, patterns and shapes.

Isabel: The only premise that I have to get the drawings is the palette of colors of the collection. A white paper offers so much freedom that is overwhelming. I do all freehand drawing.

I’ve used gluing with old origami paper that I won when I was a child from my parents, and for this Autumn Winter Collection, I worked with gouache.
Then with the help of a graphic designer, I transform the original drawing scanned into a rapport that forms the patterns.

Where is your inspiration or research come from?
Satiko and Isabel: Sometimes we start from fabric to create the model, prioritizing the technical and modeling. Other times the pattern is the beginning of the process. Does not exist only one way, there are endless ways to begin the process of creation, anyway it come naturally and sometimes reverses itself during development. The fabric can “order” us to follow another path or another idea can appear in the exhaustive attempt to dominate it. To be creative we must give freedom to the process and let it go.

What will you do when you are running out of ideas?
Satiko and Isabel: We focus.

Will you use computer in your creative process? Or you love to keep things in paper?
Satiko and Isabel: We like to keep the things in paper.

We know that you have Fashionary, which part of it do you love the most?
Satiko and Isabel: Models for sketches, it is very useful.

What sketching tools you like to use when you sketch your outfits?
Satiko and Isabel: Pencil and paper.

Do you think Sao Paulo is a good place for fashion business? Any advantages?
Satiko and Isabel: Yes! Beyond the city be part of the international fashion calendar with SPFW, which handles many business of fashion, is a democratic city, heterogeneous and dynamic. And the competition is a great advantage, because it challenges us and encourages more and better.

Where did the name Injury come from?
When you are being cut and sewn you are in a situation of INJURY same as the fabrics. 

Injury was founded in Sydney 2004, what made you start doing your own brand?
Injury begins when the vampire like headshot picture of a friend was turned into graffiti art in 2002 and we called it INJURY, in order to fulfil my own design curiosity, I decided to make it a fashion related label to turn things into a 3 dimensional art form.

What do you want people to feel when they are wearing Injury ?

I wish they can feel their inner selves as much as their outlook and who they are at that particular moment. And with the outfit , I wish they can feel confident to attend any events and places without feeling misfit.

Can you share the process of making a collection with us?

My process is kind of random, however I usually starts with collecting lots of resources, from movies, musics, fabrics, photography, world news to poems, lyrics etc, anything that resembles the kind of mood I had in mind during the design stage.

Then I will start brainstorming, sometimes with friends from different professions, for example movie directors, website designers, construction workers, protesters etc…Also at the same time I will start composing random collages, experimenting with prints, drawing hand sketches, from abstract imagery to lay flats of silhouettes. Once the whole story is kind of settled I will start experimenting with real samples and fittings. Going back and forth between different stage until the collection is done.

 

Where is your inspiration or research come from?

Usually what inspires me is not anything from the fashion world – what usually inspires me are characters in movies, musicians, and strangers I meet. I usually approach my collection by observing news and what happens everyday around the world and by going outside to look at people, and get lost in time and culture can help me shape my imaginations. 

What will you do when you are running out of ideas?
Stop designing and play some music,  try to enjoy other things in life.

What is the most enjoyable moments of designing the collections?
When I start to get hold of a motif or an imagery that I can be sure it is something that I haven’t done before.

And the most difficult?
When the imagination went too far and it becomes something of a fantasy and will not be able to produce in reality.

Will you use computer in your creative process? Or you love to keep things in paper?

It depends which part and which stage of the process, usually computer comes at the later stage while hand drawings and photography plays a more important role and it is a longer stage as well.

Afterall computer is a tool but hand sketches and paper drawings have more a life to it. 

We know that you have Fashionary, which part of it do you love the most?
The human figure templates, I use them all the time for my sketching, they are especially convenient when I’m on my business trips.

What sketching tools you like to use when you sketch your outfits?
A pencil, an eraser, a bunch of  human figure templates.

Photographer credit: Lam Ho

We all know South Africa is developing rapidly in recent years, including fashion industry. We are so happy to have a chance to talk with Alice Heusser from Lalesso. She is so kind to talk about how she builded up her own brand Lalesso and how her design life is in South Africa! At the moment as we talked, she is right in Diani Beach, Kenya, designing her new collection and the studio is out-doors over looking the Indian Ocean! It really surprised us and the scene is really amazing!

Lalesso was founded by you and Olivia in 2009, what made you start doing your own brand?
I went up to Kenya, Olivia’s home country over New Year and we took a road trip up to Lamu, a small historic arcepelego on the North Coast of Kenya. We bought a whole lot of vintage lesso’s and upon our return to South Africa, made some simple skirts out of them (the trademark lalesso skirt, still our most popular design!). Fellow students and friends all remarked on them so we decided make 100 skirts and from there the brand was born.

What is your daily routine of being the director in Lalesso?
We go to the office every morning and work on admin and design. Depending of the time of year we are either in full time design mode or working on other aspects of the brand, like marketing and production.

What do you want people to feel when they are wearing Lalesso?

We want people to feel beautiful but most importantly we want them to feel comfortable and unrestricted.  We want them to step into the world of the African tropic’s when they slip on a Lalesso garment on.

What is the most enjoyable moments of designing the collections?
The most enjoyable is working on the concept and then seeing come alive. From an idea, to the sketch to the sample. It’s such a creative process and so magical each time.

And the most difficult?

Trying to decide what to keep in the collection and what to cut because we so often love every piece we design but cant keep them all, otherwise the collection would be far to big!

Do you think South Africa is a good place for fashion business? Any advantages?
We are based in South Africa and in Kenya. They are both hugely inspirational places to live in but it does mean we have to travel a lot to meet with buyers and attend trade show.

During your working process, where is your inspiration or research come from?
We get inspired by so much! Africa is a constant inspiration. For the S/S ’11 collection we looked to the ethereal movements of the sea and the world that surrounds it.

What will you do when you are running out of ideas?
We will cross that bridge if we ever get there but at the moment we have too many ideas!

Will you use computer in your creative process? Or you love to keep things in paper?
We use the computer to design the textiles but we both love good old fashioned paper and pen when it come to designing the clothes.

We know that you have Fashionary, which part of it do you love the most?
I love the model silhouettes, it makes sketching so much easier as you don’t have worry about proportion yet you can still make the drawings look unique stay true to your own personal style. I also love all the handy information, the size charts etc can be really helpful.

What sketching tools you like to use when you sketch your outfits?
I love pen and pencil crayons.

Any advice for the people who are working like you?
Always keep yourself inspired and be positive, Olivia and I are very firm believers that the energy you give out it what you attract back into your life. We both make an effort to always be positive and expect the best!