Live Runway Sketches at the 2013 Redress Ecochic Design Awards

Writing this post right now feels so appropriate since it was this very competition, the 2012 Ecochic Design Awards for which I was a semi-finalist and gave my career and my self esteem the much needed boost to start freelancing.

And this year I've promised myself to take deliberate steps toward improving my illustration career, setting goals, pitching more editors, making cold calls - basically being more proactive instead of reactive. The awards last year was also one of the first posts on this blog, I feel like I've come full circle.

This was my first time live-sketching a fashion show and there is nothing more FUN! I can't believe I haven't tried this earlier, it's like life drawing class but with better music and more adrenaline. It's also an unbelievably good way to burn through paper, I bought this huge cheap watercolour pad while on vacation in Beijing, the texture is a combination of toilet paper and recycled cardboard box so this was a great way to finish up some of that. Runway sketching is also really difficult, those models move fast! While drawing I kept thinking about other illustrators who do this so well, like fashion illustrator Danielle Meder, Kenneth Paul Block and Richard Haines. Hong Kong doesn't have too too many fashion shows, but the next chance I get I'm on it.

1. An outfit from this year's winner Germany's Karen Jessen. 2. Mainland China's finalist Xinyan Dai's denim dress. 3. UK finalist Clémentine Sander's coral inspired textural design. 

Click through to see some streetstyle sketches of guests and judges from the show.

Sketches from PFW | Chalayan Changes Clothes

Hussein Chalayan F/W 2013. Pencil and gouache on cardboard.

Ah, what a horrible day. I started a small fire in my kitchen this morning. I left my Diva Cup boiling on the stove thinking I would come back to it but then got distracted with an illustration, when I came back all the water was gone and the thing was literally on fire. I was so scared and it left ashes absolutely everywhere in my kitchen. I spent the day wiping everything and it still looks like Industrial Era London in here. 

It kind of ruined my day and I wasn't up for any serious illustrating, so I just did a quick little gouache sketch on cardboard, so commitment free.

There are some really fabulous gifs floating around on the internet of the Chalayan show (apparently it's just Chalayan now, took me forever to find it on Style.com 'cos I kept searching under H). I feel like we really are living in the golden age of the 'gifs' as a medium (see Vine, all of Tumblr and work by illustrator and fellow Ryerson grad Tara Dougans). Except this gif here below nearly gave me a seizure flashing non-stop while I was typing out this post.

Gifs by Errolson Hugh. Photos via Strangeline.

Sketches from MFW | Furs at Marni Fall 2013

Marni in the Forest. Pencil, watercolour and Photoshop.

Experimenting with rendering furs. Not feeling quite so loquacious today, so I'll keep it short.

Green is Chic at the 2012 Ecochic Design Awards

Sabrina and her covetable earrings.

Nibbles from the afterparty at Assaggio.

I went to the Ecochic Design Awards last night, it's a sustainable fashion competition organized by Redress and I was lucky enough to be able to participate this year as one of the semi-finalists. Although my part finished in April I still got to attend the final judging/fashion show as a general fashion lover and supporter of fellow independent designers. And the show did not disappoint, each designer had such unique style and personality which was really evident in their designs but it was Wister Tsang's avant-garde denim focused collection that won the judges' favour. So congratulations to Wister and to all the other 2012 finalists!

I was going to sit by myself (the horror! No, just kidding, I'm a strong independent Black Asian woman who don't need no man.) but through the magic of twitter I nabbed a seat next to my friend the stylist/social media maven Jasmine Webster and she introduced me to the gorgeous photographer Sabrina Sikoura. 

And for some much needed illustration practice I decided to draw some memorable moments from the night. And below are some more photos from the event, enjoy! 

Wearing all the flowers.
ps. this the shirt I made for the competition!.

Wister Tsang's winning collection.

The Redress founders, Christina Dean and Cherie Wong.
Cherie is wearing a zero-waste dress!