20 Years of Drawing Fashion: a Photo Montage

This series of sketches illustrates my evolution from childhood into adulthood as a fashion designer.

2000

I found this drawing in an old diary from when I was eight years old. It’s crazy to me that my obsession with designing clothes started back then. I’m laughing at the AOL screen name brainstorming session. (I ended up going with “Amipuff8”)

2002

Here’s another drawing in the same diary, approximately two years later when I was 10 years old.

2006

At age 14, I started experimenting with drawing the side profile. Judging by my note “oh no,” I don’t think I was satisfied with the results…

2010

These sketches are from my first year at the Fashion Institute of Technology. By age 18, I had started to gravitate towards a soft drawing style with lots of shading. I hadn’t figured out how to draw hands yet, so I left them out of my illustrations.

2011

One year later, I still wasn’t comfortable drawing hands.

2013

By age 21, I started to go a little nuts with the shading. I clearly wasn’t into drawing the face (or different shoes.)

2020

These are sketches I recently drew at age 28 (including the templates in the background.)

Here’s what’s changed:
I created templates for myself to make drawing the head, hands, and feet easier.
Though I still don’t love drawing the face, it’s much easier now. I can say the same things about hands.
I still like to shade but try not to go overboard
My line quality is more confident.
I style my illustrations with hairstyles, sunglasses, shoes, bags, etc.

So there you have it. 20 years of drawing and designing clothes.

Whew! This post is making me a bit emotional.

Fashion design has always been there for me. My childhood was complicated and drawing is the thing I did to access peace and joy. It was my outlet, my sanctuary. I wouldn’t be the same person without it.