I do try to make sure it’s a contained situation. At the shows it’s more about pencil, graphite, couple of marker highlights, and if I use pastels it’s always the nice manicured pencils that you can smudge a little and not have dust go everywhere. At home I’ll work with collage, pastel and I like to experiment. It’s definitely pared-down but I tend to do a lot of line work regardless of the occasion. What are your go-to materials for sketching runway shows? Now I’ve come to know some of them and it’s a bit more social, especially at the shows I attend yearly. What do the photographers make of having you there beside them?Īt first I think it was a novelty for them and they were surprised to see someone next to them not with a camera but a sketch pad. Occasionally if it’s a brand that doesn’t want immediate sketches but want a more detailed sketch afterwards, I have the luxury of sitting in the audience which is fun. But depending on how much space we have, very occasionally I will have the luxury of an actual table which is usually in the little gap between the photographers and the seated audience. I think Paris is very specific because a lot of the shows happen at historic landmarks and so the set ups can be a bit cumbersome. I met some great PR companies that were really kind and I showed them some work and it snowballed into a bi-annual occurrence.į Where are you situated when sketching the runway looks? Then it grew because when you’re on that list of contacts, people have their eye on you. We got a few invitations, small shows at first, the second and third tier, not the legacy brands, but some really great couture companies. I don’t think they had thought it was really a plausible thing to do but I applied for a press pass and got accredited, much to everyone’s surprise.
When I fully dove into illustration I met up with a Chilean fashion magazine, a super small and niche publication and, as it was around couture season, I floated the idea that I could go to fashion week and cover it for them. I don’t know if I have the temperament for sewing as I get too restless but I have that background of construction and craft and have kept a toe in the couture world. I went to FIT to study couture and was really lucky to have great professors, but although I did draping, pattern cutting, sewing, all my professors unanimously said my drawing was much better. How did you get invited to sketch at the haute couture shows? Azizian tells FashionUnited how she carved out such a niche spot in the field of fashion illustration. Nevertheless it is quite a rarity in modern times to be flown to Paris to sketch inside the elite environment of haute couture where the one-off handmade gowns on display are bespoke creations purchased by the world’s royalty rather than loaned for photo ops to Hollywood celebrities as is common in ready-to-wear. There’s no denying Elly Azizian, who illustrates under the moniker Fashion Strokes, has an impressive client list: Van Cleef & Arpels, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino and Sotheby’s to name a few.
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