By DANIAL FUAD

Though not quite well known to people outside of the fashion industry in Malaysia (to the writer’s knowledge), fashion illustration has been a thing for over 500 years. It followed soon after the formation of the first fashion magazine, Le Mercure Galant that was founded in 1672 in France.

Since the creation of photography, fashion illustration has slowed down as photographic images replaced illustration on magazine covers. The silver lining of the whole change is that it frees the fashion illustrator. Before this, illustrations had to be exact replicas of the dress. Now, illustrators are liberated from that and can now capture the essence of the garments instead.

The beginning of Eleen Tan

Eleen Tan is one of the practicing fashion illustrators that has been in the industry for more than a decade. “My first client was Female magazine in 2010 where I actually got the project through a friend. He had gotten the project of fashion illustration but that was not something he normally got into. As I like to draw fashion related stuff, he encouraged me to try out the project and that is how I got into the field until today,” states Eleen.

Since then, she has been working with various major fashion brands such as Dior, Mont Blanc and Salvator Ferragamo to name a few. She mentioned, “as fashion magazines are always related to fashion brands so from there, I started to get contacted by several brands to do illustration for their billboards, brand materials and calendars.”

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“That is also when I began doing my life-drawing services for them, which is now my major focus,” Eleen added. Life drawing during a fashion event is when people would come to an event then an illustrator will draw what they are wearing at that time. Eleen mentioned, “it is a very personalized drawing that they can take back home with them so that they can recall the memories of the event.”

Life as an educator

Other than being active in the industry, Eleen is also a lecturer for the BA (Honours) Fashion Marketing program and BA (Honours) in Graphic Design at First City University College. She started lecturing at The One Academy of Communication upon returning from the completion of her MA in Visual Communication (majoring in Fashion Illustration) at Birmingham City University, United Kingdom before her current role.

She commented upon the importance of educators to be connected with the industry as design trends would change from time to time. “You would know what changes in trend if you are involved in the industry and what kind of outcome the industry wants. From there, it would affect how you are teaching as you would know what is needed in the current industry and whether your student’s portfolio fits the industry,” stated Eleen.

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Further adding to the comment, “it is important to expose the students to the industry so that they would know what the industry expects from them. Sometimes the students like to do what they want in the design but if it does not fit into the brief, it will not work. When your design is useful, it is successful.”

Secret to success

There are two things that Eleen said to be the most important in order for people to go far as a fashion illustrator, which is the technical and communication skills. “Your artwork would be the first impression when people look at you and should it interest them; they will get in touch with you. Then comes the second skill where you need to have good communication skills to seal the deal,” she discloses.

Communication has always been important trait to success for Eleen as working with major brands, they all have their own identity to uphold. She touched more upon that by commenting, “being a fashion illustrator in the industry, you need to be very careful on how you design and you need to have good communication skills so that you can get the best outcome for your client. At the end, you are creating a design that resonates with their brands, and they would use for a long time so you have to design according to their style.”

She also added, “As I have been working with many brands, I have found that it is important for me to get as much information from them. I want to know what kind of outcome the client is expecting; how many guests would come to the event and what kind of collection they are promoting. I can implement them in my design better if I know all this information, for example, I would incorporate necessary colors in my design if the client wants to push a certain collection.”

At the end of it, Eleen shared the most important skill to have is humility; “no matter how famous you are, how many clients have worked with you and how good you are, always be humble because there’s your reputation that needs to be upheld. If your attitude is good, people would always be willing to work with you even if your design is not up to their standard because they believe you can improve.”

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For updates regarding Eleen, she is active on Instagram but do visit her website to know more about her portfolio and how to contact her for projects. Aside from doing fashion illustration, she is also delving into food and dessert illustration where her latest project was with a local brand, Oh Cha Matcha; designing their packaging for the moon cake festival.

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