When I got my first illustrated portrait of me sent through via email, I have to say, it was a bit weird. I kept getting convulsive visions of sick fan art on manga sites where the fans get a bit carried away and start distorting the thing they love so deeply. Not that anybody reading the blog is a wacko fan who rocks themselves in a quiet corner whilst shoving Wotsits in their mouths. The concept of people taking the time to draw a person they've never met in person is just a weird one to grasp but then again, bloggers are odd creatures who email/twitter countless numbers of people they haven't met so fair dos.
I'm of course grateful though that as yet, nobody has drawn me with say a double boar and snake head coming out of my body and all of the illustrations and artwork have been beautiful, with their own point of view and pretty much make me look heaps better than in reality.
Przemek Sobocki, an illustrator based in Tokyo whose work caught my eye fairly early on, so much so that I painfully screen capped his animated work for Hintmag.com (he's just done another series for them based on the Japanese ghost stories...). It came as a surprise to me that he wanted to embark on a series of images illustrating myself in clothes that I choose myself. I of course relished the chance to raid Catwalking.com for images of pieces, most of which in a million years won't actually physically touch my skin, to carry out this fantasy repetoire of images. A bit like playing paperdolls with an illustrator involved.
Przemek emailed me the resulting work today, a series of six images illustrating my style schizophrenia at its peak. I'm not sure if it was intentional but I love the way that the familiar surroundings of my balcony at home have been worked into a moody atmosphere that references Hitchcock's The Birds and UFOs looming in the skies... both a dream and a nightmare combined for me (hate birds flying around me but would love a UFO to approach my flat...)... thank you for this one-off collaboration even if my effort was rather minimal in comparison...
Chanel Couture S/S 09 Katsuya Kamo paper headpiece - Kamo's work has always struck me but this was the icing on the very tall hair wedding cake... and Moncler Gamme Rouge jacket...
Felipe Oliveira Baptista hat and dress, Alexander McQueen leggings and Casadei ankle boots... definitely only a browse-online type outfit...not that I can find Casadei boots in reality anyway...
Giles Deacon Pacman helmet, Mark Fast dress, Atalanta Weller shoes - Was going for a sci-fi and artisinal mix here... so glad Atalanta Weller made New Gen sponsorship for next season which probably means retailable shoes from her sole name!
Givenchy jeans, Rodarte x Nicholas Kirkwood boots - These boots will never be in my possession and I'm just glad that there are two illustrated examples of me in them...good dreaming fodder...
Marc Jacobs jacket, Basso & Brooke dress, Nicholas Kirkwood shoes - A reachable outfit of sorts but alas, no feathers wafting around me in reality...
