Dress Me, I'm Your Mannequin...: An Illustrator & Designer of the Moment

Hayden Williams. A self taught fashion illustrator and designer of whom I came into contact with through blogging. Since then, I have found myself being enticed by his colourful illustrations . I personally feel that his work deserves much more acknowledgement. So here is my blog post dedicated to his work.

The aspect that really draws my attention to William's illustrators is the vibrant use of colour and the glamorous overall vibe. He uses just enough shading to enhance the strongest of features, but still allows the drawing to have a slightly abstract feel with the minimalisticness. Some of the sketchy lines also adds to the aesthetics, and to me reflects the working stages of the working design development, almost expressing the progression of the design process, adding a sense of excitement of whats to come. The black, skecthy lines also adds a contrast for a dramatic impact. Finally I find the signature adds a lovely personal finishing touch to his pieces.
I also got into contact with Hayden Williams to ask him a little about his work, and here's what he had to say - "My name is Hayden Williams. I am from London and I'm a self taught fashion illustrator/designer. I started drawing from a very young age. I picked up a pencil when i was 3 years old and haven’t stopped drawing since! As a child, i was obsessed with Disney movies and would constantly draw the animated female characters until i felt they looked up to my standards which was nothing less than perfect! All those years of drawing the female form....it was a natural progression into fashion illustration and design as a teen. Now at 20 years of age, i come up with various illustrations of Pop Culture figures but i also come up with my own fashion collections via illustration. It’s something i’m really passionate about and i find it fun to translate my ideas from my head to paper very easily. It almost feels like a hobby to me because i’ve been doing it for soo many years now! Women inspire my sketches and my designs! Powerful, glamorous women that love luxury....the woman that knows what she wants and how to get it! That’s the woman i envision when i sketch and who i have in mind when i design. I definitely aim to have my own fashion label in the near future! I come up with all my designs via illustration so i would definitely want to put a team together to help make my sketches a reality! Thanks to social networking site Twitter, i now have singer Rihanna as a fan of my work which is incredible too and i got to meet her last year. I currently study Fashion Product Innovation at Ravensbourne University. When i sketch, i love to use Pencil and watercolour paints." And as you can see bellow, his meeting with singer Rihanna inspired a whole new collection of drawings.

Bellow are just a few of his many fashion illustration, some his own designs, others inspired by the culture around us.

This one in particular (bellow) reminds me of myself - so needless to say - this is one of my favourites. The obvious link would be the bouncy wavey hair and red lips. But I also tend to feel most confident in this colour (of dress) bellow - due to it enhancing and flattering my hair colour. And a final connection - of which is a more personal level - this illustration oozes sexual confidence and feminine empowerment - two things that I am heavily inspired by within my day to day style and my design work.