London-based fashion illustrator, Bobby Hillson has had an interestingly vast career. She started her illustration career working for publications such as Vogue and The Sunday Times, and designers like Coco Chanel. In 1969 she founded her own children’s wear, which subsequently earned her nomination for The Times newspaper’s designer of the year.

After years in the fashion industry Hillson turned her hand to teaching. She returned to Central Saint Martin’s and set up the MA Fashion Course. In her time there she has taught many prominent British fashion designers, such as Alexander McQueen, Stephen Jones and Rifat Ozbek.

Born in Japan, Hiroshi Tanabe headed to Italy to study at the Accademia Di Brella in Milan. Originally focused of fine art his work started to take more of an illustrative route. He started creating work with vivid colour, more graphic shapes and lines, reminiscent of tradition Japanese woodcuts. He got his first illustration job designing t-shirts for a Milan night club, flash forward a few years, in 1994 he won the honoured Vogue/Sotheby’s Beaton Award for fashion illustration. To see more of Tanabe’s work and to find out more go to his website.

An ex-student of my old stomping grounds, Middlesex University, Richard Gray’s talent was spotted by none other than Anna Piaggi. In 1988 Piaggi asked Grey to collaborate with her for her famous Doppie Pagine (double-page Spread) in Vogue Italia. Since then Grey has gone on to work with big fashion brands such as Agent Provocateur, Givenchy and Alexander McQueen. He has illustrated for celebrities, major fashion shows, and had his work in the windows of Milan’s Via Della Spiga. His career came full circle in 2006 when he was asked to design an installation for Anna Piaggi’s exhibition Fashion-ology. You can find more of Grey’s illustrations here.

A young Richard Haines ventured to New York City with hopes in making it big in the illustration world, instead found himself smack bang in the middle of a successful career of a fashion designer. Some years later after working with brands like Calvin Klein, Perry Ellis, and Bill Blass, he turned his hand back to illustration. With a keen understanding of fabric, the fall and shape of garments, Haise records the people of New York and their style off-the-cuff, posting them on his blog “What I Saw Today”. He has also established himself as a pretty sought after illustrator to boot!

Masha is based in London, where she creates wild and intricate illustrations for various clients such as Vodafone, Mercedes and All Saints. Her images start off as handmade, and are then manipulated digitally to enhance the colours and textures. Some of her work uses brilliantly vivid colours, but even her black and white work packs a real punch. Visit her Behance page here.

What is it about the French? When it comes to style, they seem to get it so right. Sophie Griotto’s work is a pleasure to look through. Every piece is beautiful…even her sketches and fashion design illustrations look as though they deserve wall space. There’s a looseness about her work that looks natural and effortless. Do take a look at her blog; it’s full of brilliant Parisian pizzazz! Her website also has an excellent collection of fashion illustrations.

Lucy MacLeod has a ridiculous amount of talent. She seems to be able to draw from life with precision and ease, but then also has the creativity to spice it up. This is an awesome mix. What’s also nice is to be able to see every mark made. It feels hand crafted and passionate. Her clients include British Airways, Marie Claire, La Perla and Levi Strauss.

Thanks to Dwayne Bell (previously on The Lounge) for the suggestion.