Katie Rodgers is New York-based illustrator who has worked with Cartier, Nina Ricci, Swarovski, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Disney, and Harper’s Bazaar among many others. She has a staggering online following. Her Facebook page has well in excess of 1 million likes, while her instagram boasts upwards of 643 thousand followers.

Rodgers grew up in a rural town outside of Atlanta, Georgia. At age seven, she fell in love with art and fashion after an aunt gifted her a set of watercolours. She studied industrial design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. However, after realising industrial design was not quite right for her, she convinced the school to let her study fashion and accessory design abroad in Florence, Italy.

After graduating Rodgers moved to Boston and began working as an apparel designer for Reebok. In her spare time, she would still paint, and in 2009 she launched the blog, Paper Fashion, as an outlet for her illustrations. Her paintings were of classic and delicate figures, made up of flowing lines and speckled details. Her goal was to post a new painting every day.

The blog quickly built up a following and the fashion industry noticed. Within one year of starting the blog, New York-based fashion house, Coach, commissioned Rodgers to illustrate a model for its holiday campaign. Much to her surprise, and almost accidentally, Rodgers had kickstarted a career as a fashion illustrator.

You can see more of Katie Rodgers’ work on Paper Fashion. If you are the nosy type, that loves to see other artist’s workspace, Rue Magazine interviewed Rodgers in her Manhattan apartment.