Whenever you pick up a dress, whether it's designer or mass retail, you might wonder how many people it took to get it to the hanger — the designer, the pattern-maker, the seamstresses, and so on. But, a crucial, yet often overlooked, part of the process is fashion illustrators like Rachel Nosco. The artist works behind the scenes, translating a designer's rough sketch into a full-blown, colorful drawing that’s just as much a masterpiece as the final runway look.
So, when it comes to getting dressed in the morning, Nosco, a New York-based freelance illustrator for mainstream and luxury brands, has a leg up. She uses her creative sense of color-coordinating and proportion to create looks that are more like moving works of art — if only we could frame them. And, while we won't be bidding on her winning ensembles at an art auction, the recent FIT grad is capturing her outfit mixing for all the style-obsessed to ogle at East // West. The blog is a collaboration with Nosco's middle-school best friend, L.A.-based Lizzie Furlong, and it shows off the duo's sartorial skills from both coasts.
We tapped Nosco's know-how for our latest summer style roundup, asking the talented artist to curate eight picturesque outfits anyone can wear. With high-fashion inclinations and her favorite pieces from T.J.Maxx, she was able to give hiking and surfing getups a whole new spin. Illustrating may be Nosco's day job, but she wears her looks as well as she sketches them.
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