Diary of a Dalliance With Daisy

How female fashion illustrators influence daily life.

Jun 08, 2025

Here I am in my cosy little niche on the sofa with my paints and sketchbook, like some kind of illustrated speed-dating parents' evening. But less weird.

Lots of pictures in this one!

As part of my increasing attempts to fit more fashion illustration, or people illustration, into my daily life, I’ve been looking out for female fashion illustrators. There are some wonderful illustrators on Instagram right now who I follow and adore and I’ll tell you more about those later.

In the meantime, the ones that have left the most impact historically are Mary Quant and Barbara Hulanicki. Both of whom are way more than just fashion illustrators, or even fashion designers. Both of these pioneering women were/continue to be lifestyle influencers long before being an influencer became a career.

I will look at the life and careers of both of these women in my upcoming Substack posts and notes, and also there will of course be mentions of my ultimate heroine and lifestyle guru Dame Zandra Rhodes. I haven’t decided which to “do” first, so I’ll flit between the 3. Do chip in if you have any of their work or if you have any anecdotes or memories!

In the meantime, here are some pics of my Biba/Quant gleeful dabblings this week. I’ve used brush-pen, marker pens and Procreate digital artwork.

First up, my colour rendition of the Daisy Diary page (I think it’s all supposed to be one person, hence they are all blue-eyed blondes and there’s no diversity. It’s just one “Daisy” in different outfits!)

A page from my sketchbook, featuring Daisy, from Mary Quant’s Daisy Diary. She is in many guises and dressed for all seasons.

The Daisy Diary was created by Mary Quant in the mid-70s. I had one!

My drawing of a Biba drawing. I saw the original version of this at the fantastic Biba exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum (my spiritual home) and it inspired me to buy the book Watercolor Fashion Illustration by Francisco Lo Iacono, which I found in the bookshop at the F&T museum.

Two Biba models with jutting collarbones and headlamp eyes model a reversible dress.

I’ve also been refining my own style as a Live Event Illustrator, so I’ve been practising at actual Live Events (jazz club, birthday party) and looking at my photos from previous events (weddings, proms, gigs etc).

Cheers! Here’s to becoming a wedding illustrator and living happily ever after.

It is really helpful for me to look at different illustrators whose work I admire, even if I don’t naturally work in that style, I have found it beneficial to practice drawing like them. Somehow it helps me to learn and it’s always good to know what motivates different people.

So here are some more of my own illustrations coming up. (These are very much inspired by my research on fashion illustrator Tony Viramontes and his quote about going out to look for models to draw) These are in my own style, which must be some kind of mixture of all the artists whose work I admire!

Two grooms.

Below, are my illustrations from my friends’ wedding in Sweden. Some of the guests wore traditional Swedish attire, which is wonderful.

Two bridesmaids.

Traditional Swedish wedding guest attire (except for the fella in the middle!)

In the first image, I have really impressed myself with how I painted the shoes in just a couple of lines!! I tried to make the paintings look a bit like the guests, but they are not supposed to be accurate portraits.

The image below is from a friend’s daughter’s prom. I did some full body “shots” and a “headshot”of the main character. I don’t know if you call it a “shot” when it’s a painting rather than a photograph??

Very happy school-leavers all ready for their prom and Instagram pics!

The below images were created more quickly, and from life as the characters stood (or sat )before me:

Lightnin’ fast party sketch.

Also lightnin’ fast but slightly cheating and adding the background wall-splash afterwards.

The very first pic is of me, in my little niche! Enjoying the party in the best possible way- getting to draw people and chat to them one at a time.

If you have an event coming up that you would like illustrated, please let me know.

Remote work is possible as I can work from photos- or I can even travel to you if you would like to discuss that.

I shall be turning this into a professional business pitch, but I wanted you to be the first to know. Call this my very soft business launch…

Have a lovely week and enjoy dabbling gleefully and professionally in whatever it is you do.