Scrolling through Bijou Karman’s Instagram feed, her inspiration is clear. Fashion, in its many shapes and forms, stands at the heart of what she does. Her illustrated characters, consisting almost entirely of women, don’t shy from making a fashion statement. In fact, they strive for it.
“I’ll take a runway image and create a whole story of who the girl is and where she would be,” Karman explained in an interview with Matter of Hand, where she mentioned her sources of inspiration. “I then place her in that situation within my illustration. That’s where a lot of my pieces start.”
But though her work zooms in on features like shoes and sunglasses, her work doesn’t necessarily comply with society’s beauty standards. “My work is not about trends at all,” says Karman, “that doesn’t interest me. If anything I like clothes that are more retro.”
Based in Los Angeles, Karman has graduated from the Art Center College of Design with a BFA in Illustration, but her interest in drawing began much earlier. “I’ve been into drawing since I was a little kid,” she recalled. “Eventually, something clicked and illustration became a major passion of mine,” she adds, noting that combining illustrating with fashion, another passion of hers, was only natural.
Follow her Instagram page for more.
