Named by Vogue as one of the fashion industry’s most in-demand illustrators, Jeanette Getrost is an internationally recognized artist. But starting out, she didn’t even know fashion illustration was a thing. “I assumed that you could either be a designer or a model,” Getrost admitted in an interview with Entrepreneur. “I didn’t really understand the industry, so I would just draw clothing a lot.”
“I was getting some traction on Tumblr when I decided to post my drawings to Instagram,” she explained, talking about her humble beginnings. “I wrote in my bio that I was a fashion illustrator, even though I hadn’t been hired at that point as an illustrator. Pretty soon after, I started getting inquiries — just for small gigs, illustrations for someone’s website they were launching, things like that.”
Luckily, people soon took note of her distinctively classical vision, and she has since partnered with luxury brands ranging from Chanel and Dior to Esteé Lauder and Tiffany & Co. “If I had to guess, I’d say 85 percent of the inquiries I get probably come from people seeing my Instagram,” she says.
“I try to share my creative process with people,” she adds. “If the lighting in my studio looks really nice, I can just set up an existing painting and show the setting of what the studio is like. If I’m lying on the couch sketching, I might think, This is a nice moment, I’ll capture this. I love natural lighting and that magic hour of the sun setting.”
Here are some highlights from her Instagram page:
