Fashion Illustrator Jeanette Getrost Plans Phone Cases, Packaging, Talk at Camp David

Nostra is in talks with former "Mad Men" costume designer Janie Bryant about collaborating on a new collection.In New York for a Q&A at Spring Place and a happy hour at Camp David in Brooklyn on Thursday, Los Angeles-based fashion illustrator Jeanette Getrost discussed how the medium is coming back to life.

About 20 will be at the NYFW event at Spring and the crowd will be considerably livelier at Camp David, the co-working space for creatives started by Milk Studios’ Mazdack Rassi and Erez Shternlich. Getrost chalked up the renewed interest in fashion illustration to social media giving artists a platform to get their work out. In addition, “People get a little tired of new media and have this yearning for the past and they want things to be handmade. You can see the same Instagram posts on a daily basis but with artists they are creating something new that you’ve never seen before.”

A few years ago she worked for “Project Runway” one season, sketching the winning looks from each episode for a social media campaign. Next week she will be live sketching at a Ferragamo event in Los Angeles. Getrost, whose work can be found on Absolut Art, also has a line of phone cases coming out with Fifth & Ninth, and she recently did some package design for Kate Somerville that can be found in Sephora. Forerunners such as René Gruau and David Downton, as well as Isaac Mizrahi’s illustrations are among her favorites. “Fashion illustration offers a new way to look at collections even if it’s current runways,” Getrost said.

The Californian can complete an illustration in 10 minutes every once in a while and other times eight hours of sketching may not measure up, she said. Visiting museums; watching classic films, especially from the Thirties like “Baby Face,” and being with other creatives helps to get the wheels turning, she said. Getrost planned to wander through the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Wednesday afternoon. Attending a city college, she took a lot of life drawing classes and composition classes, and earned a journalism degree while drawing on the side.

Getrost previously worked at Shareen Vintage in Los Angeles before founder Shareen Mitchell started designing her own line of bridal and eveningwear. Getrost did a little vintage shopping and sourcing vintage with design teams that came into the Los Angeles store. Based on her job title, people often assume she works with designers to do the collections with them. That in fact is something Getrost would love to do, and has talked with the former “Mad Men” costume designer Janie Bryant about working on a collection. Last year she partnered with the West Coast brand Frankie by handpainting a few leather jackets. Interested in textile design, her aim is to develop accessories using handbeading and embroidery. Prada, Miu Miu, Shrimps’ Hannah Weiland and Gucci’s Alessandro Michele are a few of her current favorites.

She is considering joining the Art Directors Guild in Los Angeles as an entry into costume design in the film industry. Getrost said, “I like to change it up a lot. I feel like illustrating is almost like problem solving. I get inspired by looking at something and asking, ‘How can I bring that to life? What medium should I use to create that?’”