“My grandparents used to have a fashion label and my mother is an artist whom possesses great individual style so fashion design was always going to be an industry I was drawn towards,” illustrator and designer Penelope Bell said.

Bell has been drawing from the time she could hold a pencil, around two to three years old. She says she was obsessed. “A sketch pad and pencils would follow me almost everywhere I went and eventually a common theme of well dressed women emerged in almost all of my pictures.” Bell grew up on a remote sheep and cattle station where opportunities to see fashionable women were rare which only encouraged her curiosity for fashion even more. “When I did see women with impeccable individual
style I was drawn to the confidence and pride they seemingly so effortlessly exuded.” Bell also believes her heritage is what makes her work differ from others. “The daughter of a sheep and cattle grazier and art teacher, I know and wholeheartedly respect what it takes to bring a garment or accessory to life from its initial earth source to the shop floor.” Conscious responsibility has always been important to Bell’s creative practice. “The understanding, knowledge and respect for the agricultural industries and the important role they play in our lives, runs deep and true for me.”

Bell established a fashion label at 23 after graduating from Fashion Design, but only became a fashion illustrator after being made redundant from a marketing position in 2014. “I decided I would stop wondering ‘what if?’ and just bite the bullet and pursue fashion illustration.” Bell worked with luxury brands in New York City before establishing her own business in Brisbane. With more than 15 years experience in fashion design, illustration, styling, marketing, public relations and event and sales management; she has a comprehensive and varied skill set.

Bell describes her role as a fashion illustrator as being like a storyteller. “It’s my responsibility to share a brand’s story through the form of visual imagery,” she said. “The biggest challenge in working for bigger, more established brands is tailoring your work to suit their aesthetic, while also maintaining your own original style. You want people to recognise the artwork as being yours, the brand by the product, and for the two to complement each other.”

While Bell takes inspiration from art, design, fashion and travel, her main focus is on nature. “Perhaps the greatest source of inspiration to me is experiencing immeasurable joy in the everyday; the rising of the sun, the sweet singing of birds in the trees, the simple pleasures of life itself,” Bell says. As a young child, she had access to an exhilarating world of nature and natural fibres, which influence her work today. Her love of nature is also seen through Bell’s focus on sustainable and slow fashion. “My work is centred around conscious design and quality materials.”