Profile: Bijour Karman

By: Valeri Spiwak

Sitting at Bijou Karman’s dining room table, eagerly eyeballing all of her strategically placed knick-knacks and personal works of wall art, I resist the urge to blurt out, “RIHANNA! Tell me about working with Rihanna!” So, acting like the cool, collected writer that I pretended to be while rehearsing my interview questions on the car ride over, I instead calmly and inconspicuously ask Karman about her art schooling, fashion background, her artistic inspirations, some of her favorite past works and recent clients. Karman immediately begins to blow my mind, unpretentiously rattling off her incredible accomplishments, from graduating with Distinction from Art Center College of Design, creating illustrations for Harper’s Bazaar and designing her very own zines to campaign work with Converse, artistic window displays for an Italian luxury brand and scoring the cover of Little White Lies magazine. That’s just to name a few.

Among her long list of notable achievements, what actually wowed me most about the LA-born artist was her deep infatuation with fashion. I love clothes and respect the game of strategic accessorizing, but Karman truly grabs fashion by the threads and brings to light the true skill and incomparable beauty behind it all.

Not only is she drawing fascinating faces and painting intriguing people, but the outfits in the artworks themselves are incredibly intricate. Only a true fashion fanatic would take note of the subtle yet vital clothing details, from the dark, shaded folds in a woman’s blouse to the sophisticated patterns on a dress paired with a vibrant floral backdrop.

“I always loved making things and loved picking out clothes. I just always knew that working visually was my thing. I also always had a penchant for drawing; later in life I just figured out that I can be into both and I kind of got into fashion illustration,” Karman says confidently.

Read our full interview with Bijou Karman in issue 11. For more from Bijou follow him on Instagram.