Angelica Hicks

She comes up with the pun we all wish we could have come up with: Karl Lager, Alexander Fang, Frida Nipple, Ciggy Stardust…

The cheeky illustrator took the fashion world by storm last year with her “sartorial satires” as she describes them.

Discovered on Instagram, the 23 years old Angelica Hicks’s humour goes beyond plain illustrations.

“Everything has been growing super organically, to the point where I never thought I would be doing this right now. I thought this was something that gave me some enjoyment whilst writing my thesis and working on my exams. I never thought I would be able to graduate university obtain an artist visa to go to New York City and be able to freelance straight out of University. This is kind of super incredible.”

Semaine How much have your family influenced your work or your aesthetics?

A.H “I was always told: “Be more observant child!”. That’s the coolest thing my parents could have done; because they encouraged me to look up. ”

“My grandfather on my English side was a interior designer called David Hicks. He was very extremely opinionated.”

“My kind of only real memory of him was he wanting to get rid of all the daffodils in his garden because they were ‘hideous’ and a complete eye sore. He was quite happy driving over them with the car and destroying that apparent vulgar yellow - yet it was a colour he actually used before. He was funny because he was just such a character and I think that actually maybe feeds into my exaggeration of characters. Like the characters you can see in the animation: They are exaggerations of the world today. They have components of everyone; if you merge the Blond Salad and Man Repeller and Brian boy you do end up with a ridiculous character. ”

“What’s really cool is that I guess I found my own way. If I were doing interiors it would be harder; I would maybe get the kind of “Oh sweet - she is doing interiors too”.

Semaine Did you always knew what you wanted to do?

A.H “When I was 15 and I rejected art I was sort of convinced I was going to be a banker. I had had enough of this creative BS and people expecting me to do something creative. I mean what did they know? I told myself I was going to do finance. I did economics for IB.

“Still when I went to University I did Art History but thinking I could maybe do a conversion course and become a lawyer. Anyway here I am, with an artist visa, in New York City.” she laughs.

Semaine How would you define your style?

A.H “I see it as a pun complimented by a drawing. I don’t know if it’s the right way to define it but it’s almost as though the drawing is secondary to the text.

“I try to look at fashion and popular culture in a very simple way. My posts about Anna Wintour as “Band-Anna”, “Alexander Fang” or “Derek Blas-Burger”, are so simple and easy but you never think about that. I guess I take things very literally. I play on the literal meaning of the words.

Semaine How do ideas come to you?

A.H “Ideas come in different ways, I don’t actively search for ideas. I don’t force myself. I never really find forced jokes that funny I do walk around a lot. You know… advertisements: You don’t actively look at them but you take it in. The stream of popular culture and references that you are exposed to all day, everyday is humongous. You only have to feed into those ideas. I always keep a Moleskine in my bag and I can start doodling in the tube. - I once drew in an airport terminal too - People get a little creeped out sometimes.”

Semaine Why focus on Fashion?

A.H “During Fashion Week last February I noticed a niche in illustration. There were so many illustrators but none of them were really engaging with the comedic aspects of fashion.”

Angelica Hicks is an obvious passion for words and humour, armed with a sense of distance and freedom and un-spoiled by years of art school and technique perfecting. She has fun doing what she does and she doesn’t force anything. She is as funny, witty and smart as you would expect her to be. Her work was purely led by an instinct and a talent, and this succession of posts, which, exposed by this amazing global platform that is Instagram, made it possible to blossom.