Meet tarot-obsessed Gucci illustrator Jayde Fish

Last week, at Milan fashion week SS17, Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s creative director of 21 months, sent a cool 75 looks down the catwalk. It was a womenswear collection that jumped across places and time, with references as diverse as LA club culture, the 70s, 80s and er, old images of Venetian prostitutes.

Among Michele’s now-trademark chaotically layered clothes we spotted a series of prints by San Francisco illustrator Jayde Fish. Jayde has been floating in the fashion ether for years, producing cutesy illustrations of human-looking animal and cacti for the likes of Vanity Fair and Anthropologie —characters were so loved that they became Facebook stickers. Her work for Gucci however, bears a harder, more mystical edge.

It was Michele, rather than one of his no doubt vast team, who found Jayde on Instagram and convinced her to contribute seven drawings which were then turned into prints for the Gucci collection. “I had been posting my illustrations to Instagram that were inspired by Alessandro’s runway looks,” Jayde tells It’s Nice That. “I hashtagged his name both to respect the source of inspiration as well as a way to communicate with him. After a while, I was contacted by Gucci telling me that they were interested in using the drawings. I wasn’t sure that they would be used until the runway show took place, it was a wonderful surprise.”

Her inspiration was tarot cards, with monkey overlords, skulls, snakes, severed hands, elaborated cloaked figures and watchful birds featuring in the drawings. Jayde’s designs were woven into Alessandro’s collection; a swan motif on the back of a skirt; a green-tinged monkey hanging upside down on the back of a jumper. “I have a fascination with the mystical world, astronomy, astrology, and religious culture,” she explains. “I feel that the tarot is a beautiful way to think inwards about who you are and where you want to be. Each character has a deep connection with nature, the universe, and the spiritual world, and I feel there’s something very romantic about that.” 

“I have read cards for people, but I’m by no means a ‘professional’,” she adds. “It’s an exciting exploration for me.” And does Jayde have plans to produce more work for Gucci in the future? “Time will tell! Of course I would be honoured to create more for the brand.” For now, the illustrator-cum-Tarot reader is focusing on her first solo exhibition at Fifty24SF Gallery in San Francisco this December.