From Prada to Chanel, Everything is Delightfully, Humanly Hand-Drawn Again

As AI generated content grows out of control, luxury is standing out in an old-fashioned way by commissioning someone to pick up a pencil.

You’ve seen it: the missing arm, the extra fingers, the dissociative stares matched by mega-watt smiles occupied by one too many teeth in perfect rows.

As AI makes it easier than ever to conjure up fantastical landscapes, surreal characters and campaign-ready visuals, fashion houses are turning towards the very thing technology cannot do: human creativity.

The clock is turning back to watercolour paintings, hand-drawn illustrations, paper collages and painstakingly animated frames for ingredients of human messaging made for human consumption.

A flawlessly generated image might capture attention, but an illustration with visible brushstrokes, uneven lines and evidence of the artist behind it can tell a richer story, as these four houses prove.

Read: Why do fashion collaborations still have the power to sell out? 

Prada’s Drawing Prada Holiday Animation

Bringing back the magic of traditional animation, Prada’s latest holiday campaign Drawing Prada, places its cast in whimsical winter landscapes populated by illustrated animals and storybook scenery. Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Chen Haoyu, Luther Ford and Kelvin Harrison Jr. appear in a world where live-action photography meets hand-drawn fantasy, with photographer Glen Luchford capturing the campaign and ex-Disney veteran animator John Pomeroy leading the illustration work. Pomeroy and his team return to the analogue art of pencil-and-paper drawing, creating a campaign that delightfully brings us back to a classic animated fairytale. Illustrated creatures interact with Prada’s accessories, while the real-life cast wanders through landscapes that could never exist outside an artist’s imagination.

Hermès’s Hand-Illustrated Website

Hermès has long made craftsmanship central to its identity. Its collaboration with French illustrator Sarah Martinon brings the same appreciation for human skill into the digital world for the house’s website for summer 2026. Working with animator Armand Béraud, she created a playful universe of hand-drawn elements like horses, apples, silk scarves and other motifs, rendered with the visible texture of the artist’s process. Rather than smoothing every line into digital perfection, the illustrations retain the little irregularities that reveal how they were made. The website thus becomes less of a conventional e-commerce storefront and more of a window into an imaginative Hermès world.

Loewe’s 180-Year Story Told in 2,000 Watercolours

For its 180th anniversary in 2026, Loewe turned to watercolour, painstakingly brought to life frame by frame. Its anniversary film draws on more than 2,000 watercolour paintings created by a team of 10 artists, led by illustrator and designer Joanna Blémont. Rather than relying on a single digital image or a series of conventional campaign photographs, it assembles individual painted frames into a moving narrative that reflects the house’s long history. Each frame requires artistic decisions about colour, composition, texture and movement. When placed in sequence, these individual paintings create the illusion of motion while retaining the delicate variations of a handmade work. What’s more, Antonio Banderas lends his very human – and very manly – voice to the narration.

Chanel’s Hand-Drawn Invitation to Seoul

For Chanel’s Métiers d’art 2026 Seoul teaser, South Korean artist Jisu Choi helped introduce the collection through an illustrated portrait of the city. The teaser builds a detailed urban landscape through isometric architecture and frame-by-frame 2D animation. As the scene unfolds, Chanel’s visual codes emerge within the cityscape, weaving the house into everyday urban life and allowing the location to become part of the story. Instead of leading with close-ups of garments or a procession of looks, the animation invites viewers into a world, gradually revealing its relationship with the house. The illustrated setting gives the teaser a sense of place while creating a visual identity that feels more playful and engaging than the typical polished photography campaigns.

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