Alex Kim works all day at Anthropologie, then comes home and draws while sitting on her couch, in her bed, or wherever she has the space, for at least a few minutes before falling asleep. The 23-year-old has a modest setup at home in Indianapolis, but when she posts her creations on Instagram, she captures the attention of thousands of followers, including Joe Jonas, Whitney Port, Danielle Bernstein, Jeremy Lin, and her absolute favorite, Gigi Hadid.

Kim is a freelance fashion illustrator, one of many taking to social media to resurrect the forgotten art that’s giving fashion photography a run for its money. Photography isn’t going anywhere—it’s impossible to imagine a world without runway slide shows and street-style snaps (how else could we mortals glean an understanding of the culotte jumpsuit?.) But fashion illustration—an ever-growing force, with leaders like David Downtonand Donald Robertson—takes Taylor Swift and her “Bad Blood” squad and turns them into cartoon icons, identifiable by their signature looks. It reimagines a pair of Louboutins as mystical objects. Illustration lets couture speak for itself; it breathes new life into familiar forms.

Meanwhile, Instagram is a feeding ground for the hungry, and a breeding ground for the creative. “Before, you had to seek out the people who make these decisions of who is relevant, or who is worthy of having an audience,” says Katie Rodgers, the painter behind Paper Fashion who has collaborated with Armani, Cartier, Saks Fifth Avenue, Disney, American Express, and many more. “But now, people can take that opportunity into their own hands. That’s such an entrepreneurial thing, but it’s also opened so many doors, creatively.”

Some of the most talented and best-known fashion illustrators are like Meagan Morrison, a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology whose brand Travel Write Draw is a full-time business, taking her on artistic adventures around the world to Russia, Puerto Rico, France, Morocco, and beyond. And then there are those like Kim: moonlight artists who explore, create, and share their hobby in their after hours. Professionals and amateurs alike are developing followings in the hundreds of thousands, nearly rivaling those of their famous subjects.

“The one extreme positive is the exposure,” says Kim of her budding celebrity following. Hers is a feed of tiny inked “It girls,” galore: Taylor, Kendall, Chiara, Kylie, Cara, Karlie, Rosie, Vanessa, Lily, Chrissy, Jamie, Bella, Gigi. “To have thousands of eyes looking at your art is something you can’t do alone.”

Here, we feature five fashion illustrators who prove that the paintbrush can shine brighter than the camera. (P.S.A.: you’ll want to follow these artists during Fashion Week.)

Alex Kim

Alias: akimdesigns

Home base: Indianapolis, Indiana

Instagram: @akimdesigns

Followers: 15.5K

“I’m always on Instagram browsing, looking at what other people are liking, and seeing if I can portray that,” says Kim. “I like to put the focus on the fashion and the clothing aspect of it, and make it so people can already know who it is without the face.”

“Gigi Hadid just started following me the other day, and I am probably her biggest fan, so any of the ones I draw of her are really special,” she says.

“I make it a little bit quirky, rather than what most illustrators tend to do these days, which is very—not sketchy, but a lot more elaborate sketching, as opposed to very clean-lined.”

Meagan Morrison

Alias: Travel Write Draw

Home base: New York City

Instagram: @travelwritedraw

Followers: 128K

“I tend to use really cheap sketchbook paper for painting, because I found that when I was using the really expensive Arches watercolor paper, I was way too precious,” she says.

“I work on a pretty large scale—I don’t like to be limited. I love to use watercolors, markers, acrylic, colored pencil, pens—and then everything gets scanned and cleaned up in Photoshop.”

“I think there’s something comforting in following something that’s relatable and still aspirational and beautiful,” she says.

Katie Rodgers

Alias: Paper Fashion

Home base: New York City

Instagram: @paperfashion

Followers: 552K

“If there’s one favorite thing I had to say, I would say that I’m really obsessed with shadow dancers, because I feel like they’ve become a little part of my life. I look for them everywhere,” says Rodgers. “They’re meant to be serious, anonymous girls—they don’t have a race or anything, and they rarely have a face on them. So you can kind of take it for what you want it or want them to be.”

“Once in a while, I use tulle to bring the dress off of the page, or I’ll use crystals,” she says. “I love playing with different mediums, because I can get bored pretty easily. I love traditional painting, but I like to throw something else in there to bring it to life a bit more.”

“There’s two sides to my work, and one’s very literal: I’m paying attention to fashion shows and kind of picking and choosing what stands out to me the most and re-creating that,” she says. “And then there’s the other method, which is more about being free, and maybe doing the dancers.”

“I spend a lot of time combing through a lot of music, and working with music to get inspired,” she says. “Over the years, I’ve kind of figured out a way to get myself in the place to paint when I need to, and with that kind of noise, it always just happens.”

Mekel

Alias: Mekel

Home base: Perth, Western Australia

Instagram: @mekel_illustration

Followers: 11.2K

“I like clean lines that aren’t overworked, and although my colors are usually bright, they’re refined with a minimal color palette,” she says.

“I’m very inspired by all the latest fashion shows and can't stay away from Instagram and Pinterest, especially when everything is so current,” she says.

“I draw girls that have individual, innocent beauty about them and capture your attention in a moment in time.”

Laura Kay

Alias: Diary Sketches

Home base: New Jersey

Instagram: @diarysketcheslk

Followers: 50.9K

Giambattista Valli ss15 Couture

“Fashion is wearable art,” she says. “An illustrator uses pencils, paints, and markers to expresses their art, and a designer uses fabrics.”

“I like to say watercolors were my ‘first love.’ My mom presented me with my first Winsor and Newton watercolor set in high school, and there’s been no looking back since,” she says.

“I think the style of fashion illustration has become a lot looser—less detailed and more about the movement and strokes,” she says.