Artist Liselotte Watkins returns to fashion for Vogue Scandinavia: Discover her exclusive works here

“It’s like ‘cherchez la femme’... searching for the female,” says Liselotte Watkins. Sitting in the stone-walled stable-turned-studio of her farmhouse in the Tuscan countryside, the 51-year-old Swedish artist is talking about her lifelong muse: women. “It started when I was very young, because I was trying to find myself as a girl,” she says. “I was looking at girls and drawing girls. I looked at other women to find myself.”

This fixation on femininity lent itself naturally to fashion illustration, Watkins’ first foray into the art world. In her singular style, she conjured up a portfolio of well-heeled women brimming with whimsy and personality, which quickly caught the attention of Miu Miu, Anna Sui, and Marimekko, to name a few. And while Watkins’ work has drastically evolved over the decades since – steering her far beyond fashion towards fine art – the faces, shapes and feelings of femininity have remained constant.

“I used to make up these women that I drew, but I don’t do that anymore. I use real people, because it’s so fascinating,” Watkins says. “I find women’s lives particularly fascinating because I do see myself. I don’t compare, though. I just learn. I get so much wisdom from other women, and so many clues about how to move around in the world.”

Not that Watkins seems to need so many clues. Born in Nyköping, she went on to build and showcase her talents across the US and different corners of Europe for “I don’t even know how long”. She’s been settled in Tuscany for “about” 15 years. While she still feels “extremely connected to Sweden”, actively maintaining a gallery in Stockholm, CFHILL, and regularly returning to the capital with her husband and two children, she is clearly in her element in Italy – complete with a slightly detectable Italian lilt to her Swedish accent. “The light here is very different,” she says. “And so is the way I think of colours and approach colours.” Based just outside of Siena, Watkins has found the Tuscan region’s tendency towards a lo-fi way of life suits her well. “When I was really doing fashion, I used a computer a lot and then I didn’t have a computer for, like, six years,” she says. “I just couldn’t deal with it.”

Upon receiving the commission to create something special for Vogue Scandinavia, Watkins felt a certain something reignite. “I thought it would be fun to jump into it a bit again, the fashion thing,” she says. “I’ve been liking portraits lately. And I immediately thought about these women that I know and how sophisticated and inspiring they are.” The women that fill Watkins’ Italian Rolodex are exactly as she describes. Spanning gallerists, stylists, fashion designers and curators, each of the friends and peers in Watkins’ circle is a creative force to be reckoned with. “All of these women, they’re all very, very good at what they do. And they all have that energy, they’re so ‘boom’. I’m so lucky to have them around me,” she says.

So, after settling on her line-up of subjects, Watkins spent a busy three days in Milan connecting with and capturing them. “It was a very sweet thing to see each other and catch up,” she says. “Some of them I knew less, but it was an excuse to meet.” Watkins so enjoyed the meetings that she often left the respective woman’s home or workspace having forgotten to take the necessary snapshot on her iPhone.

With her long-standing connection to the fashion world – not to mention the fact that this was a Vogue commission – it was a given that each portrait be brought to life with a designer look, plucked directly from the runway. For some it was easy (“For Flaminia, it was immediately like, Commes. She’s so Commes”), while others took longer to come together (“Luisa I had to keep repainting, she became almost like a paper doll, I was trying so many different outfits on her”).

But the fashion always came secondary to conveying the real essence of these women, some of whom are Watkins’ contemporaries, some of whom are a bit older. “Like the old saying, it’s not about the clothes wearing you,” Watkins says. “Fashion is at its best when it enhances you. It does something to you. So here, you see the face and the woman first.”

“I met Rossana through Tanya Jones [also pictured in the series]. She is a stylist with her own brand Cabinet Milano, which takes old suits and remakes them ‘su misura’, custom-made. Rosanna is from Sicily and she’s a very, very cool girl. There’s just something about the way she looks, she has such a strong face.”

“I’ve known JJ for 15 years. We got to know each other in Milan, when she was still working as a journalist. Then she started her brand and I had a studio right next to her. I’m not at all surprised that it’s going very well for her. She has, like, crazy amounts of energy. She’s such a big personality. And of course. Pepper the pug, she’s always there.”

“I first came in contact with her because she did a beautiful installation at the Salone, but we hadn’t met properly. Then I got to spend a whole afternoon together with her in Milan for this portrait. Now we know each other, which is really nice. She’s a really fabulous girl and she’s so expressive, I could have done the whole series just on her.”

“Laura is from New York and her husband is Swedish – we met in Milan when they were living there. She’s an extremely good journalist and writer, she’s a very smart cookie, she just has this thing about her. And I saw the Miu Miu show and just knew that she had to be wearing a look from it."

“Luisa and I, we have the same friends and move in the same circles. She’s someone that I’ve known forever. Luisa has such a beautiful energy about her, and such a strong Italian face. She also has a beautiful home but I didn’t want to take pictures of her there because I would be distracted. I met her in her studio and almost forgot to take a picture, because we were talking so much.”

“When we first moved to Milan, I knew some people I had worked with but I hadn’t really connected with anyone yet. We went to this restaurant across the street from where we lived and I saw this girl sitting there, and I was like ‘Who is that?’. So then, I just like, picked her up and we became friends, then we were neighbours. I’ve drawn her many times, actually.”

“Luisa has this beautiful gallery in Chinatown in Milan. She’s just one of those women you see and she’s just so chic, you want to die. I’ve never met anyone as sophisticated. And she’s so sweet. I had seen her around so many times but had never met her. I went to her gallery to take some pictures and was so nervous. She’s just so poised, so beautiful.”

“Sofia is actually someone that I just met. She is a fashion designer – she mainly works with shoes in Florence, and then she will go to New York every once in a while. The way she looks, she could be in a movie from the ‘40s. Like Sophia Loren. It’s maybe weird to say somebody is sensual, but she just has that really sensual look. I look at her, and I’m like, 'I’m such a stiff Swede! And you’re not!'"