Painting by Latefa Noorzai.

Watchers of last fall’s #MetGala hashtag may be familiar with Latefa Noorzai, the artist whose painting of Rosalia – wide-eyed and spangled in her couture finest – managed to pique the interest of a fashion world left jet-lagged and jaded after a month of non-stop shows. Working from the pages of Vogue, Vanity Fair, Town & Country, and even, on occasion, Interview, the 61-year-old, Kabul-born artist renders her signature larger-than-life figures – all of them unflinchingly glamorous – in confident, almost defiant brushstrokes. After emigrating from Afghanistan, Noorzai found a place for herself, despite language and learning barriers, in the sunlit studios at Creative Growth in Oakland. It was there, this fall, that we asked her to paint a number of works for this issue, drawn from some of our favorite runway looks of the season.

See more at www.interviewmagazine.com