MILES GEORGE DANIEL – The non-conventional punk designer shaking things up

Miles George Daniel is an experimental visionary. The Middlesex University graduate and natural-born punk desires to be different. The designer has managed to merge art, sculpture an fashion into his extraordinarily unique pieces. An emerging talent with a mind like no other. 

The knitwear major made the conscious decision to create a ‘zero spend’ collection for his final year piece. A sustainable and very considerate move that saw the re-purposing of second hand garments and the use of more experimental eateries (such as that of wire and cardboard); thus heightening the effects of Daniel as a sculpture and bringing this element to the forefront of his work. 

With inspirations drawn from graffiti and punk motifs, the basis of the designer is most exciting. The ability to take a simple scrap of fabric and create it into an elaborate and one-of-a-kind design that then leads into an entire look-book – the mind of Miles George Daniel is fascinating.

Daniel has most recently been signed to Agency Eleven so it goes without saying that there are more great things are expected of the designer in the near future. 

Written by : Shenel Wickramaratne

PHOTOGRAPHERS YOU SHOULD KNOW- Pt 1- Ellie Thomas

Ellie Thomas is a Kent based photographer and is currently studying a Photography degree at UCA Rochester. Now 20-years-old, Ellie started studying photography at 16, and her skill has blossomed since then. She now runs her own photography company alongside her degree, and is very versatile, doing headshots, product shoots, family photos, and more, going between using her Canon 5D Mk iV, and her Sigma 35mm camera. 

Her style is heavily portrait based, and she also enjoys shooting fashion editorials too. When styling the set and models for her photoshoots, everything is very particular, and there is not a single thing out of place. The colour palettes are complimentary to each other and to the main focus of the images. Typically, Ellie features dancers as her models, as she likes to capture a sense of movement in her images, and this adds a gracefulness, a refinement in the posing. Ellie features a number of different locations in her shoots, going from urban to rural, and this is a nice mix- being Kent-based means that London is not too far away, but also there’s the option of using somewhere more natural, and she certainly uses this to her advantage. From effortless street-style fashion photography, to a more serene, calm portrait on a beach, she makes portraits work in any setting. 

All in all, Ellie Thomas is a very skilled portrait photographer, and her work shows this- every image is so well-composed, and so refined. You can see more of her work on her photography page, @elliethomasphoto. 

Written by: Jessica Austin

CHARLES JEFFREY – The club kid taking the fashion industry by storm

Charles Jeffery is shaking up the industry with an emerging label – Loverboy. Winner of the 2017 Fashion Award for British Emerging Talent; the Scottish-born designer moved to London to pursue a BA in Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins. During his time, he was able to obtain an internship as a design assistant at Jack Wills and subsequently; a three month internship at Christian Dior. 

His work has attracted the attention of many. Those amongst them is none other than LuLu Kennedy – Editor-at large of LOVE magazine. Through this relationship, Charles Jeffery has styled the pages of LOVE for several issues.

In the face of COVID, Jeffery live-streamed his S/S 2021 Show (entitled The Healing) and presented the collection through the medium of a four-metre long concertina book which he told Vogue was “like a tapestry on my thought: my thought process”. In turn, the collection acts as a reflection of Jeffery’s reaction to the pandemic in his interpretation of “what panic looks like”. 
Loverboy encapsulates the self-proclaimed ‘club kids’ vision and brings it to the forefront of fashion. Unapologetically bold and untamed; much of what the industry has been lacking in recent times. Even the designer’s website immerses you into the mind of Charles Jeffery through ‘receiving the healing’ (an option on the site that then plays the soundtrack of his most recent S/S 2021 show). Loveboy is undoubtedly breathing new life into the industry.

Article written by: Shenel Wickramaratne @shenel_w

Neda Changizi and her hidden drawings

I went to visit my friend and student mate Neda last Sunday. She was giving away her cat litter box and I have a friend who just got a six kittens litter so …. Bartha system at its best was the excuse for our conversation.

The discovery

We prepared ourselves a cup of tea, I said hello to her son Adrian, and then we headed for her studio room. Now, I had a great shock, I admit. Neda’s flat walls are covered with her work: paintings, digital prints, photographs, mishmash wall-framed pieces, all which I have seen already in the studio and in some exhibit last year, and … the great surprise: seven works that can be all grouped together as line drawings, that I never saw and that I totally love!

What are they

They are all very minimalistic line drawings on canvassed plain background. It’s acrylic paint in the background and marker pen on top. They communicate a strong sense of humanity and love in their simplicity, linked to the very spontaneous, quick, un-technical look and feel of them, the figurative subjects and the very personal take that Neda applies on composition and perspective.She didn’t use to have them hanged, she always hid them but as soon as she made them visible, all her friends, all the ‘everyday’ people that walked in her flat, the plumber, the postman, the meter reader woman, all the not-artist-defined people and of course the odd musician friend, the south African owner of Persian carpets gallery, they all love them. And she loves them too, of course.

The person inside the artist

When I ask Neda where do they come from, why have I never seen them and why is she not showing them all, the answer is very interesting.

‘I love them because nothing I have seen in the art place, nothing is in the correct way, the right order, all is messed up. The bottle is not straight and the eyes out of the line… dreamy to me, not real and I don’t know who they are. I didn’t know I was going to draw three women, why I don’t know.’

It makes people happy as well which is also good.

They are slightly surrealist, they remind of Picasso’s composition, no shadows, the laws of perspective applied differently, suggestive in the shapes, figurative in the elements they are portraying and pure. It is not about the skills but what is inside Neda’s heart thrown out in the world.

“It makes people happy as well which is also good.” 

The battle inside the person inside the artist

And maybe, as we proceed in the conversation, we realise together, just …maybe …it is because of this very direct, very out-of-the-technical-laws-of-drawing, very dreamy, unreal feel that cannot be pinned down, that Neda doesn’t show them in the classic, institutionalized art spaces, where she is instead known for her detailed pictures with drawing on tops, her super realistic paintings and here digitally manipulated pics.

She doesn’t even show them to our teachers because of the pressure, as artists, that we are under, to define ourselves to the outer world, to give the outer insitutionalised world a simple, basic way to look at our art, to look at us as artists, defined, confident, focused. 

But of course we are not: we are human beings that evolve, change, have different curiosities, different ways of expressing ourselves.

“I’m dying for painting and drawing. It just takes me to a different world. I am not here”.

The artist inside the person

When asked if she defines herself as an artist, her first response is ‘I don’t know’

As Neda repeatedly says, she loves art, she loves what she can do with the freedom of art. 

“I’m dying for painting and drawing. It just takes me to a different world. I am not here”.

She went to visual art school at 16, in Teheran where she is from, as she was ‘discovered’ by one of uncles who appreciated her artistic way of expressing her feeling and – I guess- realized the artists inside the person.

When asked, if she produces to sell, her answer is straight, plain and simple: no! so there it is, there is the genuine honest love for art that  creates so much frustration and difficulties because outside, the insitutionalise world, the dry world, defines artists by what they sell.

So thank you Neda, there, in that answer you can see the totality of the Neda artist inside the Neda person! 

By the way… There is also a technical secret she says that she is not ready to explain yet… so watch this space till next time (:

Written by: Elisabetta Andrea Carlotta del Ponte.

The Photographer’s gallery

An insight over the photography industry in London by Jessica Austin.

The Photography industry within London is undoubtedly a well-established one, and one that is wonderfully inspiring. Not only is London a wonderful place to shoot in, there is no end to the photographers who have produced work in the famous city. From fashion photographers such as Tim Walker, to more abstract and experimental photographers such as Antony Cairns, there is certainly no lack of inspiration in London.

Need inspiration? Or have a bit of time to view some photography? Then The Photographer’s Gallery is just what you need. No matter what the subject of their exhibitions and style of work they exhibit, there is always something you can take away from their exhibited works.

Currently, their exhibited works include works by Evgenia Arbugaeva, Sunil Gupta, and Vasantha Yogananthan, all vastly different photographers with vastly different styles and ways of working, so it is well worth a visit.

Another way that The Photographer’s Gallery is helping to support up-and-coming photographers is their ‘Folio Fridays’ in which you can apply for a place, and have time interacting with other photographers, and have presentations by two practicing professionals, which can really benefit your understanding of the industry, not to mention gives you an opportunity to find even more inspiration! You can also get one-to-one sessions (for a small fee) called TPG Portfolio reviews, which consists of a 20-minute review of your portfolio with a curator of the gallery. Very helpful indeed considering their experience working with such a vast array of talent! And lastly, there are several social sessions going on (all online now), that mean you can mingle with other photographers, and have some quality time learning from practicing professionals.

And, in addition to all this, there is a wonderful cafe, and a very well-stocked book shop to browse in too! So, for sure, add this little gallery near Soho to your list of places to visit!

Photo credits: Unsplash.