*Have you always been creative? What made you decide to pursue a path in fashion/illustration?
Always. I doodle constantly, draw religiously, it's been constant and obsessive. Whilst doing my foundation at CSM I did a rotation in fashion promotion, and I found what I had been looking for - a marrying of artistic ideals to the glamour of fashion. I think for anybody with an artistic persuasion and subscription to Vogue it couldn't really get any better.
*Who or what inspires you?
I'm always looking for new techniques to inspire me. I have no patience for the proper way of doing things. I refuse to read instruction manuals on principle; your own way is always the best way. When I was a first year student I spent an evening trying to put together an Ikea wardrobe, I had no tools. Who has tools? I put the thing together with a Nutella jar (hammer) and a knife (screwdriver). It sat in the corner of my ram-shackle Stepney student house with a persistent lean to the left (just like me) and I liked it all the more for it. I think too much time spent on technical perfection is time wasted, creation should be enjoyed and the vibrancy of it's conception will shine through. Inspiration for me comes from life, I love magazines and fashion websites but ultimately, I think that looking at what others have done clouds what it is you truly want to do. Those ideas have already been realised but your own thoughts and interpretations of what others might see as menial. Trivial events are what births originality.
*Who’s work do you admire?
I have true admiration for writers and a blanket envy for people who can succinctly relay an idea through language, especially poets, whose job I see as being quiet similar to my own. Taking an idea or a story and trying to re-tell it in a burst, a paragraph or through an image. E.E.Cummings, James Joyce, Philip Larkin, if I'm looking for something to make me think and re-engage me with a project I'll turn to them. I have constant admiration for their clarity and conviction Larkin wrote;
"The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief."
One day I hope to create something that conveys effortless beauty like that quote.
*What’s your favourite piece you’ve done?
It's always the piece I've just finished. If it wasn't in some way better than the last it would be in the bin.
*What’s the worst stylistic faux pas you’ve ever made?
I think when you grow up with an interest in style it's inevitable you will get it wrong countless times in that eternal search for a statement look. I regretted dying my hair green when I was 14 but it would seem that this look is back in favour, so the circle of fashion continues...
*Who would you love to collaborate/work with?
I love to put images to words, so perhaps spoken word artists like Scroobius Pip, Kate Tempest or poet Don Paterson. However all collaboration can bare unexpected fruit and I'm always open to offers and ideas.
*What are your plans after graduation?
My dream is to be able to fund myself doing what I love, creating imagery, collaborating, illustrating. So I'll be chasing the dream, trying to get galleries to hang me, unsuspecting by-standers to buy me and magazines to publish me. I may spend the rest of my life being unspeakably poor, but so very happy.
Check out her blog mindynettles.blogspot.com for more info and recent work
1 comment:
hey!
i've just came across your blog and low and behold i'm on the sidebar! thanks for the support.
really liked these images, will have to check her work further
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