Ten Creative Radicals Share Their Perspective On Change

Vogue asked a line-up of next-generation British talents to share their perspective on what “change” and challenging the status quo means to them. These are their insights, with self-portraits taken on Google’s Pixel 2 phone “Diversity, inclusivity and openness are key. You have to spark a conversation about difficult or taboo subjects,” says video director Akinola Davies from his east London studio. It’s a sentiment shared by the nine other progressive creatives who we asked to invite us into their worlds. The instructions for this project were simple. Take a self-portrait on Google’s Pixel 2 phone, and tell us – by any means possible (text, email, Google Hangouts or an old-fashioned phone call) – what “change” means to you. Over the weeks that followed, a series of provocative and surprising snapshots began appearing in our inbox, and the conversations flowed. Experimental make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench did justice to the sometimes eerie, always witty theatricality she’s well known for, with a stripped-back underwater selfie. Racing between fashion shows during Paris Fashion Week, she schooled us on the importance of beauty that “moves you” – tech, like the phones we carry in the palm of our hands, allows us “to redefine ourselves”, she said. Ffrench confronts preconceptions of beauty in an industry where looks matter, and her insights were well worth the delays of a packed fashion-month schedule. “This season there were more black and trans models in advertising campaigns and on the runway than ever before,” she reported. Davies sent us a parody of a beauty editorial. His message? “I feel the responsibility to challenge ideas that men should be strong or macho.” Davies is modest about the broader positive influence his work undoubtedly has, but not about the challenges he faces in speaking up. “It’s easy to make something look aesthetically ‘cool’; it’s more difficult to nurture something that has meaning.” His video works do just that (including Kate Tempest’s Tunnel Vision, from her Mercury-nominated album Let Them Eat Chaos), as does PDA, the anything-goes east London club night he founded with likeminded DJ friends. It’s on their dancefloor that you’re likely to find photographer and model Bee Beardsworth with her girlfriend, musician Daisy Maybe. “A lot of people remark that we are not a typical couple because we don’t fit the lesbian stereotype, but it’s impossible to define what a modern relationship is,” Beardsworth told me on a lunchbreak during a photo shoot. “Love in 2017 is about what feels natural.” Raising awareness that the old ways of doing things aren’t inspiring any more becomes a recurrent theme over the next few days, as the emails trickle in. Siobhan Bell, a DJ and pillar of the UK’s nascent hip-hop scene, opened up about the potential of the British grime and afrobeat scene to enlighten listeners about the lives behind the music. “It’s as much about a cultural awakening as good music,” she said via text. Principal ballerina Francesca Hayward is likewise championing a future where creativity isn’t limited by labels. “To keep giving me the label of a mixed-race ballerina takes us three steps back. I want to inspire the next generation of girls to see only opportunities, not boundaries,” she explained from a hidden corner of the Royal Opera House, before dashing back to rehearsals. Hayward’s dedication to her craft cannot be overstated. A gruelling training schedule and zero ego are what it takes to succeed and stay at the top. The same 24/7 work ethic goes for rising London fashion design duo Tom Barratt and Eden Loweth of Art School. Yes, you might luck out if Kim Kardashian wears one of your dresses, but you risk everything getting your label up and running. For the new guard of fashion designers yet to graduate, the hunger to succeed overrides the struggle. “This is London – the home of avant-garde fashion, where the urge to create comes from the belief that we know better than anyone who’s come before us,” said Central Saint Martins womenswear student Chloe Nardin. In their hands, the fashion industry is itself undergoing an evolution. Armed with a Google Pixel 2, creative consultant Jordan Vickors paid homage to 1990s teenagers’ bedroom walls – he bubbles with optimism for the changes happening now. “This is the age of democratic fashion,” he enthused in one recording. “If you’re born into the digital generation, your ideas can run free.” This is what “change” means to them, with self-portraits taken on Google’s Pixel 2 phone.