Despite launching less than seven months ago, the secretive East London accessories label is making a stamp on the fashion industry, one plush bag and sandal at a time.
In the first of a week-long series, figures from music, art, food, sex work and education look back on a year that shook their fields. Here, Cafe East’s Mustafa Has reflects on Covid-19 a year on.
The lawyer turned #Merky Books author put colourism on trial in her debut book, We Are All Birds of Uganda. Here, the 29-year-old shares her most loved fiction and the novels that molded her.
Side Hustles: In November, Canadian creative Tamara Grunberg closed up her modelling agency. Now, she's making a career out of fashion and her statement accessory, The Challah Bag.
The Cheshire artist uses painting as therapy to tackle existential dread, religion and fear of death. Honest, it’s way more fun than that sounds.
Side Hustles: Disco-in-furlough – from underground raves to the fabric factory, Keep Hush are the late-night events business now creating premium merch for artists sidelined by the pandemic.
Having gone public about her experience of domestic abuse, FKA twigs has returned with creative confidence. Here, the artist and activist speaks to her friend and I May Destroy You creator, Michaela Coel, about a new batch of music inspired by a wave of freedom.
Journalist Jason Okundaye and HIV prevention activist Marc Thompson have launched a new digital photographic archive honouring, remembering and celebrating the Black British LGBTQ+ community over a fifty-year span.
Side Hustles: Model duo Breanna Box and Peter Dupont are raising the stakes in the homeware game, designing horny carafes and functional glassware – a creative pursuit found in the middle of lockdown.
Thanks to an excessive amount of screen time, lockdown has not only changed the way we socialise, but also the way we look. Or want to look. From TikTok dermatologists to secret facial work-outs, we investigate how Zoom is affecting our relationship with skincare and our sense of self, 12 months in.
Side Hustles: In lockdown last year, best friend duo Niamh Ferrier and Saskia Puxley lost their hospitality jobs. Fresh from uni and without income, they decided to set up their own tooth gem and nail art business-from home, rising to success one cuticle, and molar, at a time.
Following the phenomenal success of Beyoncé’s Black Is King last July, the Dutch director has joined forces with twigs, Headie One and Fred Again.. creating a poignant short for their latest track.
Side Hustles: When three East London coffee shop-owners faced closure last March, panic struck. But quick off the mark, they transformed a “horrible hovel into a really decent kitchen”, turning pandemic pandemonium into an overnight success, one sandwich at a time.
Ayton is the megaphone-wielding figurehead of a movement that aims to eradicate institutionalised racism wherever it’s found. As focus turns from marches to three-tier local lockdowns, the 29-year-old is contemplating how to maintain momentum while socially distanced, and how to create real and lasting change within the UK.
The Swedish designer “makes wearable butts and stuff”, working with pliable 3-D materials to create fashion you’ve never seen before.
Irish photographer Eimear Lynch spent the summer exploring female youth and identity through a series of intimate portraits. Little did she know it would help her discover her sense of self.
The artist has defined her own style of music, blending soul, electro and pop with a nod to her South Indian heritage.
The 26-year-old actress on her captivating TV debut in Lovers Rock and how working with Steve McQueen and Micheal Ward brought her back to her roots.
As he releases his new five track EP, Truth Be Sold, the London-via-Brooklyn rapper talks misguided materialism and how we’re all just another piece in the puzzle.
In her self-produced Channel 4 documentary The Boy Next Door, the Capital Xtra DJ sheds light on the childhood that shaped her and how it feels to hold onto grief for 20 years.
Like baked beans, banging slogans and donating to a good cause? Then this graphic tee giving 50 per cent of its proceeds to food banks around London is for you.
