Seven names you need to know this spring

Taken from the spring 26 print issue of THE FACE. Get your copy here.

If Kai Ghattaura hadn’t forced himself to leave gaming behind, he may have never made it into fashion. Growing up in Telford, Shropshire, the British-Indian designer spent his teenage years playing shooter games like Counter-Strike. Even though he dabbled in contributing to online fashion forums, it wasn’t until his mum signed him up for an arts foundation course at a local college that he decided to take design more seriously. When Kai eventually got accepted into Central Saint Martins for a Menswear BA – where he’s stayed on to do a masters – he finally put down his controller. ​“It forced me to go out every week and I was introduced to the illegal rave scene inLondon,” he says. ​“That really influenced how I think about clothes.” His collections merge meme‑y references from his chronically online days with a hedonistic aesthetic, earning him a fan in EsDeeKid (him again), who’s worn Kai’s designs on his Rebel tour. ​“I like things that are dirty and torn,” the 23-year-old says. ​“I don’t care if there’s spilled beer on my jacket.” He says his graduate collection will be inspired by the Aghori, a Hindu monastic sect that worships Shiva, the god of destruction. ​“They pretty much just rub ash over their bodies then smoke and drink all day, but they’re worshipped like gods.” A normal Tuesday at THE FACE HQ, then.

Growing up in the Cypriot village of Pyla, it was the daring stage costumes of Rihanna and Lady Gaga that got designer Mya Nicoll into fashion. ​“I was infatuated with what they were wearing,” she says, still visibly excited. Inspired by their originality, Mya would build unique outfits out of items salvaged from church jumble sales while seeking inspiration in archive collections from designers like Tom Ford and Nicolas Ghesquière. At 17, Mya moved to Essex with her mum, where she dropped out of an art and design course to found the archive pop-up 2o2st before moving into making her own designs. These days, the 23-year-old’s eponymous brand specialises in sensual, monochromatic womenswear, worn by the likes of Gabbriette and Iris Law. ​“The Mya Nicoll muse is always really chic,” she says with justifiable pride. A key figure in London’s re-energised alternative nightlife scene, Mya has also worked with Post Party and Lost club (“London’s answer to Studio 54”), curating line-ups that have featured the likes of RatSection, Bassvictim and New York duo Nation. What’s next? ​“I can’t say too much, but there’s an exhibition on the way!”

Joe Lesher-Liao is the definition of a Renaissance man. He drums, DJs, makes films, plays guitar and tap dances. Little wonder, then, that he’s quickly built a cult following since touring with PinkPantheress last year as her all-tapping, all-dancing DJ (Joe). Growing up in Los Angeles, Joe picked up drumming aged five, before starting dance classes. By his teenage years, the beginnings of a professional dance career had started. But Covid put Joe’s tap dancing gigs on pause and he moved to Japan for a year. There, he picked up DJing after frequenting the country’s listening bars, where bespoke sound systems and vinyl selectors take centre stage. ​“I always gravitated towards DJing in a more curatorial sense over a party one,” is his nuanced take on tune selection. Then, in 2024, he met PinkPantheress through mutual friends. They’ve been inseparable ever since, touring allover the world, from Hong Kong to Glastonbury. He says of their connection: ​“We started of as friends, so there’s a certain magical je ne sais quoi between us that feels really organic.” This year, the 24-year-old is adding yet another string to his bow: ​“It would be fun to add [playing] the Taiwanese moon lute to [my] arsenal.”PinkPantheress, are you listening?

The Farmyard is Not a Violent Place and I Look Exactly like Judy Garland: as titles go, Alex Margo Arden wasn’t messing around with her 2019 – 2020 art show. In collaboration with artist Caspar Heinemann, the two put on an exhibition that combined an assemblage of recontextualised domestic objects with a two-act play about trans friendship, going off-grid and survival. ​“It changed my life,” says the Central Saint Martins and Goldsmiths graduate. ​“It got reviewed in Frieze, we were on the cover of Art Monthly and it was completely sold out. ​”Since then, the South Londoner has gone on to be nominated for a Sky Arts award, won the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation Prize at Frieze London last year and continues to refine her research-intensive practice, investigating how we tell stories about the past through painting and found objects. FromJune, she’ll be taking part in the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition about Marilyn Monroe, where the 32-year-old will be contributing a painting about the icon’s legendary Happy Birthday, Mr.President dress before and after Kim Kardashian wore it. ​“A lot of my work is interested in damage and invisible histories within objects,” Alex says. “[When people look at it] I want them to engage in a dialogue. That’s the amazing thing about art – you can talk while you’re experiencing it.”

“The moment that got me into acting was watching my sister in [the school play of] Bugsy Malone, shooting silly string whenI was in Year 4,” says actor Michael Workéyè. ​“I was like: ​‘I’d love to play in this way.’” He was as good as his word. After training at drama school ArtsEd, the West Londoner got his big break in 2022 in the BBC’s This Is Going to Hurt, opposite Ambika Mod and Ben Whishaw. Since then, he’s gone on to appear in Black Mirror and Adjani Salmon’s brilliantly witty Dreaming Whilst Black.“ I’d always rather be a smaller character in something massive, as long as they’ve got a hilarious, electric or totally insane plot line,” the 29-year-old says. Now, Michael’s moving on to bigger things with a role in Charli xcx’s mockumentary The Moment. ​“I’ve occasionally worked in a little Greek restaurant near my childhood home since I was 10 and when I got the call, I was in there,” he says, laughing. ​“I was cooking kebabs! It’s pretty insane.” Sounds like they should start looking for a new chef.

Ratty Sleigh Johnny and Soopi (aka Soops), the music and performance art duo better known as Rat Section, first met at a Warsaw karaoke bar located in a motorway underpass. ​“When we were talking about our future house, one of us said that we’d have a section for rats – a whole room so they can roam freely,” says Soops of the band’s name. No, none of that is likely true; and those are not their real names, and they certainly won’t be telling us their ages or where they really met. But yes, they make music that feels equal parts Berlin bunker and Vangelis’ score for Blade Runner. Forming (supposedly) in 1989, the duo broke up in 2001 before reuniting in 2022 with a two-pronged mission to seemingly confound factual enquiry and produce bleeding-edge electronica. Cases in point: last October’s single Daj Mi, a hypnotic ambient track with Polish lyrics, and 0207, a swaggering Timbaland-tinged hip-hop banger that came out in March 2025. The duo are currently back in the studio to make their second album. ​“I’ve been listening to a lot of Bollywood stuff recently, like Ilaiyaraaja,” Ratty says of the great Indian composer. Given their love for performing in alternative spaces (boxing rings, Lithuanian carparks, art galleries), where next? ​“A casino!” they chorus. Jackpot.

For 3Stacks, filmmaking wasn’t always the dream – for a long time, she wanted to be an engineer. Born in Germany and raised in South London, she was hungry to find out how everything from car engines to remote controls worked, which eventually led her to pursue engineering at the University of East London. But when Brexit happened, visa troubles meant that 3Stack’s degree was cut short. ​“Being kicked out of uni was like that one toxic heartbreak everyone goes through in their twenties,” she says. Not one to languish, 3Stacks – who, you guessed it, prefers to keep her real name to herself – poured all her energy into her filmmaking hobby and turned it into a career, capturing the stars of the UK’s underground rap scene in Kino DVD: The Visual Mix-tape Vol 1. The documentary, which charts the rise of BXKS, Jawnino, Fimiguerrero and more, was shot after 3Stacks approached them with a small camera at gigs and parties. Now, the 23-year-old is working on visual effects at concerts for artists such as EsDeeKid (him again again)and is gearing up for the March release of a streamable version of the Kino DVD sequel that looks at those same artists, several years on. ​“I think we need an archive of our stories so they don’t get mistold, ​”she says. ​“I want to keep making films that are a visual timestamp for this era.”

STYLING ASSISTANT (MICHAEL) Victoria Lenczyk