John Evans
Studio
Nicole Ready
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Confident, considerate, creative.
What inspires you?
I would say that people inspire me. Even though I study fashion, I wouldn't say fashion inspires me. I use fashion as a medium from what inspires me. My environment and the people around me are just the things that motivate me.
What are your thoughts on the creative scene in Cardiff?
I think that it is gradually getting better. I feel that there are a lot more spaces now for creatives in Cardiff to be based in. On social media it is becoming bigger as well and a lot of people are recognising that there does need to be improvements and that those improvements are being made. I also feel that we really need more backing with things such as funding - like the music scene in Cardiff and how there are loads of venues being shut down - so I guess council and government backing we really need more of. The attitude is there to make the scene better we just need support.
Do you have a favourite quote?
My favourite quote is from Martin Luther King.
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter."
Tell me about your recent publication 'Docks' ?
So Docks is a printed publication about an area in Cardiff, called Butetown. Formally it is known as Butetown but it is also known as Docks or Tigerbay to anyone who lives there. It is a community right in-between the city the bay, it is one of the oldest multicultural towns in the whole of the UK. It is very misjudged, has all these stereotypes and is kind of segregated from the rest of Cardiff.
So with my publication I wanted to just bring to light the positive stories I have from the area, because it is an area where I have spent a lot of time and it's where my family is based. I represented positive people within the area and just brought it all to a human level, because I feel like it is very much seen as this place that is spoken about negatively in the media and you don't ever really get to know anything about it that's real.
How important is representation and community in your work?
I think it's really important as my little cousins for example, can grow up and know that their older cousin made this publication which shows all these amazing people who look like them and who are from the same area as them, rather than seeing things in the media which are negative and I just don't want that to be their narrative.
And then community I just think it's so important as in Butetown it's literally people from all over the world who have moved there, the majority aren't 100 percent white-British and we have all just come together and made our own community. Especially as it is a low income area, everyone just chips in together and creates a safe space for each other which I feel there isn't anywhere else in Cardiff.
So yeah, I think representation and community is important as it really does shape your life.
Why do you think being creative is important in today's society?
It's a medium of showing what you really care about and what matters. As much as I study fashion and I enjoy it, I feel like when I'm most passionate about fashion it's when I'm using it to show what I really care about.
From my portraits featured in the magazine, I basically wanted to create this juxtaposition of having someone in a heavily styled outfit in an environment that is completely natural to them, but then the subject not looking natural as they are in these extravagant outfits therefore creating an eye-catching image. In turn people would want to look at that image and be able to articulate and ask 'what is this about?'.
I think a lot of people now don't just create imagery for the sake of it, there is a message behind it which I think is so important. There is a lot that needs to be changed and a lot that needs to be said so we may as well do it in a way that we feel is most natural to us, and also in a way that reaches a lot of people because whether you're creative or not, you can appreciate a good image.
What have you learned so far that could help others going through the same journey?
At my uni level, I would say for anyone kind of wanting to go into fashion just put yourself out there. Be willing to show work to any guest lecturers and attend every talk you can even if you think it won't be relevant to you or that not many people will turn up, you just don't know what you could gain from that.
My two biggest opportunities that have come from university have been from me attending talks. Tori West from Bricks magazine for example, only around ten people were there and then it was afterwards when I need some work experience and I thought I would just ask her and she offered me an internship which was amazing and I was featured in the magazine and we have such a good friendship now. The second opportunity being when Charlotte James did a talk and she came into my class afterwards snd we got to show her some work, a few weeks later she had put out a casting call for this shoot she was doing with Gucci and Vogue Italia and I put my family forward and we were successful and the opportunites that came with that and the contacts I made were amazing.
And finally don't be scared to do things by yourself and if someone ever questions why you're doing something creative just let the work speak for itself.
What are your aspirations for the future?
My aspiration for the future is to move to London. As much as I've created this magazine based in Cardiff, I think I would like to go back to that in a year or so and revisit it. I feel that I need to push myself to make those contacts elsewhere and just challenge myself and be in an environment that I haven't been in before as I've been in Cardiff my whole life. I just want to see what the job opportunities are because for fashion, I think it's quite closed in Cardiff at the moment. I really want to create a network in London and then come back to Cardiff and create a platform for creatives who want to do fashion like me, so that they don't feel like they have to go elsewhere.
@docksmagazine