Nails and nostalgia: A love letter to growing up as a girl in the 90s

Sharing cigarettes in the park, hanging around tube platforms with your friends, matching your baby pink nails to your eyeshadow and your J’Adore Dior baby tee. In a new manicure-centric shoot, photographer Hazel Gaskin, stylist Lia Sadeghi and nail artist Simone Cummings capture the dreamy days of girlhoods past. 

“With this story we wanted to recreate a throwback to the 90s,” says Sadeghi. “With an undertone of UK garage,” adds Gaskin. For the shoot, Cummings, who has worked her magic on the nails of everyone from Adwoa Aboah to Arca and Emma Corrin, translated the designer looks worn by the models into bespoke nail art. Hairstylist Shun Meguro and make-up artist Grace Sinott rounded out the creative team.

“I looked at the typical way that the brands style their clothes, for instance Balenciaga always has a classic or bold colour so that their brand name takes centre stage,” Cummings explains. “They’re the only ones to do it like they do.” For Dior, she chose a subtle logo to complement the clothing and added an extra touch of class with a classic French manicure.

For Martine Rose, she looked to their sports range. “I loved the fabric logo, it was almost straight out of something you would see on a racetrack,” she says. “I wanted to transform that across the nails.” Meanwhile, for Burberry she stuck with the colours being used in the look and added in the unmistakable tartan print. 

Photography Hazel Gaskin, styling Lia Sadeghi, nails Simone Cummings, hair Shun Meguro, make-up artist Grace Sinott, casting Sarah Small, production The Production Factory