One of the industry’s most agenda-setting make-up talents, Isamaya Ffrench has got a rep for her artistic and wildly imaginative beauty looks – she’s crafted lego masks for models at Agi & Sam, given smudged lips and sealed-off mouths to models at Junya Watanabe, and alien symbol face tattoos to Rihanna for her “Sledgehammer” music video. Now however, the beauty alchemist is turning fashion designer.
Ffrench has teamed up with London-based womenswear brand Finery on a capsule collection of accessories which includes a sock boot, a mule loafer, a bucket hat, a bumbag and an earring set. “I wanted something that alluded to both sportswear and glamour,” she tell us, “hence the neoprene, crock skin buckle boot and the fur lined half trainer shoe.”
The collection also draws from 90s hip hop culture, as well as Ffrench’s background in dance and sport – something that’s reflected in the aesthetic, which she describes as “sleekness with an edge of sports punk”, and the functionality of the pieces. She speaks of her love of wearing heels that feel robust enough to do hurdles in and says that she likes handbags that are equally pragmatic. “I’m not really into (them) unless they are hard-wearing so came up with the idea of an oversized crock bumbag you can almost fit your laptop in!”
“It’s a real collaboration, in the sense that its 50 per cent me and 50 per cent Finery!” she goes on to say. “Our styles are quite different – I would say they are quite feminine in comparison to my masculine taste in accessories. It was great to work with and involve them in the whole process of designing a piece. I would go to them with a concept like big, chunky buckles, and they would ‘beautify’ the concept for me!”
Is design something we can expect more of from Ffrench? “I’m enjoying working with accessories,” she says, “and particularly collaborations like this one – it’s nice to work with a team of people who are passionate about what they are doing. I think it’s that which gives momentum to any project.”
