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EW
We round up the best and brightest women of Britain’s capital city – the driven,
creative individuals who make London’s pulse beat that little bit faster and
continue to put the metropolis on the map. By Renyi Lim
NIKKI TIBBLES
There are corners of London that are always in bloom, no matter the
season, and it’s largely due to Nikki Tibbles. Her first Wild at Heart
shop in Westbourne Grove was set up in 1993, and swiftly expanded
to include a concession in Liberty London department store and a
flagship store on Pimlico Road. As the go-to florist for many British
celebrities, as well as for media, fashion, and business bigwigs, Nikki’s
floral arrangements can be spotted in Harrods, The National Gallery,
and Soho House – and as you might have guessed, they’re all
bloomin’ wonderful.
MOLLY GODDARD
Working wonders with her hands, West London native Molly Goddard
weaves fragile, delicate clothes that have captured the attention of
London’s fashion industry for their charm and endearing
awkwardness. Having delved into specialising in hand pleating,
crocheting, and smocking while studying for her BA in Fashion Knit at
Central Saint Martins, Molly’s collections now utilise those traditional
hand-craft techniques to explore themes of special occasions, coming
of age, and nostalgia. Her presentations at London Fashion Week are
already a thing to wonder at: Molly’s AW15 show saw models
participating in a life drawing class, while her latest SS16 show had
them obediently making sandwiches in a production line.
EMMA HART
Reality, according to Emma Hart, is unduly sanitised and skewed by
digital culture – which is why her artwork in ceramic sculpture and video
peels away deceptively pleasant images, revealing the crude, raw,
bursting-with-life truth underneath. With an MA in Fine Art from Slade
School of Art and a PhD in Fine Art from Kingston University, Emma
lectures on BA Fine Art at Central Saint Martins. This year’s solo
exhibitions included Sticky at the Austrian Cultural Forum in London
and Spread at Art Exchange, and even more excitingly, she made the
shortlist for the 6th Edition of the Max Mara Art Prize in October. Who
knows what 2016 will hold for Emma?
STELLA CREASY
As the Member of Parliament for the London constituency of
Walthamstow since 2010, Stella Creasy has fearlessly tackled housing
market operators in her local community, street harassment, and
controversial payday loans companies. Armed with a PhD in social
psychology from the London School of Economics, the Labour
Co-operative MP cemented her formidable reputation when she refused
to be intimidated by abusive Twitter messages after she expressed her
support for a campaign to put Jane Austen on Britain’s £10 note. All
respect to you, ma’am.
HANNAH BARRY
In her tenuous childhood years, art galleries were a haven for Hannah
Barry – so much so that she went on to set up her own gallery in a
Peckham industrial estate in 2008 (a bold move for any would-be
gallery owner, particularly one in her early twenties at the time). Now
considered to be one of the savviest curators in London’s contemporary
art scene, it’s Hannah’s determination to focus on drawing attention to
young, emerging talent that has seen her eponymous gallery in
Peckham Rye host some of the most exciting new artists around, such
as Oliver Eales, Marie Jacotey, and Bobby Dowler.
FRIEDA GORMLEY
Kicking the fun back into kitsch, Frieda Gormley’s quest to ‘take the
beige out of interiors’ resulted in the creation of House of Hackney in
2010 – a thoroughly British brand that’s become the antithesis of
bland minimalism, with its bold and subversive printed collections
spanning interiors, fashion, and lifestyle products. In partnership with
her husband, Javvy M Royle, Frieda continues to channel a modern
aesthetic influenced by English heritage, while sticking to a Made in
England policy of using local materials and manufacturing sites.
House of Hackney’s spectacular flagship store (a generously
proportioned townhouse) can be found in Shoreditch – as if Frieda’s
brand wasn’t cool enough already.
KATE TEMPEST
Poet, rapper and playwright Kate Tempest is one of the city’s most
resonant voices. She grew up in South-East London, beginning her
career as a rapper and making a name for herself on the spoken word
circuit for several years, before starting to write for theatre in 2012.
Kate’s epic narrative poem Brand New Ancients won the Ted Hughes
Award for New Work in Poetry, while Everybody Down – her debut solo
album, released in 2014 – earned her a Mercury Award nomination.
At the moment, she’s touring her most recent collection of poetry,
Hold Your Own, while her first novel, entitled The Bricks that Built the
Houses, is due to be published by Bloomsbury in 2016.
LUCY CHOI
Designing shoes is in Lucy Choi’s blood – she is, after all, Jimmy
Choo’s niece – and after spending 10 years working at French Sole,
she launched her very own shoe brand, Lucy Choi London, in 2012.
Her label’s ethos of ‘Rock & Royal’ speaks volumes about her shoes,
which have the capacity to please both rock stars and royalty, even
with their diverse tastes and attitudes. For Lucy, style and comfort
come first – she knows how a shoe should look, act, and feel – and
best of all, she’s made sure that her designs come with an affordable
price tag.
BAMBI
Step aside, Banksy – you’re not the only enigmatic artist who’s
shaking up the graffiti scene. Bambi – the tag name for this English
street art star (reportedly the shortened version of ‘Bambino’, her
father’s childhood nickname for her) – is said to have honed her
street art skills in the North London suburb of Islington, spray
painting and stenciling her way to fame. Her gritty, full-of-attitude
murals explore feminism and pop culture through portraits of
everyday people and celebrities, including Amy Winehouse and
David Beckham. Bambi’s real identity? Well, apart from revealing
that she has a successful side career in the music industry, she’s
remained anonymous so far – and so, the mystery continues.
KAMILA SHAMSIE
Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Kamila Shamsie wrote her first novel,
In the City by the Sea, while she was still studying at the University
of Massachusetts Amherst. It was published in 1998 when she was
aged just 25, capturing the attention of the international literary
scene and earning her the Prime Minister’s Award for Literature in
Pakistan the following year. Her most recent book, A God in Every
Stone, was shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction
2015. Kamila moved to London in 2007, and has been outspoken
about the gender imbalances in the publishing industry and literary
world – even to the point of calling for 2018 to be a year exclusively
dedicated towards publishing women authors only.
TENA STROK
On Holywell Lane in Shoreditch sits Celestine Eleven: a luxury
concept store with a holistic angle to its retail experience, effectively
taking the ache out of achingly cool. Its owner, Tena Strok – a
former freelance stylist – aims to enrich her customers
aesthetically, intellectually, and spiritually, presenting a fascinating
assortment of designers including Rejina Pyo, Isa Arfen, and
Meadham Kirchhoff, alongside a bespoke selection of health and
lifestyle products. An on-site apothecary and a medical plant
garden offer supplements, plant-based skincare, and herbal
tinctures, while the boutique’s treatment rooms – another excellent
idea of Tena’s – are occupied by some of London’s most soughtafter alternative therapists. Surely this has to be the safest haven in
Shoreditch, nay, the city?
HANNAH WEILAND
Who says faking it isn’t the best strategy? It’s certainly worked for
Hannah Weiland, the founder of Shrimps (her childhood nickname,
by the way), which conjures up fun fashion pieces from plush,
deliciously strokeable faux fur. One year after the launch of her
label in 2013, her debut at London Fashion Week made her the
toast of the town, with celebrities and fashion purists going gaga for
her guilt-free fur, crafted from a convincingly realistic modacrylic
blend (a testament to Hannah’s diploma in Surface Textile Design
from the London College of Fashion, no doubt). Witty, playful, and
big on colour, Shrimps has brought sexy back to faux fur.
ELLIE SIMPSON-GRAY
Believing that lingerie should ‘empower effortlessly’, Ellie SimpsonGray has been dreaming up intimate apparel from the finest
georgette silk chiffon, Chantilly lace, and silks, for Iris London – her
very own luxury lingerie label. Ellie’s love of old Hollywood glamour
translates to sexy, confident designs that combine modern
romance with structural wearability, perfected by through her
training at London College of Fashion. Suspender belts, bralets and
Brazilian-cut knickers come in sumptuous colours, with each Iris
piece handmade in Ellie’s London studio solely from locally sourced
fabrics. It really does bring a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘Lie
back, and think of England’.
EMMA SAYLE
London after dark was hedonistic enough before Emma Sayle
arrived on the scene, but once she decided to found Killing Kittens
– a company that organises carefully curated sex parties for the
city’s elite – well, things just went wild. At Emma’s events, it’s all
about women’s pleasure: ladies are in charge and free to
experiment, while the men have to be invited first before they
participate in anything intimate. In the space of a decade, her
orgies have seen 40,000 high-flying hedonists perform some
unrepeatable acts of decadence – it’s even been so successful that
Emma has ventured out to Manhattan and Los Angeles to deliver a
taste of London licentiousness.
JO BERTRAM
It takes considerable fortitude to stand in Jo Bertram’s shoes.
As Uber’s Regional General Manager for the UK, Ireland and the
Nordics, she manages a staff of well over 100 people (most of
whom are in London) to help connect the company’s 20,000
partner-drivers with riders through its smartphone app platform.
An additional challenge to Jo’s job is the fact that Uber’s popularity
– especially in London – has made her persona non grata amongst
the city’s black-cab drivers, which they’ve made particularly clear
over Twitter. Of course, it’s hardly floored Jo, who holds a Natural
Sciences degree from Cambridge University and an MBA from
INSEAD – and with over one million Uber customers in London,
the odds seem very much in her favour.
ANNA HANSEN
As far as chefs’ CVs go, Anna Hansen’s must read like a textbook
example: she cooked at Fergus Henderson’s The French House
Dining Room in 1992, Green Street with Peter Gordon in 1994, and
the Sugar Club, Soho, in 1998. Her first restaurant venture in 2001
saw her teaming up with Peter Gordon again to open The Providores
in Marylebone, which promptly garnered a slew of awards. Four
years later, Anna chose to focus on developing her next restaurant,
The Modern Pantry. Since 2008, she’s been following her culinary
philosophy to excite Londoners’ palates by breathing new life into
everyday cooking with a contemporary, global twist – a mission that
earned her an MBE in 2012 for her services to the restaurant
industry.
RUSHANARA ALI
Born in Bishwanath, Bangladesh, Rushanara Ali moved to London’s
East End at the age of seven, and became the first in her family to
acquire a university education – in her case, a degree in Philosophy,
Politics and Economics at Oxford University. After spending several
years working on human rights issues, anti-discrimination policy,
and community cohesion, Rushanara was elected in 2010 as the
Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, making her the first person
of Bangladeshi origin to be elected to the House of Commons, and
one of the country’s first female Muslim MPs.
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NIEVES BARRAGÁN MOHACHO
So sublime are the tapas that Nieves Barragán Mohacho whips up
in her kitchen at Barrafina that queuing outside the restaurant
along Adelaide Street has almost become a competitive sport for
London foodies. Spanish cooking, after all, is second nature to her
– Nieves hails from the Basque Country, but left Spain in 2003 to
become Executive Head Chef at Barrafina. Despite being run off her
feet as she divides her time between Barrafina’s three branches
(the other two are in Frith Street and Drury Lane), she managed to
net the 2015 award for National Restaurant of the Year – the first
winning venue with a female head chef. Talk about multitasking…
DAISY RIDLEY
The name on every film fanatic’s lips at the end of the year may well
be Daisy Ridley’s. As the actress behind Rey, one of the lead
characters of the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this
Westminster-born star received her lucky break thanks to director
J.J. Abrams’ decision to cast young, unknown actors in prominent
roles. If she’s played her cards right by nailing the part (and we
suspect she has), this will be Daisy’s perfect opportunity to explode
onto the silver screen. The Force is strong in this one.
NATHALIE ROZENCWAJG
One of the two brilliant minds behind RARE, a young, energetic
architecture studio based in London since 2007 (its other
headquarters are in Paris), Nathalie Rozencwajg’s primary source
of inspiration is urban city life, in all its rich detail. Originally from
Brussels, Nathalie has handled a variety of projects in Europe and
Asia, including an ultra-modern extension of Town Hall Hotel in
London, the restaurant Porte 12 in Paris, and Destination Mall in
Bangkok – all supported by her research into advanced modes of
design and production, cutting-edge materials, and new typologies.
When she’s not drawing up sustainable, human-centred designs,
she teaches at London’s Architectural Association School of
Architecture.
JOANNA DUNCOMBE
With her thumb squarely on the pulse of London’s independent film
industry and the young creative talents that power it, Jo Duncombe
– Programme Director of the London Short Film Festival – produces
and curates film programmes for the festival (now in its thirteenth
year), which takes place every January. Keen to highlight the
contribution of women filmmakers to cinema, she was previously
involved in the Birds Eye View Film Festival in 2012, where she
facilitated the Filmonomics training programme, which targets
established female directors, writers and producers. Jo also runs
the Quarter Club – an exciting and dynamic network for women
working in the creative industries.
NICHOLA JOSS
Blessed with a miracle-working pair of hands that have been
responsible for making Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, and
Hilary Swank glow like the A-List stars they are, Nichola Joss is the
London beauty therapist to have on speed dial. Her lymphatic
drainage massage facials – which, incidentally, she learnt during a
one-on-one apprenticeship in Malaysia – are said to be utterly
transformative. Nichola’s also a self-tanning pro and a nail expert
(her career skyrocketed after she stepped in as a last-minute
manicurist at a shoot with famed fashion photographer Michel
Comte), so when she’s not making pop-up appearances in Covent
Garden or Shoreditch, you’ll most likely find her working her magic
across the pond in New York.
LYN HARRIS
Perfumer Lyn Harris spent five years training her olfactory senses in
Paris and Grasse in France, until her love of natural aromatic
ingredients pushed her towards founding her own fragrance house,
Miller Harris Perfumer London in 2000. Just this year, she’s started
a brand new shop and laboratory – Perfumer H – on Crawford
Street in Marylebone, where her olfactory dreams can take flight.
Stroll past Lyn’s perfumery, and you’ll catch hints of her bespoke
fragrances, or of candles that remind you of ivy, dandelions, ferns,
or marmalade: scents that are as timeless and unconventional as
London itself.
KIM WOODWARD
Having taken the reins as Head Chef at the Savoy Grill in April this
year, Kim Woodward has quietly smashed a significant glass
ceiling: she’s the first woman to run the restaurant’s prestigious
kitchen in its 126-year history. Although Kim gained national
attention in Britain as a semifinalist on the 2011 series of
Masterchef: The Professionals, she earned her chef whites long
before that while travelling through the United States. She returned
to the UK to join the Gordon Ramsay Group, spending six years as
Head Chef at the York & Albany before taking charge of the Savoy
Grill, where she now commands a team of 35 chefs – 40 percent of
whom, encouragingly, are also women.
ANNINA VOGEL
Prepare to be charmed by Annina Vogel – in this case, quite literally.
Born in London and raised in Primrose Hill from the age of 12,
Annina’s obsession with charm necklaces began when she bought
her first gold charm (a sausage dog), then cemented itself when she
rekindled her passion for jewellery as an after-work hobby. Her side
business grew rapidly with the creation of her long Signature Charm
Necklace, earning her intricate charms – tiny music boxes that play
tunes, spinning globes, moving cuckoo clocks – a cult following
amongst celebrities and jewellery addicts. Good luck choosing from
Annina’s collection of antique British gold charms and chains; it’s
hard not to grab them all at once!
LAUREN CUTHBERTSON
Widely considered as this generation’s Margot Fonteyn, English
ballet dancer Lauren Cuthbertson began dancing at the age of
three, then went on to study at The Royal Ballet School and
graduated into The Royal Ballet in 2002. It took her just six years to
become the youngest female Principal in one of the world’s most
competitive ballet companies, and since then, she’s danced all the
dream roles – Juliet, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette and
Odile in Swan Lake – and created new ones with acclaimed
choreographers Christopher Wheeldon and Wayne McGregor. This
month, if you’re lucky, you’ll spot Lauren slipping through the stage
door at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House before she takes to the
stage as The Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker.