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CONTENTS

10.

Welcome to HUSH

12.

Colour: The language of dreams

20.

Drew Kent: On our radar

26.

Abbie Brewer: The potter who refuses to “grow up”

36.

Red & green can never be seen

42.

Iris Van Herpen: On our radar

48.

Meet Sophie Woodward

58.

There’s a reason we don’t see the world in black & white

66.

Anna Dewhirst: On our radar

72.

Top tips from your fav slow-fashion stylist @Delightfultack

84.

The bigger the better

90.

Jiggly junk: On our radar

98.

Style it out

108.

Thank you 3

OUR MAXIMALIST MISSION; HUSH is a space for you to be whoever you want to be. Let yourself relax whilst you sit down with us and explore our take on all things maximalism. Enjoy our celebratory issue, have a nosy at our favourite things from the past 6 months, and have your say on what they inspired us to create. Let us take you on your soon-to-be favourite journey of colour, prints, vibrancy and expression. By the time you’re done, you won’t look back.

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ak e

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COLOUR : THE LANGUAGE OF DREAMS

What language do you speak? 18

Images: Drew Kent

ON OUR RADAR

DREW KENT Liverpool-born Fashion Design & Knitwear student Drew Kent is an emerging designer with an obvious flair for his craft. Heavily inspired by queer culture, his personal life experiences & current affairs, Drew likes to make statements with his work, but also makes sure to have fun while doing so. Taking pride in being experimental and using unusual materials, he always seems to find new and interesting ways to knit & crochet. “You’ll usually find me creating beautiful garments from household items and rubbish!” Follow Drew on Instagram to follow his knitwear journey. @drewkent__ 21

ABBIE BREWER The potter who refuses to “grow up” “ I’m a firm believer that people tend to let that child-like side die when we grow up. They let a bit of grey and brown seep into their everyday lives ”

bbie Brewer strives to help people stay in touch with their inner child through her playful expressions that manifest in pottery & rug tufting. “I want to simplify things to a level, not where kids can necessarily understand it, but that adults look at them and still see them as playful,”she explained. “I want them to think that they’re like posh toys, not art pieces.” The ideas within her work stem from her time working in hospitals and care homes with acute dementia patients who, a lot of the time, would need to see very basic emotions and really emotive faces to be able to understand what she was trying to say. “I wanted to keep that alive through my own pottery; keep those really simple and easy to understand emotions alive through really bold and bright faces.”

Keeping this inner child alive is something Abbie strives for in her work, as she feels it’s important to be able to express feelings in a way that works for you. “It’s difficult when what you’re thinking and feeling isn’t understood by others. When you put those feelings into another output it can make it easier for them to understand what’s going on in your head.”

“ We just have to ask which is the sad party, and which is the happy party in life? ”

“Bloomin Beautiful”

Abbie’s work aims to be accessible to everyone. Although we may take different things away from her creations, she likes that there are some universal elements. “Blue is sad and yellow is happy. Keeping these contrasting elements going and rolling makes it transferrable for everyone. We just have to ask which is the sad party, and which is the happy party in life?”

After being introduced to the world of creativity at a young age by her mum, Abbie has amassed quite a number of talents, all of which she creates for ‘Sunshine Child’ with exactly the bright, youthful energy you would expect from the name. The name itself also came from her mum who, in her charming Yorkshire accent, would call out to Abbie and say, ‘Come here Sunshine!’. “It’s definitely part of my brand because I want people to see the good and the bad, and at the same time not be afraid to unleash their inner child into the world.”

“I love me, I love me not”

She spoke to me about grieving for her mum, who is still alive, and how living diary of emotions ” she found it difficult to explain this process to other people. They would ask ‘how long has she been dead?’ and couldn’t really understand what her thought process was or why she kept going back to these ideas. “I kind of see my work as a living diary of emotions,” she explained. “All I want in sharing these thoughts and feelings is for someone to think ‘fuck that’s exactly how I’ve been feeling’. It’s nice to know that we’re not alone in this world”.

“ I kind of see my work as a

Sunshine Child, Abbie says, is largely about being able to have a pure representation of what she feels, without a filter. “As soon as it starts getting clouded by commercialism or change to fit into somebody else’s box, it no longer becomes Sunshine Child”. Her sense of self is evident, and these strong values have helped her be able to create collections that stay true to these feelings. Talking about her pottery work, she says “I want it to be really organic and to have those flaws and imperfections. It sounds really clichéd, but I want them to be imperfectly perfect”. This itself is a large aspect of her one-ofa-kind pieces; they each have their own story and message to be read by each viewer. These meaningful pieces allow Abbie to find strength in her vulnerability, and to empower herself with her work. This, however, didn’t just happen overnight. Pottery is a lengthy process that can be difficult to get right. Abbie finds it important to enjoy her mistakes and to enjoy the journey they take her on. “We’re all guilty of really focusing on the end product or end goal, but It’s also about enjoying the process of getting towards wherever you’re going.” This journey is, of course, different for everyone, but this is part of why Abbie enjoys sharing her pottery with her customers. She sees them opening up and understanding their own emotions; “I love seeing people living as they want to, rather than in a standardised way.” Almost as if they were a blossoming flower, she appreciates “seeing other people be bright and keeping the elements of themselves alive that could have slowly been squashed as they grow up”.

“ All I want in sharing these thoughts and feelings is for someone to think ‘fuck that’s exactly how I’ve been feeling’ ” Looking specifically at what maximalism means for Sunshine Child, Abbie says it reminds her to not bind her work with rules and structures of simplicity. It’s not about sharing your life like you’re in a showhome setting. “You’re wearing yourself on your sleeve. To me, it’s about being the purest version of you, along with everything that you like.” She wishes she could give her younger self a little reminder of this fact and help her from getting lost in what she thought other people wanted to see. “I would say just do what feels right for you, not necessarily what you believe art should be.”

You can find more of Abbie’s work & what she’s up to here: Website: www.sunshinechild.co.uk/shop Instagram: @_sunshine_child_ 30

“Bath half empty”

@_sunshine_child_

Images courtesy of Abbie Brewer

“ It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to ”

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lo w

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“red and green should never be seen”

but what should happen when they are certainly seen?

Images: Iris Van Herpen

ON OUR RADAR

IRIS VAN HERPEN Taking their inspiration from both nature and extra terrestrial technology, Maison Iris Van Herpen creates the most incredibly intricate wearable art. Her most recent collection “Roots of Rebirth” references the intricacy of fungi and the entanglement of life that breathes beneath our feet with the world of technology we see everywhere. The Maison is also proud to celebrate female empowerment and they greatly value a collaborative design process with inspirational women across the globe. Follow the Maison on Instagram to keep up to date with their creations. @irisvanherpen 43

SOPHIE SOPHIE WOODWARD WOODWARD Artist Meet Sophie Woodward, a 22-year-old Newcastle based artist currently studying Fine Art at Northumbria University. She has recently found her niche in large-scale, unapologetically bright paintings that feature themes of Greek mythology and traditional renaissance paintings. Looking specifically at maximalism; what does this term mean to you? Maximalism is just intensity. Just more of everything. I think for me particularly, maximalism means colour, vibrancy and intensity. But also, in my art, it’s the scale; big, domineering, immersive paintings.

What would you say is the basis behind these pieces? And how did you first come up with these ideas? It was just very much that I started messing about. I wanted to find a work that satisfied my uni module. They’re not too keen on super realistic stuff, they want you to be very contemporary, so I’ve tried to find a style that satisfies my urge for the more figurative & traditional. When I paint the bodies, it’s nice because

“ It’s the first work that I’ve made, and I’ve thought ‘I like that, it’s me’.” 48

you can see what it is and where it’s come from. Then I just find other little things that I love; I love the vibrancies and the Art Deco style tiling that I’ve printed. Newcastle underpasses and bridges are all in there too. The background is newspaper that my Grandma collects, so they’re all from Consett’s family advertisers. The ones that have crosswords on, you can see if you look closely that my Grandma has filled them all in. It wasn’t even necessarily intentional to incorporate my family into it. It was more that in lock down, I only had 2 canvases that I’d previously made, so I knew I had to reuse them! I washed them over in bright neon oil paints and just went for it. But now, each layer is grounded in something about me, it makes it a lot more personal. It’s the first work that I’ve made, and I’ve thought ‘I like that, it’s me’. It feels like this is my style.

What would you say are your main influences when you’re creating and where do you look for inspiration? I don’t necessarily think I have set places to look for inspiration, I have a set structure to the way I produce the layers. Like I said, it starts with the newspaper and then I look at Newcastle’s architecture. I guess I just take inspiration from what’s around me. I also grew up reading Percy Jackson, which is the simplest reason as to why I love Greek Mythology! In my paintings I love to have an element playing around with the human form because it’s very typical for the female form to be represented in these statues 49

and renaissance paintings. Since I’m bisexual or pansexual, I’m not sure, I enjoy painting both the male and female forms, rather than trying to sexualise one gender too much. The green painting, which is called ‘Embrace’ is 2 men kissing; it’s more of a socio-political kiss but I just thought ‘That looks gay, I’ll do that one!’. I think that is part of the vibrancy and the neon; it is queer and I’m trying to put that into my work.

Are the shapes you create something you have worked on over a long period of time to get right, or are the pieces more organic & natural? So, I do re-purpose imagery. I follow my set of rules and then I will pick a colour out of a bucket and then I’ll go on Pinterest or Google and look for different statues and ornate pieces carved into buildings. It’s all based on stuff that I see and think ‘that one looks like it’ll work, I’ll have a go at painting it up’. I do the forms quite loosely so I do the outline, make sure there’s enough so you can tell what it is, get some shadows in there. Even though statues tend to be very solid I try to get ones with more movement, maybe where they’re fighting. The big pink one I did is like someone’s being strangled and firing arrows through his chest. My work is very much 2-dimensional but it’s layered and I also think there’s a lot of movement in them because there’s so much stuff going on, it’s so intense but that’s what I love about it.

Your previous work on your Instagram were mostly black & while portraits; what made you switch this up and start painting such bold Greek mythology- influenced paintings? I think I just wanted to embrace what I had. I knew I had that skill of drawing and painting accurately and properly. I was just like screw it! Go big or go home! I wanted to make the most of being in the studio and being able to throw the paint around. We had a workshop in early September just before we came back to uni and all of us sat there and spoke about how the art education system growing up through GCSE & A-Level is very much ‘draw this eye as closely as you can’. We all had the same story of coming to uni and being told’ no, don’t do that’. That’s not what you’re here to do, you need to learn, you

need to step out of your comfort zone.

The contrast of these traditional themes with the bright, bold colours makes for really interesting ideas; what made you mix & incorporate these seemingly opposing ideas? I think it is partially because those things are just my interests, but also when I’m re-purposing these images I want to transform them, I don’t want it to be that I’ve just painted this sculpture like a carbon copy. I want to transform the images, so I think the neon juxtaposed against something really quite traditional brings it a new life and brings it into the contemporary.

“ I want to transform the images, so I think the neon juxtaposed against something really quite traditional brings it a new life and brings it into the contemporary ”

What gives you the confidence to make such statement pieces? Simply just why not? I think they’re me and that’s a good enough reason as any other. Through 3-4 years of making art, you gain that confidence and that trust in yourself. I know I keep saying this about the process, but I never have a solid plan for the paintings, they just kind of evolve. Trusting the process is really important and all of these paintings I’ve made this semester I’ll start out asking ‘ooh is this going to work?’ and it always works out! They always come out mint and I realise the importance of trial and error. The confidence just comes with that.

The way you use colour really makes your work stand out; how do you choose which colours fit best for certain pieces? I pick a random colour out of a bucket and just go with it. I hadn’t properly done a yellow one, but I’d done an orange, so I thought I’d do that. Then I thought I wanted to see how red will work because red isn’t necessarily vibrant, but it has other connotations so I think you know what? I’ll try it. I’ve made that one slightly smaller so it’s not too angry.

Does your work empower you? Yeah, I think it gives me confidence and it allows me to express. It’s an extension of me. When it gets good feedback and I know I like it, it makes me like myself because the work is me and I like the work. It’s such a silly way of putting it but it’s true. It makes me feel proud of it.

What is one thing you wish you could tell your younger self? Take your art seriously! Even when it’s just your foundation year; I treat foundation as a year to prat around, which I definitely did. But now with lock down and stuff, I wasn’t in the studio for 2 years. Now I’m applying for competitions and I’m doing a masters so that I can try to make it as an artist, which I didn’t do before. I always saw it as a fun subject at GCSE, and even A-Level. I did Physics A-Level I was a proper little Brainiac and I thought “I’ll just do art for fun’. But then after doing Physics at A-Level I realised I’d had enough, and that art was my thing. Art made sense and I knew I’d be miserable if I’d done something with physics. Art is what makes me happy.

What would you say are the three aspects you enjoy most about creating these art forms? There’s definitely a calming aspect to the structure in which I make the work, because first I have to get the newspaper on there and that’s really tactile. I like making things with my hands even if it’s from building the canvases myself in the wood workshop, and then stretching them. I try and do them as perfectly as I can, just to go and cover them in newspaper. Having fun is important too, because for example the yellow on the back of this piece is very gestural, I get the brushes and I’m like up and down, on my knees, up in the air, wiping some of it off. In this one I’ve swirled the paint off. I also love seeing the finished product and when it all comes together. It’s always a bit up in the air whether or not it will work in the end but there comes a point where you step away and suddenly its done. I love that feeling.

Looking to the future, what is one thing you hope to achieve in your career? Success is obviously the ultimate goal, but what I deem as success I haven’t quite figured out yet. I’d like to be in the newspaper, for something that my Grandma can keep. That would be nice, since she likes collecting newspapers. That would be really sweet.

What would you say is the most valuable lesson you have learned so far in your journey as a creative? I think I’m still figuring that one out, I’m not finished yet. I’ll never be finished because I’m always evolving. Maybe that’s it, actually. That you’re always evolving, don’t take anything as a finished point.

“ The green painting is more of a socio-political kiss. I think that is part of the vibrancy and the neon; it is queer and I’m trying to put that into my work “ 55

@s0ph_art

Images courtesy of Sophie Woodward

black and white

or technicolour?

“There’s a reason we don’t see the world in black and white” 61

Images: Anna Dewhirst

ON OUR RADAR

ANNA DEWHIRST Would you believe us if we told you these clothes were made entirely of loom bands? Self-proclaimed Loom Band Couturier Anna Dewhirst has found her craft in hand making each row of these garments from loom bands. If you had told us 15 years ago we could make amazing clothes out of those annoying little bands maybe we would have stuck with it. Follow Anna on Instagram to follow her journey as she begins her career in the loom band world. @annaadewhirst 66

TOP TIPS FROM YOUR FAV SLOW-FASHION STYLIST:

Slow-fashion stylist & creator of the digital community @Delightfultack, Cora-Jay is an inspiring creative who holds both sustainability and maximalism at the heart of her craft. In addition to her creative talents, she is a freelance dance artist and performer who works and tours across the UK. Having loved all things fashion from day-dot, CoraJay gives us her best tips for styling your most extravagant pieces and finding your love for all things colour.

Images courtesy of Cora-Jay

Try and find emerging designers who are passionate about sustainability @Delightfultack is a great space to find so many great new designers. I specifically take the time to make sure I’m working with the right brands on this platform to ensure they fit in with my outlook. The garments, shops and brands I share come down to visual aesthetics and what excites me, but I’ll also look at who has made them & take this into great consideration.

Wear want you want

I tend to just play with whatever catches my eye. I absolutely adore maximalism; I’m like a magpie for prints and colour! Maximalism for me is a huge expression of who I am, I love the dynamic aesthetic. It feeds into my mindset of “I like it I’m going to wear it, no matter what”.

Experiment with your clothes A lot of it is just experiments; I feel like I’m just naturally drawn to maximalism, and I love a look that makes sensory overload work. Get everything out of your wardrobe and have a play. Try and work with what you already have and mix it up.

Make sure you’re comfortable

Everything will work better if you feel comfortable in yourself and whatever you’re wearing.

Check your charity shops

If I need something new, I’ll always shop second hand in charity shops. If I’m on a shoot and I ever need anything to add to the looks, I’ll use items I already own so I’m not just doing massive ASOS hauls for the sake of a shoot, but if I don’t have what I need, I always ask the Model to bring their own items to a shoot. Ask your friends! Look in their wardrobes, if they’ll let you, and borrow something that’s already there.

Get inspired

Find what makes you happy and look for hidden gems that you will love for a long time. A lot of inspiration for me comes from shopping myself, meeting other creatives & looking at blogs like Pinterest or Instagram.

Upcycle, re-purpose and recreate I work on the principal of work with what you have, I feel like you can still elevate looks from what you have lying around your house. I also like to encourage people to upcycle, repurpose and recreate, yes, your top may have a few holes in but how can you re-purpose that and make it work

Images courtesy of Cora-Jay

make your move

“the bigger the better”

but is bigger always better?

Images: Jiggly Junk Jewellery

ON OUR RADAR

JIGGLY JUNK JEWELLERY Back in 2021, Toronto-based creative Jade Kaufman started messing around with some beads from her childhood, and Jiggly Junk was born. She describes her work as chaotic, colourful, unconventional & expressive, which we think makes her an ideal fit for the HUSH community. “Each and every Jiggly is the result of pure experimentation, creative indulgence, and a heck of a lot of love” Follow Jade on Instagram to see her craft grow & where it may take her next. @jiggly_junk 91

it’s even dog-approved

find your style, trust us

style it out. Need some help finding an outfit? Stuck for fashion inspo? Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. In ‘style it out’ we take a look at some of our favourite pieces that we just can’t stop wearing. Think clashing patterns, bright colours and some pretty incredible shoes. We try to shop sustainably or second-hand when & where we can so you’ll see pieces we’ve sourced from House of Sunny, Peachy Den, Depop & even a couple of homemade items. You can find the direct links to all items over on our Instagram. @hush_mag