SHARMAINE LOVEGROVE
‘we must make people confront their biases’
‘MAKING Peopleconfront their biases is one of the biggest things that we can do as activists.’ So says Sharmaine Lovegrove, who is creating a more inclusive publishing industry through her imprint, Dialogue Books. After years of running her own business – a bookshop in Berlin and a company that found books for film and TV adaptation, she realised different people’s voices were not being heard through books. So she founded a publishing imprint dedicated to
publishing people from LGBTQI+,
disability, working-class and Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.
‘It was never my dream to be a publisher, but it became clear that something needed to change,’ she says. ‘I think that when you’re
quiet, you’re complicit. Too many
conversations happen around the dinner party table and too many conversations are happening in bars, but they’re not actually taken to the street.’
She points out that ‘a lot of people who would say they are activists haven’t actually been through anything and there isn’t enough anger. We need a shift in society for there to be greater impact to understand that it’s not about being an armchair activist and walking through London
for a cause, it’s about fighting with
passion and creating change.’
With 12 authors published by Dialogue in two years and a further 25 to be published between now and 2020, it’s clear she’s shifted the conversation and already made tangible change. But what should we do to make sure it isn’t temporary? ‘Some people have to understand that things were incorrect in the
first place. Although there is more
understanding of inequality, they don’t want to feel complicit in it. So we have to remind them that we can only do this together,’ she says.
if naomi shimada was to define her relationship status with Instagram she’d probably have to plump for, ‘It’s complicated.’ Her own feed might exude good vibes, but she isn’t immune to the insecurity it can generate. So much so that, last year, she co-authored a book, Mixed Feelings: Exploring Modern Life And The Internet, which ‘spoke openly about how I don’t want to “perform” my own life’.
Today she explains, ‘We’ve all commodified ourselves, but there’s a united feeling that things cannot go on as they are. Especially the lies social media sells us about success. Why are you comparing yourself to Kylie Jenner and her Bugatti?’ she quips. ‘She’s a child trillionaire!’
The irony is, however, that her own feed is a source of empowerment for her 79k followers, partly because Naomi, who has modelled for a decade but happens not to be a sample size, radiates exuberant confidence. Not that she thinks it’s a big deal. ‘I’m so much more than just a body. I’m smart, opinionated, I care,’ she says. ‘But, especially as women, you could have three masters degrees, be an opera singer, go to the moon, and people would still call you out on your looks! We have to fight that narrative.’
She’s also anxious about the terminology, citing the way ‘body positivity’ has been commoditised or co-opted ‘by every girl in yoga pants on the beach’. Another label that causes her discomfort is ‘activist’. ‘We give it away too lightly,’ says Naomi, preferring to talk about advocacy. ‘I was just a person in the industry who was frustrated. I got branded an activist for having an opinion, but I’m not on the front line of anything,’ she says. ‘Freedom, expression and being exactly who you want to be – if anything, that is what I stand for. I think people connect to me because I don’t live a version of someone else’s life. I live my own life, exactly how I want to live it.’
RICHARD MALONE dresses a coterie of indisputably innovative women – architects, writers, Björk – but the one who’s inspired him the most is perhaps his late grandmother, Nellie. His S/S ’20 collection was a touching tribute to the ‘totally forward-thinking, quite radical’ woman he grew up next door to near Wexford, Ireland.
You can see her influence in his
socially conscious attitude – Richard has become one of sustainable fashion’s most powerful voices. Last year, ahead of the Irish referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment,
which effectively banned abortion,
Richard would head home to Ireland every couple of weeks to campaign with Nellie, going from door to door and speaking to people. ‘It was quite hard-core but those conversations are really important. Just opening the dialogue changes people’s perceptions so much.’
Nellie helped cement Richard’s
conviction that making a difference
‘is not about an ad campaign or a following’. He doesn’t measure his success in likes, and Instagram is no substitute for grass-roots campaigning. ‘It’s almost like you have the ability to be loud. But in a room where everyone’s shouting, I don’t know if it really gets heard.’
In an industry where people clamour to appear #authentic, Richard radiates genuine authenticity. He’s fearless, outspoken on everything from class and education (‘£9,000 a year is a huge amount of money… everyone should have the opportunity’), to fashion’s woman problem (‘there’s a patriarchal way of discussing women’), to big brands’ greenwashing (‘making it look like they’re single-handedly saving the Amazon’).
An issue Richard has been consistently ahead of the curve on is sustainability. He has a thriving made-to-measure business and works with recycled and deadstock fabrics, without compromising on cut and quality. ‘You shouldn’t have to choose between ugly clothes and saving the planet,’ he explains.
Unsurprisingly, Richard knows that clothes can talk. He wore a Repeal badge to meet the Queen when at London Fashion Week, and a ‘Fuck Boris’ T-shirt when he took his bow at the end of his September show. ‘I really had to wear that,’ he laughs.