Bonoui
We love art. It is one of our major inspirations, and we love to enter into the slightly wacky, slightly off-kilter world of modern artists that inspire us. People like Alia Penner, Henrietta Harris and one of our new favourites, Olivia Mai, as known as Bonoui. Her work is all about popular culture stripped of its context: she uses images from fashion magazines in her collages around specific themes, but everything is zoomed in, everything is magnified - the detail of a sequin or a glittery texture, or the red lips and gap-toothed pout of a model isolated against a colourful background.
Two of our favourite series of hers - Blonde and Gems - are so inspiring we want to look at them all the time. There really is something about blondes and the way they are represented, the shiny golden locks, the vampy lipstick smile, and stripping that of all of its associations is so powerful. We love Blonde 08, with the face made up entirely of flaxen hair because, sometimes, it's easy to reduce blondes down to the sum of their parts. It reminds us of a great poem by William Yeats about a man so enraptured by a girl and her blonde hair. "Only God, my dear, could love you for yourself alone and no your yellow hair".
Benah is inspired by: