5 Burgeoning Set Designers Rethinking Fashion’s Environment

Creating captivating and immersive environments that transport viewers to new worlds through colour, form and storytelling, set designers play a key role in crafting impactful fashion imagery, among other visual outputs. Exploring a breadth of approaches, materials and technologies, Something Curated highlights the work of five prolific young set designers energising the fashion landscape today, with a focus on creatives practicing in London.

Danny Hyland

Having collaborated with artists like photographer Joyce NG and musician FKA Twigs, alongside brands and publications from Carhartt and PALACE to British Vogue, London-based set designer Danny Hyland’s environments are intriguing and immersive, whether decidedly minimal or jam-packed with carefully curated props. Recently creating imagery for Stella McCartney, as well as the set for Fashion East designer Goom Heo’s AW21 look book, Hyland is increasingly a staple in British fashion.

Ranya El Refaey

Anglo-Egyptian London-based designer and art director Ranya El Refaey’s artistic practice is varied, ranging from installation and fashion to theatre. At once refreshingly contemporary and nostalgic, El Refaey’s sets feel whimsical and transportive. With clients including British musician Bree Runway, and most recently, UGG, for their pride campaign featuring Kai-Isaiah Jamal and Omari Douglas, El Refaey is certainly one to watch.

Éli Serres

A more established profile among the line-up, with an impressive résumé including clients like Gucci, Hermès, Issey Miyake, Louis Vuitton and Prada, and publications from Buffalo to Numéro, Éli Serres’ unmistakable aesthetic is at once exuberant and stark, marked my a sharp sense of intentionality. Meticulously art directed tableaux tell compelling stories through curious objects, sculptural in their arrangement, well-formed characters, and sumptuous colour.

Zach Apo-Tsang

Zach Apo-Tsang, behind Tsang Studio, creates absorbing environments across fashion, commercials and music videos. Imbued with a strong ethos of reuse, Apo-Tsang has worked with fashion houses including Versace and Kenzo on sets for major campaigns. Through his bold use of colour and form, the designer creates often surreal-looking worlds that prompt the viewer to double take.  

Dora Miller

Born and bred in London, set designer and art director Dora Miller has worked with the likes of Nike, Selfridges, SZA and Vogue Taiwan, creating narrative rich environments and playful imagery in her confident style. Last year, in light of pandemic imposed constraints, Miller created a brilliant virtual set for fellow London creative, designer Fiona O’Neill. The entirely digitally rendered fashion presentation, riffing on the graphic two-tone prints O’Neill is best known for, came complete with artfully placed Greco-Roman sculptures and modernist furniture.



Feature image via @dannyhyland