This week sees the launch of Rebel: 30 Years Of London Fashion. A new exhibition curated by Vogue’s Sarah Mower to celebrate 30 years of NewGen - a program launched by the British Fashion Council supporting emerging talent, that kickstarted the careers of everyone from Kim Jones to Jonathan Anderson. As part of the celebration, Rankin Entertainment, the entertainment arm of Rankin Creative launched a new short form series in collaboration with the British Fashion Council. As strong believers in the power of entertainment, the team wanted to use short form storytelling to highlight the profound impact NEWGEN has had both personally and professionally on some of Britain's most established designers.
In collaboration with the British Fashion Council we are thrilled to announce the launch of Sartorial Stories, a short film series concepted and shot by Rankin Entertainment.
Sartorial Stories celebrates the 30th anniversary of NEWGEN and highlights the scheme’s illustrious history and alumni, and London’s legacy in nurturing emerging talent and the next generation of visionary creatives. Through brief interviews, the five-part film series follows the journeys of current and former NEWGEN designers; Bianca Saunders, Cozette McCreery, Priya Ahluwalia, Robyn Lynch and Sinead O’Dwyer whose authentic stories are revealed, rooted in culture, community and creativity.
Tune in weekly as the series explores the impact the NEWGEN initiative has had on them and the growth of their business.
For this issue we interviewed the brilliantly awesome, stage, screen and voice-over actress, Anjli Mohindra. Her first major television role was as Rani Chandra in The Sarah Jane Adventures, aged just 19, a role she played for four years. She then had supporting roles in several popular shows, including Cucumber (Channel 4), written by Russell T Davies; Paranoid (Netflix); The Boy with the Topknot (BBC Two); and Bancroft (ITV).
Perhaps her highest profile role to date was as the duplicitous Nadia in the multi BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated Bodyguard (BBC/Netflix), Jed Mercurio’s thriller that gripped the nation in 2018. The same year, Anjli starred alongside Tom Riley in ITV crime drama Dark Heart and guested in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (Sky One). Showing a talent for the macabre, she starred in Mark Gatiss’ take on the classic Christmas ghost story, The Dead Room (BBC Four), alongside Simon Callow.
In 2019, Anjli appeared in new drama Wild Bill (ITV), starring opposite Hollywood legend Rob Lowe and in 2020 she appeared as Tiffany ‘Doc Doc’ Docherty alongside Suranne Jones in Vigil (BBC) Tom Edge’s six-part edge of the seat thriller. Anjli is about to take the lead, alongside Paapa Essiedu, in brand new thriller Extinction (Sky), described as a "gripping exploration of memory, fate, and the limits of love".
Anjli has made strides to develop her voice as a writer, winning a place on the Royal Court’s Young Writers’ Programme. In the midst of the pandemic she made her writing debut with a new short film The People Under the Moon (2020) produced entirely during lockdown and as part of the Virtual Collaborators series launched by actor/writer Danusia Samal. She’s committed to re-writing the narrative for game changing South Asian women especially and we’re pretty sure she’ll succeed.
In the depths of a rigorous shoot schedule in Newcastle, Anjli gave us her lightbulb moment, inspirations and weirdest obsession.
@ranibyraja
WHERE DO YOU LOOK FOR INSPIRATION?
Everywhere. I think creativity breeds creativity. So if I’m stuck with a character I find that being creative in an abstract way can sometimes unlock something - that might be by painting with my niece, or randomly up-cycling a plant pot. Since reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Big Magic’ I’ve started to realise that the answer to something within can often be discovered outside of yourself- so I try and get about in nature or connect with another human on things completely unrelated to whatever I’m trying to crack. This is working a lot better than my old technique of bashing my head against my wall to seek those bolts of creative spark!
WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST LIGHTBULB MOMENT IN YOUR CAREER TO DATE?
In the first lockdown I joined a free online collaboration project ran by brilliant actress/writer Danusia Samal partnering up writers, directors and actors to create online content! Although I have predominantly been an actress for 15 years I reluctantly decided to enter myself as a writer. It was a real moment of “feeling the fear and doing it anyway”* and I loved every moment. My idea centred around a new fictional video dating app that worked using timed-destructing video messages to share with potential matches, to chart a junior doctor’s journey through the pandemic. It garnered praise from the Radio Times and Russell T Davies gave us a warm review and it kickstarted my career as a writer. I have two writing projects with two major production companies in development! Being able to now also call myself a writer feels thrilling and liberating.
*great book by Susan Jeffers
WHAT'S YOUR WEIRDEST OBSESSION?
Yoga! I almost rolled my eyes at myself as I wrote that. I honestly used to find it toe-curling hearing those Sanskrit words being chanted while sticking my backside in the air. and now I can't get enough of it, bent-extremities and all!
Dedicating some time for my body where my mind doesn’t get to butt in (for the most part) is a real tonic. And my shoulders have never felt so relaxed.
@ranibyraja
WHAT'S ONE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU LIVE BY?
‘Why not’ by my mum. My mum is a Jack of all trades and a master of ALL of them. She’s been a bank manager, a court clerk, a primary school teaching-assistant, and a market trader, she taught English as a second language to German speakers, and she’s ran a post office and a pub. She’s incredible. I realise this more so with every passing year. To my frustration as a teenager she’d always ask ‘why not’ whenever I’d express my frustration at not being able to do something. She’s backed me all the way in any of my bizarre choices and has taught me that there is almost always a way forward. And almost always something you can do to inch yourself closer to a goal even if it seems insurmountable. I literally wouldn’t be in this industry were it not for her.
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE IS?
Listening. I get so excitable sometimes, and finish peoples sentences - I am so thirsty for knowledge that I’m sometimes too eager to connect dots in my mind and think I have the measure of something without really listening. It’s part of the human condition to want to be understood. People will share if you ask them with genuine interest so I’m learning to shut the f*ck up and just listen!
Join us next month as we interview Stephanie Fuller, the incredibly inspirational CEO of the LGBTQ+ Charity Switchboard, who commissioned our short film The Call earlier this year. As Switchboard heads into its 50th anniversary year in 2024, Stephanie will be leading the staff team and working closely with the Board of Trustees as they push for their strategic goal of “no contact going unanswered”.
For this issue, we’ve fed our own personal obsessions with the hit TV series Succession and brought you a double whammy.
First up, we’re incredibly privileged to have the brilliant Nicole Ansari Cox; director, actor, producer, wife of Brian Cox, aka Logan Roy, but most importantly activist for women’s rights in Iran. Nicole’s professional life began in her teens as an actor on German television, where she went on to take multiple leading roles in public theatres, arthouse movies and TV shows including HBOs Deadwood.
Nicole, is half Iranian and is a prominent figure continuing to raise awareness of the plight of Women in Iran.
Secondly, we have the inimitable Venk Modur, stylist to both Brian and Nicole amongst many others, including the writer & director Nisha Ganatra. Venk is an LA based celebrity stylist and costume designer; his aesthetic combining fashion with cultural significance, and he’s mastered the art of styling on different skin tones and body shapes. His clients have been featured on the Academy Awards red carpet, Vanity Fair and numerous’ best dressed lists. For him, it's about more than just fashion; it's about helping someone shape their identity through the power of fashion.
We caught up with Nicole over Zoom whilst she was under sunny New York skies and fresh back from the Succession premier earlier that week… and Venk whilst he was in the throes of Brian Cox’s Succession press tour.
Everywhere. It sometimes comes completely from leftfield. I can talk to a builder and get an idea for something. I get inspired by just living in the moment I think.
IS THERE ONE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU TRY TO LIVE BY?
'Use your faults, use your defects'. Grace Jones credits it to Édith Piaf and finishes the phrase with 'then you’ll be a star.' It always struck me: what are my flaws that I can use to my advantage?
I think what this quote alludes to is not necessarily being a star as in a Hollywood movie star, but being grounded in who you are and becoming the star of your life. We used to look up at stars to guide us in terms of where we are in space. Now we have Google Maps. But ultimately, you need a bit of stardust, and I think we can find that when we use what might have looked like a disadvantage at first.
WHAT'S THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE?
Through empathy. Understanding that we are not separate but that we are the same. And I think really giving people the time of day. Being present. Goes back to presence really.
WHAT'S YOUR WEIRDEST OBSESSION?
Oh wow, that’s a difficult one. Maybe the obsessive way that I load my dishwasher. It has to be a certain way. I use maximum space and it has to look elegant, it can’t be all messy. Spoons with the spoons. Knives with knives. Forks with the forks. I do think this is a weird obsession thinking about it...
WHAT'S BEEN THE BIGGEST LIGHTBULB MOMENT IN YOUR CAREER SO FAR?
It was around 2015, I was at rock bottom. I’d tried multiple career paths; from acting to producing to being an executive assistant, not really succeeding or being remarkably good at any of them. I was teaching, or at least attempting to and really feeling at my lowest. I was miserable. I was not born to be a teacher.
When Nisha (Ganatra) called me, I’d been her comically bad assistant - but one night she’d asked me to style her for an awards ceremony. I’d had some retail experience at Ralph and I was always obsessed with fashion so I gave it a go, and it turned out super well.
Cut to a few years later, Nisha called me having remembered that moment and asked me to be her stylist permanently and doors opened from there. I didn’t realise what a life changing moment that would be on so many levels.
I got connected to Brian Cox and I’ve now been styling him and his wife for years as well as a huge roster of clients I’m super proud of.
I had come to LA intending on doing one thing. You have this idea of your life and when things aren’t going your way, you equate it to being a failure. But what I realised is, failure is not a taboo. You can fail multiple times and get it right later. There’s freedom in failure.
Film. I fell in love with film. Film costume has really inspired me. I was really picked on as a youth; in elementary, middle, high school. So when I transferred to go to a private school I would watch My So Called Life... and wonder why they were all so sad and drab and boring.
Then I watched Clueless; the colour and the brightness was really a tipping point for me.
I’ve always been inspired by fashion too. At high school I really began stepping into it; I bought Versace, when everyone else was wearing Abercrombie & Fitch.
I’ve always been inspired by GQ and Vogue and Vanity Fair. I had a love affair with Ralph even before I started working there. I loved the world of fashion and what it could do, how it could make you feel and how it could change the way you feel about yourself.
My clients are my inspiration too. We have conversations so I can really get to know them, and as I do we experiment together and I just know what will work and what won’t. It's a true collaboration.
I love watching TikTok videos of cow hoof maintenance. I am obsessed with veterinary TikTok. VetTok. I love TikTok and the fact that people are real.
There’s a Brit, a Scot, and all these cows walking around with splinters so they will clean it up and shave it and remove things and use this tool. It's so fascinating. It's so weird.
WHAT'S ONE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU LIVE BY?
Listen. When I first started, I would create mood boards for clients but I didn’t get clients that way; I was trying to tell them what to wear, and I didn’t even know them yet. I just stopped talking and started listening and that made all the difference.
You have to get to know people and build rapport. I think it's true for anything you do in life.
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE IS?
Listening to who someone is, what their story is, is the only way to understand someone.
BECAUSE IT'S THE LAST AND FINAL SUCCESSION SEASON (*WEEPS*), TELL US WHAT IT'S LIKE TO STYLE THE BRIAN COX?
It has been so gratifying to style Brian because he is so open to trying different looks. He is adventurous. An individual willing to try anything is a stylist’s dream.
I started working with him at the tail end of 2019. I knew his manager, who connected us both, to help prep him for all of the awards seasons. That year he won.
With me and Brian its a relationship that has been very simple and easy because he’s game. He knows what he likes. He has a “I don’t give a fuck attitude”. He talked about it in an interview with Kimmel; when Kimmel asked him about a shirt he was wearing, he simply said: “I do what I want”. Which makes my job easy.
