Staring: Sasha Wilding @wildings36
Photographer: Bella Campling, @ffrindiaubel. Interviewer/Assistant – Lucas Assagba, @lucasassagba
‘I got hammered in school,’ Sasha Wilding says, as we get candid between outfit changes. ‘I was always quite outward with my fashion; people just didn’t get it.’
Off the back of her appearance at the Leeds RAG Fashion Show, I sat down to dissect everything Sasha; from her old job at Vivienne Westwood, to the Arctic Monkeys lyric that’s stuck with her for seven years.
‘The jumpsuit from this first look iis from Vinted. I decorated it with fake blood and embellished the back with the name of my brand, Only Pretending. I paired it with boxing shorts, some Fragile tape and Vivienne Westwood trainers. I used to work there actually!’
‘The spiderweb worked with the outfit because the ethos around Only Pretending is around the spirituality of spiders, and how sacred they are. ‘
‘I named the brand after a lyric at the end of Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts by Arctic Monkeys; ‘I was only pretending.’ It’s stuck with me since I was 19, I’m 26 now.’
‘For the third look, I wanted something that was casual, but alien at the same time; it’s very otherworldly and ethereal. I’ve got a Vivienne Westwood scarf, real silk; I got it back when I worked there. I’ve paired it with a Scottish kilt, a second-hand tie, a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, and a blazer I cut up; that cost me £1.49. I’ve got my New Rocks on with rainbow shoelaces because whatever you’re doing, no matter where you are, you’ve got to represent. Pretty much everything I’ve got on is second hand.’
‘My style is very maximalist; I’d call it charity-shop-core. I just find things in a charity shop and say to myself, ‘Will that work? No. Can I make it work? Yeah!’ I don’t really mind what I buy, people can give me any item of clothing and I’ll be able to make something from it.’
‘Charity shops sparked my interest in fashion. Every day after school, I’d get 50p, and I’d either get some sweets or go to the charity shop. It’s a habit that’s been growing and growing for as long as I can remember. Fashion has always been a passion of mine, not necessarily for the sake of following trends, but just to be me. I know not a lot of people like my looks, but I know I do, and I’m sure someone out there does too.’
‘I’m comfortable with the backlash I get for wearing outlandish clothes; I like the idea that people might gasp when they see me, I like confusing people. Everybody’s stuck in their own certain ways, but I want to make people feel something with the things that I wear. There are different things you can do to feel, whether that’s going out with your friends, having a cig, eating; mine is putting on an outfit.’
‘One of my style icons is Sara Camposarcone. She’s influenced me to just be who I am. She’s awesome, but the difference between us is that she’s got more money than me. My style represents the money I don’t have – I still manage to look the way I do with no money. The whole concept of Only Pretending is that I am pretending: I’m pretending to be something I’m not, and it fires me up to dress the way I do. If I always had money, I’d have been shopping at big brands, but because for all my life I’ve had to scrape through charity shops, I’ve built my style to what it is now.’
‘It’s a cliché to say I’m inspired by Vivienne Westwood, but I think we’re quite similar. It’s not that I’ve taken her values, I have my own but they’re the same as hers; she was very authentic.’
‘I was definitely a soul in the 70s; I’m very spiritual, and I feel like my soul’s seen a lot of things, and that’s why I can subconsciously put things together.’
‘The working class spirit is really important to my work; I am working class, and hopefully that won’t be the case forever, but I am born and bred working class. I like to think outside the box with my clothes and show people what we can do.’
The highlight of the day, for me at least, was watching Sasha come up with the fifth look in real time, adding to it piece, by piece, by piece, until her vision was realised.
The studio was very dimly lit, and as she applied the fragile tape to her face, I asked, ‘Do you need my torch?’
‘No, I’ll be fine, I’ll just wing it.’
‘I’m forecasting this trend in faceless fashion; I think it’s gonna be a huge thing, especially as people start to feel nostalgic for lockdown, so this is me getting ahead of it. The red makeup of this look is inspired by Laurel Charleston, Doja Cat’s makeup artist, and I love how it matches the rest of the outfit. The ‘ciggy belt’ is a project I started a year ago, and I’m really happy with how it’s turning out. ‘
‘I picked the t-shirt because the picture on it highlights that women are supposed to look a certain way in fashion – everyone’s supposed to look like that. I’m ‘ugly’, but I’m still just doing my own thing.’
