Marcel Winatschek

Making Work

Ama Lou’s a singer and filmmaker in North London. Paria Farzaneh and Feng Chen Wang both design menswear. Lava La Rue skateboards and makes art. Raye sings. They’re all working across different parts of London, doing their own thing.

Converse made a campaign around them—called Spark Progress, all about supporting creative young women. Which is fine. But the actual interesting part is just: these five people are making work. Ama’s mixing music and film. The menswear designers are working in a space that doesn’t automatically default to women. Lava’s practice is grounded in skating, not just aesthetics.

I’m probably more interested in what they’re actually doing than in the campaign around them. But I get why the campaign exists—it got my attention, after all. And the work is the thing that stays interesting.