Earlier this week at the esteemed Royal Albert Hall, leaders and burgeoning stars of the British fashion scene celebrated the work of illustrious designers, models, and personalities.
Attending the British Fashion Awards with Charles & Keith, wearing a custom dress by Paulanadal and styled by Heloise Chaueveheid, was none other than fashion and beauty creator Hana Martin. And we had the pleasure of catching up with her.
Read the interview…
Hey Hana! Great to see you at this year’s awards! What was your highlight of the night?
Hi Wonderland! Thanks so much, it really was an incredible experience. You’ve given me the hardest question- how do I choose just one! Edward Enninful OBE presenting the special recognition award to Sarah Burton OBE was certainly a highlight of mine. His tribute to her and her work was beautiful and so well deserved, it was an honour to be in their presence. I also thoroughly enjoyed Sam Smith’s performance- their voice is immaculate. It was their unapologetic speech that just topped it off though. It was so inspiring and well spoken, one that I will always remember as iconic. Sharing the floor with all these incredible talents was so surreal and something I will always be grateful for. A really special moment for me was also of course walking the red carpet in my bespoke dress too. I was just really proud knowing all the hard work that went into creating it.
Can you tell us about the custom dress you wore?
I along with my stylist Heloise Chauveheid teamed up with Paulanadal’s founder and creative director Paula Nadal on not only my first, but Paulanadal’s first bespoke for red carpet! It was a super exciting experience for us all. Now there are a few layers to this look. We wanted to create a dress around the idea of “Femme Fatale”; elegant but bold, sharp but utterly feminine; throughout my journey in fashion, I’ve been discovering my style as I mature, so a strong silhouette we figured would work nicely for this look as I come into womanhood. I attended last year’s Fashion Awards wearing a latex piece from Kasia Kuchaska’s collection that covered head to toe, remaining me completely anonymous. I knew I wanted to carry that element of mystery into this year’s look, creating the question, “I wonder who’s behind the mask?” I like the power of choosing when to be known. The last element was surrealism. Following last year’s look, Heloise wanted to keep the idea of surreal with an unexpected aspect. Surrealism in fashion is a movement that I, Heloise and Paula collectively have a wide interest in. It’s exciting. It’s bold. It makes people really study the meaning of a look and come away feeling something. Whilst I of course wanted to feel elegant and beautiful, I also wanted that element of discussion. Something some people would love and others not so much- a marmite look! Referencing some meaningful looks within the surrealism movement in Fashion, the Lobster dress by Dali and Elsa Schiaparelli for example, Heloise thought to include an animalistic or insect feature. As soon as she mentioned the word ‘insect’ a lightbulb in my head lit up- a mantis! It might seem a bit crazy to imagine, but a substantial amount of my social media following came from creating content around my pet orchid mantis during lockdown period to boost morale. So now as my career has grown, we have gone full circle back! (Honourable mention to Mayang haha). This was the point all our ideas started merging into one and it was just perfect. Femme fatale, anonymity, and surrealism. Did you know female mantises devour the males after mating? Talk about a ‘man-eater’!
Tell us more about the look itself. How is the mantis referenced in the look?
The Orchid Mantis. The most iconic extreme feminist. It’s hard to tell the difference between a male and female orchid, other than the fact the males are smaller in size *wink wink*. With that in mind, we wanted to create a look that combined both male and female, a bit androgynous. Something dangerous but delicate. We opted for the classic male wardrobe of cufflinks, suit and collar paired with the classic female wardrobe of shape and corset as seen throughout history in fashion. The look is made entirely from wool and silk, which also played into the contrast and ambiguity of man and woman. Barathea wool is a British traditional men’s evening wear fabric, and silk is soft and feminine. The exaggerated hips and cinched waist play into the classic femme fatale silhouette as well as the shape of the mantis. What makes an orchid mantis stand out to be so beautiful is that it’s literally like a flower- each leg is a petal! Paula tailored the hips to be just that- petals. Throughout the look we’ve recreated the natural shapes we would see regarding an orchid mantis- shapes of petals and spiral leaves as seen in the jacket, the back, shape of collar, hips and headpiece. We also wanted to note the fragility of a mantis, that ‘stick-thin’ element. The skirt is fitted tight to my body and arms the illusion of twigs due to exaggerated shoulders and cufflinks. Heloise sourced a staff for me to hold too which added not only to the theatrics of the look, but also how a mantis rests on branches. Paula did some gorgeous embroidery with cornflower and black beading spiral patterns as seen throughout the look to reference the natural shapes we see in orchids and nature surrounding. But the surrealist aspect is really brought to life with the headpiece! Paula had these beautiful spiralled feathers in her studio that she had been dying to use in a look and thought would be perfect in respect to antenna. They were just so cute and delicate. The finishing touch was the mask. The eyes of the mantis. The mystery. The veil of a widow as seen in classic female wardrobe in history- the mourning mantis of the murder of her partner. Quite sinister when you think about it haha, (but ultimately badass).
Many struggle with the “what to wear” dilemma before such a prestigious night; how did you work with Heloise on your look for the night?
Haha I can definitely sympathise with the ‘what to wear’ dilemma. For these kinds of events, people may assume you have plenty of time to source outfits for, but invites might not get confirmed until a week or two before! Luckily this year I had a nice amount of time to plan, as I was invited by Charles & Keith. I had worked with the brand and team previously so I knew I was in good hands – and this meant I already knew I could count on them for the most gorgeous accessories! In terms of sourcing an outfit, Heloise and I got to work straight away, however the process of brainstorming with Paulanadal to the finalised look was just two weeks long, including a week of production! In that time, we did about four in-studio fitting and prototyping sessions, with delivery of dress just hours before the event. Paula (creative director of Paulanadal) was working right up until the last second! Her work ethic was just so incredible to watch. Even with the little time frame, not one detail was missed. Going back to day one where I contacted Heloise about working together on this project, we quite literally started with just chucking ideas together and seeing what one another thought. As always, our ideas certainly aligned, and those themes of surrealism and femme fatale were the standouts. We created a mood board and looked at potential designers to source outfits from. However, Heloise also suggested about potentially doing a custom this year. I was so drawn to this decision that it was then just a case of sourcing a brand. Heloise almost immediately suggested Paulanadal and spoke very highly of the Brand and Paula’s work. She told me she would 100% trust Paula to do this project justice- and if Heloise trusted Paula, I trusted her too! One zoom call and I could tell we were all going to work great together. Our visions all aligned, positively inspiring and bouncing off each other. Our first in studio session was my favourite; we spent the time trying on garments, holding up materials, creating shapes and just throwing out random words that somehow just made sense to us. What I love is how our starting point looked nothing like the outcome, it really was a journey that we unfolded together, and Paula’s eye for design is just unmatched.
Who were you most excited to see/meet at the British Fashion Awards?
I was super excited to see Jonathan Anderson. I just love and admire his work so much. His runway collections are always something I look forward to so to see him win his award was just brilliant. It was an honour to also be sat on a table with Chet Lo. I attended his SS24 runway dressed in one of his looks which ended up being one of my favourite looks I wore that fashion week season. So to come full circle was a moment in itself! There were just so many people in that room that I have so much respect for; designers, editors, actors, artists, the list goes on and I hope to have a career as successful one day. Speaking of artists, add makeup to that and we have Charlotte Tilbury. The Tilbury team glammed me up for the night so to see Charlotte win her award was so lovely. I had the honour to shoot with her a few weeks ago and she was the sweetest- an absolute darling!
What was it like to be linked with the British Fashion Council?
The British Fashion Council are just so great at what they do, aren’t they? I think it was so lovely to see young designers getting recognition for their work and even younger designers watching from the boxes. They are so important for the new generation, so to be linked with them is such a pleasure. Paulanadal is a part of the British Fashion Council and was able to attend the awards via members too, so to me that makes it even more special! To be able to work with such a talented emerging designer project is what these awards are all about. It made me so happy when other designers or stylists would compliment and ask who the dress was by. Paulanadal deserves every ounce of recognition.
There’s an incredible line up of nominees this year! Whose work do you admire the most? And why?
You’re correct, the line-up was outstanding! I have already given a few names a mention, but another that I admire is Maximilian Davis. I really love his outlook and the way he views the world and his career; I feel I can very much relate to his mindset. He is a fresh young face for Ferragamo, and it is clear he is already doing the creative director title justice. I love his spin on the brand for the new generation and I am super excited to see what he does next!
Management: Cadence Talent
