Anika Leila: The designer who transforms leftover make-up into fashion

Anika Leila is a British-South Asian designer who rose to popularity after going viral by combining expired make-up and textile waste. We tell you her story:

 

A graduate of Central Saint Martins in London, Anika Leila is committed to a completely innovative sustainable technique: recovering leftover make-up to create new fashion prints. These creepy, deformed faces become sensual and elegant garments.

Thus, she presents her collection entitled Anika’s Odyssey, in which she recovers her childhood memories to represent her inner child in her designs. As for the fabrics, she recovers fabric scraps and sources them from Southall, West London. Make-up is often donated from people in her community.

“The process of my graduate collection was very much trial and error at first, but I love the fact that the narrative is unconscious and personal to each of us,” says the designer.