SECRET MUSE #7

Name: Shona Heath

Profession: Set Designer and Creative

Location: London

Shona Heath is a Set Designer and Creative. She is responsible for creating some of the most memorable fashion photography from the past two decades.  Her links within the fashion, art, interiors, and film world continue to grow, making her a much in demand creative collaborator. Shona's vision could be described as confident and playful, a balance of refined and raw with an experimental use of materials and always with a feminine approach. She draws inspiration from the people and the art around her, stretching and distorting motifs from the natural world to create her own unique landscapes. Often taking a humorous approach to the everyday domestic or the concept of luxury, her work has a lightness and sense of fun that she is renowned for.Her biggest achievement to date is working as the Production Designer for the film ‘Poor Things’, Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.  For which she went on to receive both a BAFTA and an Oscar for Best Production Design.

I spoke to Shona about her early transition from textiles to three-dimensional set design, her long-term collaboration with photographer Tim Walker, her segue into film with the phenomenal success of Poor Things, what it's like to be an Oscar and BAFTA winner, her latest project with Jack Davison, and why she wears Ferian jewellery.

LB You graduated from Brighton Fashion Textiles in the mid-nineties. Can you tell us a little about the early influences that led you to want to study design?

SH I was always looking at my mum's fashion magazines, Vogue mainly. I loved the photoshoots, and I had an idea, that there was someone doing the shopping (styling) for these fantasy set ups . The Flower Fairy books blew my 7 year old mind , and I was never the same again! The scale of a person under a giant flower, I am still playing with this idea in some way all the time .

LB Brighton produced some very interesting creatives at that time. I know you're still close friends with designer Emma Cook and she works on costume design with you — did you recognise kindred spirits in each other's work back then? How did Brighton nurture you creatively?

SH Emma was the first person I met in Brighton. I had never met anyone like her—outspoken, hilarious, and slightly scary. She thought I was a bit posh; it was the time of the Spice Girls, ha ha!

We are kindred spirits in our adoration of craft and colour, and of all things decorated. We were fortunate to be part of a group of hard workers who also knew how to have fun, so we kept each other going.

I think the sandwich course aspect of Brighton—two years at college, one year in industry, then a final year back—gave an invaluable chance to try out a few different stints in workplaces.

Still from The Glass Hermit A short film created by Shona Heath fusing experimental filmmaking with the latest developments in AI to demonstrate the irreplaceable impact of human creativity.

Costumes by Emma Cook

LB You specialised in print design — and I remember you helping me with some of my work when I was in the year above studying knitwear.

SH Yes I remember dolloping blue silicon onto some amazing gossamer knitwear you had done ! 

LB Ah the dewy cobweb – yes I made it for Alexander McQueen the following year. I think Brighton nurtured creative thinking which probably allowed us to move into disciplines outside of textiles - how did you break out of print into set design, and what was your first opportunity?

Shona Heath's studio

SH Actually my internships were  in two print design studios, (apart from enabling me to still be able to draw pretty good flowers from my head) made me realise I did not want to be a drawing factory, behind a small desk. I did an internship at the `New Renaissance, they did costumes, art direction and directed pop videos, I loved it , making the costumes and going on shoots, it all made sense to me, and the costumes could all fall apart after the shoot. This semi permanence of my work is still where I find freedom, whether it is for films, exhibitions, photoshoots, the final destination kind of trumps the set design, so I can hide a little behind that. I ended up taking a job there running the costume department, brilliant chaos where I made most of my mistakes and learnt everything. I was desperate to try out my own creative voice, so collaborated with my friend Cathy Edwards on a photoshoot for Dazed and Confused, I made a paper set, from there Window design, shoots and then I met photographer Tim Walker.

Photograph by Tim Walker

LB You've since had a long-standing collaboration - Tim Walker’s images are so dependent on the sets themselves. How did you approach interpreting his ideas? Did he give you a brief, or was it something you developed together?

SH Tim has brilliant ideas, he is methodical in his research. He often gives me a clear starting point and some specifics he wants and then I add to that, embellish and we grow new ideas together, other times its ideas I have had, it really is a mix .

Photograph by Tim Walker for Hermes - set design by Shona Heath

LB I still find hand-sketching the most efficient and communicative way to express an idea. How central are drawing and painting to your practice? Do you keep sketchbooks? 

LB  Drawing is everything, even more so with A.I. the mistakes your hand makes creates new ideas, avenues, lines and shapes. I think it’s the only way to channel your inner originality .

Title sketch by Shona Heath for 'Poor Things'

SH I draw on anything, receipts, my hand, but I do always have a sketchbook with me. 

LB There's a distinctive Shona Heath signature to your subject matter, but what also strikes me is your colour palette and unusual colour combinations. Do you attribute your ease with colour to your textile training?

SH Colour combos, defiantly my mum's. She is super bold with her clothes and her home, and no colour combination is off limits.  I  always think a dose of bad taste is what makes for good colour. I am actually amazed how many people are colour snobs, I think it’s got to do with Farrow and Ball … I’m still trying to work it out. 

Hieronymus Bosch by photographer Tim Walker, set by Shona Heath

LB 'Poor Things', directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, was your first feature-length film and went on to win four Oscars — including Best Production Design for you and co-designer James Price, as well as Best Actress for Emma Stone, Best Costume Design, and Best Make-Up & Hairstyling. What was it like to be part of such a critically acclaimed project? 

SH The critically acclaimed part comes as hindsight, not during the making, which is of course filled with doubt, panic, devastation and no sleep. I have a strange relationship with the Oscar and Bafta. It makes me uncomfortable and people talk about that rather than the work itself.

'Poor Things' poster with Emma Stone

I am so happy that people LOVED that film, and loved all the art and craft from costumes, film making , music, acting, makeup and also the sets people really SAW them, that makes me super proud. I was in love with that story and how to bring it to life, it was all consuming. 

Chapter Headings for 'Poor Things'

LB Your work has a fairy-tale quality, with playful shifts in scale and intense colour, yet it's underpinned by a realism that feels almost like a lucid dream. Clearly your aesthetic resonated with Lanthimos — can you give us some insight into the creation process? Was it a freely evolving brief, and how did you, James, and the costume designers complement each other creatively?

SH The process involved dreaming up a world that the story of Bella could be told. Finding an angle that would somehow make sense. We wrote a statement of when the film was set, which was ever evolving because it was always a reflection of how Bella saw the world, which from a child’s brain in an adult body was pretty wild, it gave us a freedom. The brief was never really there, just the script, we built the world around that, the costumes came in early, and Holly, James and myself were able to make the clothes and the sets become one, the clothes were always worn like a child picks up clothes from a fancy dress box, this created a looseness and didn’t align with the 'times' Same with the makeup, the prosthetics came from the same thought process as Baxters house the  spliced up architectural approach. 

Emma Stone in a still from 'Poor Things'

LB So many films and TV productions now rely heavily on digital environments that, for me, can result in an overproduced generic gloss that quickly dates as technology moves on. Poor Things felt like the antithesis of that — with skilled hand-painted backdrops and physical props working in harmony with the actors. Even though the world was fantastical, the human touch made it feel more convincing and emotionally real. Do you think there's an appetite for a return to more physical, handcrafted set-building?

SH YES, YES, YES PLEASE. Actually I believe it will be more in demand than ever , textures for real are so much more gritty and interesting and tell stories of human touch from the maker to the Actors contact /response. 

Shona Heath modelling clay leaves in her studio

LB Your collaboration with photographer Jack Davison has resulted in original, beautiful images. Like you, Jack is a very agile creative, working across character portraits and fashion. I worked with him on Margaret Howell campaigns, where he was chosen for his eye for colour and composition – something you both share. Your collaboration, Ant – a surrealist celebration of children’s alphabet books – is Jack’s first short film. What drew you to work together?

SH I can’t remember how Jack contacted me, but we worked together for Vogue, and he is super fun and playful and talented and creative and collaborative, so for me a dream.

Cate Blanchett photographed by Jack Davison for The New York Times magazine - set and costume design by Shona Heath.

Shona's charcoal on paper sketch for 'ANT'

LB What's next? Will you return to fashion sets, or has moving image stolen your heart? 

SH I still have an open mind, and each new project has always led me to the next, so  lets see…. Always holding out for a ballet …and I have one or two films in me, as they take over your mind and soul (if you care enough) so I will wait for the 'one'  I am a romantic and loyal !! It HAS to be undetermined, a bit of a riddle and something that only I could do ! … 

A still from Ant by Jack Davidson and Shona Heath

BE MESMERISED BY ANT HERE

LB Lastly, can you tell me why you chose your Ferian Gold buckle ring and Silver and Gold Lapis lazuli Swivel ring?

SH I have always liked to mix gold and silver, my wedding band has both. The Lapis swivel stone is a good luck stone for me and gets creativity flowing from your core, and I love that the gold swivel points on the silver means you can choose just a little mirror!  Practical and versatile .

SHOP LAPIS LOZENGE SWIVEL RING

SH The Gold Buckle Ring is everything I love about play in scale, a perfect miniature belt around your finger. Ferian has a kind of femininity that appeals to me, could be masculine at first glance but is light hearted and playful and practical.

LB And that is exactly how I designed them!

Thank you for being Ferian Muse #7

SHOP GOLD BUCKLE RING

Follow Shona’s enchanted world @shona.heath

Shona Heath is represented by MMXXARTISTS

Emma Watson for Vanity Fair

Photos with kind courtesy from Shona Heath