Simon Costin is an internationally respected art director and set designer renowned for the conceptually ambitious nature of his editorial and catwalk designs. He has collaborated extensively with Alexander McQueen both on McQueen’s own line and Givenchy ready-to-wear and haute couture shows. Costin’s client list includes Hermès, Lanvin, Kim Jones, Maison Martin Margiela, Alice Temperley, Stella McCartney and Luella Bartley. Costin currently works with Gareth Pugh as his set designer and has designed Pugh’s last eight shows both in London and Paris. He has been a long-term collaborator with Tim Walker on his fashion shoots. He recently designed the interiors of Norwood, a private members Arts Club in New York. Costin’s artwork has been displayed in many exhibitions, at venues as diverse as a forest in Argyll, the ICA in London and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He is currently in the process of establishing the UK’s first ever Museum of British Folklore.

Shona Heath is an art director and set designer. Since graduating from Fashion Design at Brighton University in 1997, her work has encompassed prop-building, painting, paper-sculpting, photography, film making, art-directing and more. Her editorial credits vary from American, British and Italian Vogue, Casa Vogue, L’Uomo Vogue to Another Magazine, Dazed & Confused, Mixte, 10 and Big Magazine as well as contributing various short films and installations for SHOWstudio.com. Advertising credits include Armani, Cacharel, Donna Karan, Harvey Nichols, Margaret Howell and Tiffany. She has worked on fashion sets for Emma Cook, Topshop, and Julie Verhoeven, presentations for Marni, Rebecca Taylor and the Vogue Christmas Party. Heath’s recent projects have included high-profile window displays for Dior, advertising shots and a limited edition Art Book for Rebecca Taylor, and campaigns for Das in 2004 and 2005. Her strong sense of style is inherently evident throughout, mixing contemporary and vintage elements with a timeless sensibility. Other projects involve T-shirt designs for Clements Ribeiro, packaging and fabric designs for Anne Taylor and various album covers.

Andy Hillman is a London based Set Designer. After moving to London in 2001 to study furniture design Hillman met and began to assist Art Director Shona Heath. He has since contributed to publications including British Vogue, Another Magazine, Dazed & Confused, 10+, L’Uomo Vogue and Amelia’s Magazine as well as working on the set of fashion designer Peter Jensen’s shows. Hilman has most recently designed costumes for a music promo.

A production designer and art director working both in film and in fashion, Michael Howells is credited with realising some of the most spectacular and ambitious sets in either field. Closely aligned with many of the highest-profile practitioners in fashion, Howells has designed numerous sets for John Galliano’s Christian Dior and own name fashion shows; Howells has also realised catwalk presentations for Christian Lacroix and Alexander McQueen. Creative relationships with photographers Mario Testino, Patrick Demarchelier and particularly a longstanding collaboration with Nick Knight, have seen Howells create sets for many of the major advertising campaigns, including those for Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. Howells is equally acclaimed for his work in the performing arts. His career in film boasts production design for titles including ‘Bright Young Things’ with Stephen Fry, ‘Shackleton’ with Charles Sturridge, ‘About Time Too’ and ‘Miss Julie’ with Mike Figgis, ‘An Ideal Husband’, ‘Emma’ starring Gwyneth Paltrow and ‘Nanny McPhee’ starring Emma Thompson. Howells’ theatre design credits include MSM/DV8 Physical Theatre at The Royal Court, ‘Towards Poetry’ for The Royal Ballet, ‘Derdemon’ for the Statsoper, Berlin, ‘Julius Tomb’ for Mark Baldwin Company and ‘Constant Speed’ celebrating Einstein’s Centenary for the Rambert Ballet, 2005. Such diverse projects have led to an array of additional projects ranging from producing Kate Moss’ 30th birthday ‘The Beautiful & The Damned’ to an imaginative strand of the interior of Comme des Garçons’ Dover Street Market to set design for a Gwen Stefani’s ‘Love. Angel. Music. Baby’ video. Howells’ exhibitions include Ferragamo’s Cinderella (1998) at the Florence Biennale and ‘Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones’ exhibition at the V&A (2009). In 2007 Howells won the Prix d’Excellence de la Mode in Paris and the first Isabella Blow award for Fashion Creator of the Year from the British Fashion Council.

John Galliano is a groundbreaking fashion designer, acclaimed for his fusion of romantic historicism with extraordinary technical skills and progressive aesthetics. Born in 1960 in Gibraltar, Galliano came to fame through his graduate collection for Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design, ‘Les Incroyables’, in 1984, which announced the designer’s signature strategy of reviving the past whilst heralding in the new. The collection was famously bought in its entirety by Joan Burstein, the owner of Browns boutique in London and displayed in its front windows: an unprecedented and prestigious endorsement. Galliano set up his own label in that year with the immensely successful ‘Ludic Games’ collection and he enjoyed consistent critical acclaim throughout the decade, championed in particular by fashion editor Anna Wintour, in spite of looming financial pressures. These were assuaged in 1995, when he was invited to become the designer of ready-to-wear and haute couture collections for Givenchy, becoming the first Brit to design for the label. This controversial appointment on the part of the LVMH luxury conglomerate that owns Givenchy was compounded when Galliano was appointed as the new designer of LVMH’s flagship, traditional fashion brand Christian Dior in 1997, bringing modernity and vigour back to the iconic institution.

Nick Knight, Director of SHOWstudio.com, is among the world’s most influential and visionary photographers. As a fashion photographer, he has consistently challenged conventional notions of beauty and is fêted for his groundbreaking creative collaborations with leading designers including Yohji Yamamoto, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen. Advertising campaigns for the most prestigious clients such as Christian Dior, Lancôme, Swarovski, Levi Strauss, Calvin Klein and Yves Saint Laurent as well as award-winning editorial for W, British Vogue, Paris Vogue, Dazed & Confused, Another, Another Man and i-D magazines have consistently kept Knight at the vanguard of progressive image-making for the past three decades. His first book of photographs, Skinheads, was published in 1982. He has since produced Nicknight, a twelve year retrospective, and Flora, a series of flower pictures, both published by Schirmer Mosel. Knight’s work has been exhibited at international institutions such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, Saatchi Gallery, The Photographers Gallery and Hayward Gallery. He has also produced a permanent installation, Plant Power, for the Natural History Museum in London and was the first of Channel 4’s ‘Big 4’ 50-foot installations outside its London HQ in 2007. A long-standing commitment to experimenting with the latest technologies led to Knight launching his award-winning fashion website SHOWstudio in 2000.

Gareth Pugh is a fashion designer who has received global recognition for both his outlandish clubwear and his novel approach to redefining modern luxury. Born in Sunderland, he studied on the Art Foundation course at City of Sunderland College and completed his degree in Fashion Design at Central St Martins in 2003. During a work placement assisting Rick Owens at luxury furrier Revillon, Pugh met Michelle Lamy, the Parisian fashion consultant largely responsible for the commercial ascent of the Owens label. In the Autumn of 2006, Lamy became official backer to Pugh, their collaboration marking a more luxurious direction in his work with the introduction of cashmere, leather and mink to collections. Pugh’s designs such as his famous inflated balloon garments are inspired by shape, proportion and process. He has shown at London Fashion Week as part of Fashion East and was awarded New Generation sponsorship to show in Autumn/Winter 2006. Pugh has collaborated with magazines including Arena Homme+, Self Service, CENT, i-D and Dazed & Confused. In 2004, Pugh’s ‘inflatable creatable’ installation was chosen as the sculptural centre piece for a Dazed & Confused exhibition showcasing designers including Stella McCartney, D&G and Hussein Chalayan. Pugh also regularly works with Judy Blame, who designs exclusive jewelery pieces to accompany his collections. Pugh’s designs are stocked in Side by Side in Japan, Seven and Opening Ceremony in New York, and in London by Browns and Dover Street Market.

Gareth Pugh is represented by Mandi Lennard Publicity +44 (0) 20 7729 2770.

Julie Verhoeven has worked in numerous ways across fashion and design, from illustration to creative direction and design consultancy. She studied fashion at Medway College (now Kent Institute), graduating in 1987, and began her career as first design assistant to John Galliano, continuing this role with Martine Sitbon in Paris. She went on to head Italian brand Gibo. She has collaborated on fashion projects for international fashion brands including Louis Vuitton and Mulberry. Verhoeven contributes regularly to publications including Dazed and Confused and Self Service. Verhoeven’s love of drawing is at the heart of all the work she undertakes. Since 2002 she has exhibited extensively, with recent shows including solo exhibitions  at ZINGERpresents (Amsterdam), Riflemaker (London), Public art murale in Bristol Harbourside and film presentation at Sketch. Two books of Verhoven’s work have been published: Fat-Bottomed Girls and Gas Book 13. She is also a part time tutor on MA Fashion at Central Saint Martins and Royal College of Art.

The artists whose work appears in the SHOWstudio edition featured in the SHOP are: Bjork, Hussein Chalayan, David Chipperfield, Steve Claydon, Elaine Constantine, Enrico David, Jason Evans, Nick Knight, Laura Lees, Craig McDean, Alexander McQueen, Steve McQueen, Sarah Morris, Kate Moss, Fergus Purcell, Peter Saville, Paul Hetherington and Howard Wakefield, Jurgen Teller, Phillip Treacey, Julie Verhoeven, and David Weightman.