In the Frame with Justine Simons Sandra

WORDS: Bakul Patki

Description: XXX

The architect-turned-CEO of Manolo Blahnik shares how she’s helped to redefine her family’s luxury shoe empire—and why her uncle’s perpetual passion for learning has been key to its success.

“I’ve always been particular about my brows—even on shoots with incredible make-up artists, I’d insist on doing my own.”

Description: XXX

SHARE THIS STORY

I originally studied engineering and worked in that industry for three years, so I launched my business later on in life. At 26, I left my job in France and came to London to study jewellery design. That was almost 10 years ago. I basically used my studies to start working on my business plan. Every time I had a school project, I would design pieces that would be part of my future collection. But I didn’t have a lot of experience in business; I had no idea what a small business was, how to hire, or how to be a manager. I had no connections whatsoever in London – nor in fashion or design.

“Of course, I’m very grateful for the successes we have achieved, and yes, we can celebrate these milestones. But I’m always cautious – I never believe I have ‘arrived’. To me, one day you’re in and the next you could be out. You can’t rest on your laurels.”

“I say ‘work in progress’ a lot or ‘this too shall pass’. Also: ‘don’t forget to have fun’.”

What is your mantra?

“In the beginning, the biggest challenge was doing everything with a small team, but I truly believe it’s important to be hands-on to understand what your business really needs”

“A very old Hermès trench, which I got when I worked at the [brand’s] sample sale in the ’90s, plus a McQueen embroidered cape.”

What is your most treasured fashion item?

I was lucky to be exposed to culture early in life. With hindsight, I realise that one of the biggest gifts my parents gave me was to not put any pressure on me. There was zero academic snobbery in our house; they just wanted me to do things I enjoyed (and I did!). I grew up in Stoke-on-Trent – home of the potteries – and when I think back to my earliest memory of art, that’s what comes to mind. My dad is a professional musician and my mum a self-taught dressmaker alongside her career as a social worker, so home was a creative space too. Many fundamental life skills that I depend on as Deputy Mayor today, I can connect directly back to my early days of dancing. Discovering dance was a real turning point. It all started at primary school. Rather than learning set techniques or routines, the emphasis was on our own imagination and creativity – and on exploring ideas like love and hope through dance. Dance taught me so many things I wasn’t learning in a traditional classroom: how to work as a team; how to resolve conflict with other people; how to form my own ideas and communicate them. I have so much to thank my brilliant teacher, Dee de Wet, for. Contemporary dance is where I began my career – as a producer and director. I moved to London in the early 1990s and started programming festivals, managing tours and running venues. After a decade, I found myself becoming interested in life beyond dance and wondering about the bigger story for culture in the city.

When I joined City Hall, London’s creative landscape was very different. At the turn of the millennium, the capital elected its first mayor. There had never been a cultural framework for the city before, Tate Modern hadn’t opened, there was no Frieze Art Fair or New Year’s Eve fireworks. There had never been a real strategy for the creative economy, and now it’s worth £64 billion. Our mission was clear early on – to make London a global cultural capital where people can lead a creative life, and where everyone can access culture. Culture is our DNA in London. We are a world hub for the creative industries, a filmmaking capital, and the leading incubator for new fashion designers. We have protected grassroots music venues and reversed the collapse of artist studios. The London Design Festival has been copied hundreds of times around the world, and the Fourth Plinth sculpture programme in Trafalgar Square is a global exemplar. This was my first big project at City Hall. Marc Quinn’s statue of Alison Lapper showed me how powerful art can be. It was the first Fourth Plinth commission I worked on – a bold marble figure of the disabled artist, naked and pregnant. The response was pretty wild – people loved and hated that work. It revealed how much prejudice there is about disability, but it was also a huge boost for the positive representation of disabled people. I’m really proud the project has become so renowned and has inspired so many similar initiatives around the world.

“I started posting on Instagram at a very good time. It was very early on. I would just put outfits together, and my mum would take pictures of me in the kitchen. At the beginning, I was just sharing to friends and family, but over time my following grew. It was a lot easier back then. As my following grew, so too did the opportunities, and I started working with brands, which is how I met Jenna [Meek, Jess’s co-founder]. “I’ve always been particular about my brows—to the point where, even on shoots with incredible make-up artists, I’d insist on doing my own. I was actually on one yesterday and said, ‘I’ll do my own brows.’ Back then, I’d use two gels and three brushes just to get them how I liked — I thought that was normal. Jenna saw what I was doing and asked why I was using so many different products. “I talked her through each step, and her entrepreneurial brain immediately lit up. She said, ‘I think there’s something here.’ We met for lunch and sketched out designs for a dream product — one that featured three brushes to create my everyday sculpted look and hold it in place all day. “Months later, Jenna called and said, ‘I’ve spoken to a lab — they think they can make it. Would you want to start a business together?’ Naively, I said yes, with no experience in make-up or business. I wish I still had some of that fearless energy, because as the brand grows, the stakes get higher, and I’ve become more cautious. I love where we are today, but nothing beats the magic of the beginning.

“I had no idea the process would take two years. Our prototype was a world-first, so there was a lot of back and forth. We eventually launched in November 2020 — a strange time, right in the middle of lockdowns. But with everyone on their phones, it actually worked in our favour. I launched Brow Sculpt on my channel with a simple video of me applying it and saying, ‘We have this brow product — hope you love it.’ That clip went semi-viral because of the instant wow factor. “The lab required a large initial order since it was a new product. We forecasted that the stock would last nine months — it sold out in six weeks. We were out of stock for three months, which wasn’t ideal, but it showed there was a gap for a brand that simplified beauty with innovative, time-saving products that did the hard work for you. “I’m not a make-up artist — I’m just a girl who loves make-up and wants to create beautiful looks in under 20 minutes. From then on, we kept asking, ‘What else needs simplifying in our routine?’ That question still drives everything we do.

“We forecasted that the stock would last nine months — it sold out in six weeks.”

“When we got our first negative TikTok review two years in, I panicked. I thought we’d ruined everything and relied too much on social media. But it turned into one of my biggest lessons — we needed to be clearer about who each product is for. Instead of saying, ‘Everyone will love it,’ we started saying, ‘Don’t buy this if you’re not after that specific look.’ “Our community is our biggest strength. It’s at the core of everything we do. We started out wanting to simplify beauty, but now it’s evolved — I’m often the second person to know what’s launching next because it all comes from our community. They influence everything, from product development to shades. We regularly email our database asking questions like, ‘What do you want to see next?’ or ‘Should the next mascara be blue or brown?’ “We’re so fortunate to have such a close relationship with them. Our products are made for them — nobody else. Some of our biggest viral moments have come from everyday customers, not influencers. One girl in America filmed herself applying Lash Sculpt from Sephora in her bedroom — that video now has over 100 million views. It sold out across Sephora US. You can’t buy that kind of exposure — it’s pure community power. “To stay ahead, we have to keep innovating — not just with products but with every aspect of the business: in-house processes, customer experience, and events. Three years ago, we hosted a community pop-up at a Pilates studio in London. We weren’t selling anything — just meeting people. There were classes upstairs, coffees and matchas downstairs, and a space to connect. People queued for six hours just to be part of it. It’s one of my proudest moments and reminded me why community matters so much.

“When we got our first negative TikTok review two years in, I panicked. I thought we’d ruined everything and relied too much on social media. But it turned into one of my biggest lessons—we needed to be clearer about who each product is for. Instead of saying, ‘Everyone will love it,’ we started saying, ‘Don’t buy this if you’re not after that specific look.’ “Our community is our biggest strength. It’s at the core of everything we do. We started out wanting to simplify beauty, but now it’s evolved—I’m often the second person to know what’s launching next because it all comes from our community. They influence everything, from product development to shades. We regularly email our database asking questions like, ‘What do you want to see next?’ or ‘Should the next mascara be blue or brown?’ “We’re so fortunate to have such a close relationship with them. They’re who our products are made for. Some of our biggest viral moments have come from everyday customers, not influencers. One girl in America filmed herself applying Lash Sculpt from Sephora in her bedroom—that video now has over 100 million views. It sold out across Sephora US. You can’t buy that kind of exposure—it’s pure community power.

As part of our series In The Frame showcasing inspiring women shaping the arts, we meet London’s Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries, Justine Simons. She reflects on her inspirations, her future plans, and her role in turning London into one of the great international capitals of culture.

It’s really important to remember the crucial role culture plays and the contribution it makes to all aspects of society”

Manolo Blahnik’s brilliance is that it is unconstrained. Every season, the collection will take you by surprise. Yes, we have our classic styles that have captured people’s imaginations on a very large scale, like the ‘Hangisi’ buckled pump or the ‘Maysale’, which is your perfect 360 shoe in my opinion. But I think what differentiates us is that there is such a wide selection, and everything stems from deep cultural references and historical understanding that my uncle has spent his entire life learning, studying and consuming. Each collection is a visual feast. Even if you’re only going in to buy the simple ‘BB’ pump, you will always have something to look at, that will inspire you to think and make you curious to try it on. We don’t follow fashion, we just do our own thing. We’re not beholden to an Excel spreadsheet telling us what has to be made. Manolo is never told to do this, that or the other, or to follow certain trends or movements. It’s wholly unboundaried; an infinite world of surprise. No collection is ever going to be obvious, so that element of magic and surprise is consistent, and that has meant we’ve maintained our community. When someone connects with us, they will continue being connected. It’s not something that fades over time because there’s always something to excite. Speaking of surprises… We recently launched a Marie Antoinette capsule collection. It’s to celebrate the incredible exhibition that’s currently on at the Victoria & Albert museum [in London], which we immediately threw ourselves at to sponsor. It was one of those magical, very rare moments where all the stars align and we knew that Manolo just had to be part of it. Marie Antoinette is one of the icons of his life; [someone] he’s always been drawn to, so to get as close to her as he did through this process was so important to us. This little capsule collection he’s designed is very much with her in mind, but as if she was alive today. I currently own about 150 pairs of Manolo Blahnik shoes, but of course I’d like them all! My most treasured are a pair of gold leather sandals from 1976 that I asked to keep when I spent three months in Bath photographing all of the shoes for our archives. I never wear them – they’re more of a collector’s piece, something really special that I own from the archives. Another treasured possession is my collection of ‘Maysales’: I have about 12 colours and I love laying them all out in a spectrum. Looking at them all together makes me smile – it’s like being in a candy store. Some of my shoes are not in such pristine condition, of course, but that’s only because they’ve had a lot of fun and been on many outings. They’ve danced, they’ve walked, they’ve run, they’ve battled the weather, but I look at them and they bring back all those wonderful memories, so I’ll never get rid of them.

“Like a building, I understood the business’ foundations. Next, came the challenge of how high we could build it; how many more layers we could add.”

for its independent flair, street culture, and major museums, but without cohesion or any full acknowledgement of the potential impact of the arts to the city and its citizens. Simons – who has supported all three of London’s elected mayors and was appointed Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries by Sadiq Khan in 2016 – has played a major part in changing that. In the process, she has helped turn the city’s annual creative economy into the £64m behemoth it is today. For Simons, however, it’s about building community as much as capital. A fierce advocate for everything from the rotating commissions of contemporary art on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth, to London’s newest cultural district, East Bank, she is determined to bring culture to every corner of the city. Here, she reveals how art in all its forms has shaped her life, as well as her work.

Creativity is a long game and resilience is essential. I think this is one of my greatest learnings. Forging a career as a creative requires grit, determination and the ability to never give up. Ideas and imagination are at the heart of what we do in the creative industries, but the really hard bit is realising them. How many times have you listened to a film director say “This movie took me ten years to make”? If I was to give any other advice I’d say, beware of group think. As the late John Ashford, a pioneering curator in contemporary dance and an early mentor told me: it’s essential you form your own taste. Even in a creative field like the arts, a sense of who’s in and who’s not can take hold. Don’t be afraid to disagree, champion ideas and people on the outside, develop your own direction, and stay true to your own taste. Having said that, it’s still important to find your crew and support each other. The majority of creative roles are freelance, with challenging working conditions, so this really helps to make sure no one feels alone. When you do get an opportunity or become successful, remember to hold the door open for others. The person who did that for me – took a risk and kick started my career – was the formidable Ruth Mackenzie, who ran the Cultural Olympiad in 2012 and is now Director of Arts for the British Council. She was instrumental in awarding me an Arts Council traineeship, which meant I got to work across the dance world in various institutions and be mentored by Ruth and other leaders. Incidentally, my dear friend Indhu Rubasingham got the award for theatre at the same time and is now Artistic Director of the National Theatre. It was life-changing for both of us. Lola Young (the baroness not the pop star) gave me my first job at City Hall. Lola grew up in foster care and her journey to where she is now – a brilliant campaigner and advocate in the House of Lords – is unbelievably inspiring. I highly recommend reading her book Eight Weeks: Looking Backwards, Moving Forwards, Defying the Odds, which tells the story powerfully.

One of my favourite musical collectives is The Multi-Story Orchestra who Abimaro, my sister, regularly collaborates with. They’re based in Peckham and often perform in the multistorey car park at [arts organisation] Bold Tendencies; they’re deeply rooted in community and working with local young people. They make beautiful music together – I’m always inspired by their performances. An artist I’m excited about right now is Halina Edwards. The rawness of her work is beautiful. I really admire what she’s doing with her practice, and I look forward to seeing what she does next. And I’m a big fan of Alvaro Barrington, who seems to be everywhere right now. I love the materiality of his work, and how it engages with wider culture. It’s also just very beautiful. A must-see show right now is Joy Gregory’s Catching Flies With Honey at Whitechapel Gallery. It’s the first major survey of one the UK’s most innovative photographers and is absolutely brilliant. I’m excited to see the new Beatriz Milhazes exhibition, Além do Horizonte at White Cube Mason’s Yard in Mayfair. Her paintings are so vibrant. Finally, I can’t wait to check out Nike and Palace’s new space Manor Place in South London. They’ve turned a Victorian bathhouse into a beautifully-designed skate park and football cage – and both are accessible for free. They’re also planning to house creative residencies in the building, which is something we definitely need more of.

It’s been hard holding on to my practice since becoming a mother. I think this is where I’ve most seen the impact of being a woman in the arts. My husband is the most amazing father to our children. He’s so involved and engaged, and puts an incredible amount of energy into them, so I would never undermine the part fathers play. But I think there’s something all-consuming about motherhood: the breastfeeding, the sacrificing of your body – it’s completely life-altering. I’ve had three kids, who I really want to give lots of time to, so with each I have worked part-time until they turned three. (My youngest is two.) It’s totally worth it, and I’m so grateful I’m able to do it like this, but it means I’ve had to learn to make peace with less capacity for work. I have to constantly remind myself to accept when my capacity is limited and just to follow my own path.

Working in the arts in government can be challenging. The harsh reality is there are no votes in culture, even if it’s top of the list of what people say they want and love. So, for me, it’s really important to remember the crucial role culture plays and the contribution it makes to all aspects of society. Luckily our mayor, Sadiq Khan, really gets the value of culture too and has given it priority status. That’s been a game changer, in terms of what we can achieve. For example, for the last decade I’ve been stewarding the cultural legacy of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. City Hall has invested more than £600 million into East Bank – the biggest cultural district to be created in over 150 years, with spaces such as V&A East, Sadler’s Wells, BBC Music Studios, and educational institutions, including London College of Fashion. It will attract 1.5m visitors and give a £1.5bn boost to the economy, and I couldn’t be prouder of the long-term impact this will make.

Creativity is a long game and resilience is essential. I think this is one of my greatest learnings. Forging a career as a creative requires grit, determination and the ability to never give up. Ideas and imagination are at the heart of what we do in the creative industries, but the really hard bit is realising them. How many times have you listened to a film director say ‘this movie took me ten years to make? If I was to give any other advice I’d say, beware of group think! The late John Ashford, a pioneering curator in contemporary dance and an early mentor told me “It’s essential you form your own taste”. Even in a creative field like the arts, a sense of who’s ‘in’ and who’s not can take hold. Don’t be afraid to disagree, champion ideas and people on the outside, develop our own direction, and stay true to your own taste. Having said that, it’s still important to find your crew and support each other. The majority of creative roles are freelance, with challenging working conditions, so this really helps to make sure no one feels alone. Hold the door open. When you do get an opportunity or become successful, remember to hold the door open for others. The person who did that for me – took a risk and kick started my career – was the formidable Ruth Mackenzie CBE, who ran the Cultural Olympiad in 2012 and is now DIrector of Arts for the British Council. She was instrumental in awarding me an Arts Council traineeship, which meant I got to work across the dance world in various institutions and be mentored by Ruth and other leaders. Incidentally, my dear friend Indhu Rubasingham got the award for theatre at the same time and is now Artistic Director of the National Theatre. It was life-changing for both of us. Lola Young OBE (the Baroness not the pop star!) gave me my first job at City Hall. Lola grew up in foster care and her journey to where she is now – a brilliant campaigner and advocate in the House of Lords – is unbelievably inspiring. I highly recommend reading her book ‘Eight Weeks’, which tells the story powerfully.

Justine Simons with tapestry. Credit: GLA/JamesOJenkins

Save the date

Frida Khalo at Tate Modern

Justine Simons’ must-sees – in London and elsewhere

Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird 19 Nickolas Muray Collection of Mexican Art, 66.6 Harry Ransom Research Center, University of Texas, Austin

Southbank Centre 75th Anniversary

Royal Festival Hall accross Thames. @Morley von Sternberg

V&A Wedgwood Collection Stoke-on-Trent

Plate from the series 'Harlem Toile de Jouy', printed bone china, Sheila Bridges for Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, 2022 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Justine Simons at Chiswick House and Gardens) Credit: GLA/JamesOJenkins

Marc Quinn’s statue of Alison Lapper. Credit: JamesOJenkins

Lakwena Maciver, How We Build A Home is at Vigo Gallery until 14 December. The Dior Lady Art project launches its 10th anniversary edition on 13 November, with Maciver’s bags available in select Dior boutiques. Maciver’s bandana’s and afro combs are available from 29 November via the artist’s official channels, including lakwena.com.

Forging a career as a creative requires grit, determination and the ability to never give up. Ideas and imagination are at the heart of what we do in the creative industries, but the really hard bit is realising them”

‘

The best advice I can give is to be sincere, and to tell your own story in your own way. That’s what I’ve always tried to do, and I think it speaks to people’

IMAGES: Danika Magdalena

My earliest art experiences don’t fit into traditional Western definitions. I was attracted to art as something living and part of your everyday life, not something that just sits in a gallery. Memories that stand out are seeing hand-painted street signs in East Africa; beautiful kangas (printed cloths) that my dad used to buy for me and my sisters; patterns in carpets my parents had at home; church tapestries and stained-glass windows. Also, watching the kids’ show Sesame Street. My journey into artmaking started when I was 19. I was staying with friends in Brazil and found myself painting a mural while I was there. When I returned to London, I decided I wanted to study something that would help me make a living out of art. I chose graphic design at art school, but I was always more interested in painting and words. The course was very conceptual – it really opened my mind to what was possible, and I ended up making large-scale paintings. After graduating, design work mainly paid the bills, but I took every opportunity I could to paint. Eventually people began commissioning me to paint walls and over time my practice evolved. I went from making work on streets to having exhibitions in galleries and cultural institutions, as well as public art projects, and now collaborations with brands.

‘

The best advice I can give is to be sincere, and to tell your own story in your own way. That’s what I’ve always tried to do, and I think it speaks to people’

‘There’s something very powerful about turning everyday things into something extraordinary’

t’s hard to imagine a time when London wasn’t the locus of contemporary culture it is today. But back in the late 1990s and early 2000s – around the time that Justine Simons first joined City Hall – the capital was a very different place. Full of heritage, yes, and famous

akwena Maciver showed an aptitude for art from a young age. Starting her career as a graphic designer, she always felt the pull of painting - filling any spare time making art. Her passion paid off. It wasn’t long before the eye-catching technicolour murals with their punchy slogans, that have since become the artist’s signature, were drawing attention. She began to be commissioned to paint street walls, then invited to exhibit by galleries, cultural institutions, and more. To date, Maciver’s work has been seen brightening up public spaces in cities from Miami to Vienna, and across institutions as varied as a youth detention centre in Arkansas to Yorkshire Sculpture Park and – coming soon - London’s Southbank Centre. Alongside these projects, she’s worked with a series of increasingly high-profile brands – her most recent collaboration being the creation of a selection of limited-edition handbags created with Dior, as part of the 10th edition of the Dior Lady Art project. Here, she opens up about her practice, motivations and hopes for the future.

Justine Simons at London Design Festival launch. Credit @BenEvansphotography

The suffragettes used the phrase “Deeds not words” – and that’s my mantra too. There’s no point writing a well-meaning policy document about equality, if nothing changes in real life. Women are more likely to be employed in arts and culture, but leadership and decision-making roles are still predominantly male. So, there is a long way to go. Women artists are also still underrepresented in exhibitions and gallery collections. I love the artist activists Guerrilla Girls, whose work makes this point brilliantly. They’ve been going for 40 years and still deliver the hard-hitting facts with searing humour. Art has always pushed boundaries, whether socially, politically or technologically. Today, we see this happening with AI and digital tech, and – as with all innovations – there are benefits and threats. There is no denying these developments are reshaping the cultural and creative industries – accelerating, disrupting, and making way for new forms of cultural expression, as well as transforming traditional ones. But we must get it right with tech in the creative industries, particularly AI. I believe passionately that we must value human creativity, not exploit it. If your business model depends on stealing other people’s ideas, then that’s not a business model.

‘

Don’t be afraid to disagree, champion ideas and people on the outside, develop your own direction, and stay true to your own taste”

There’s lots to look forward to in 2026. The new London Museum will open in the historic Smithfield Market, and next door to that we’ve developed the Fashion Residency at Studio Smithfield with Paul Smith’s Foundation and Projekt. It gives fashion designers the chance to take their careers to the next level, with free studio space and mentoring – all in the heart of the London. Look out for these Fashion Residency names in the year ahead: Harri, Joyce Bao, Masha Popova, Petra Fagerström, Eden Tan, Pia Schiele and Renata Brenha. You heard it here first. I’m really excited for the upcoming Frida Kahlo show, Frida: The Making of an Icon, at Tate Modern next summer, which will tell the story of how she became one of the most influential artists of all time, and a cultural phenomenon. I’ve had the privilege of visiting her house in Mexico City – she was an extraordinary woman. 2026 marks 75 years since the Festival of Britain, and the creation of the Southbank Centre, which will host a year-long programme celebrating the anniversary and looking to the future. There’s going to be something for everyone – across literature, music, theatre, visual arts – and everything in between. Outside London, I’d really recommend the extraordinary V&A Wedgwood Collection in my home town, Stoke-on-Trent. The exquisite ceramics, the artistry and the innovation are mind blowing. While you’re there, there are brilliantly factory shops around the city, so you can come home with some proper souvenirs.

Justine Simons & Sinead Burke at London Design Festival Credit: LondonDesignFestival Iona Wolff

Culture is our DNA in London. We are a world hub for the creative industries, a filmmaking capital, and the leading incubator for new fashion designers”

We must get it right with tech in the creative industries, particularly AI. I believe passionately that we must value human creativity, not exploit it. If your business model depends on stealing other people’s ideas, then that’s not a business model”

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan & Justine Simons at Fashion Awards 2025. Credit: British Fashion Council/Shaun James Cox

Sadlers Wells East entrance and MoL plaque at Saders Wells. Credit: GLA/JamesOJenkins

Talent House Credit: GLA/CarolineTeo

Topshop fashion show at Trafalgar Square. Credit: GLA/CarolineTeo

Justine Simons at V&A East David Bowie Centre. Credit: GLA/CarolineTeo

TfL tube Credit: GLA/CarolineTeo

Justine Simons x 100 years female voting rights) Credit: GLA/CarolineTeo

Justine Simons at Tate Modern) Credit: GLA/JamesOJenkins

Justine Simons at Blast. Credit: BLAST/Sophie Skittle

‘

It’s really important to remember the crucial role culture plays and the contribution it makes to all aspects of society”

Justine at Chiswick House and Gardens) Credit: GLA/JamesOJenkins

Working in the arts in government can be challenging. The harsh reality is there are no votes in culture, even if it’s top of the list of what people say they want and love. So, for me, it’s really important to remember the crucial role culture plays and the contribution it makes to all aspects of society. Luckily our mayor, Sadiq Khan, really gets the value of culture too and has given it priority status. That’s been a game changer, in terms of what we can achieve. For example, for the last decade I’ve been stewarding the cultural legacy of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. City Hall has invested more than £600 million into East Bank – the biggest cultural district to be created in over 150 years, with spaces such as V&A East, Sadler’s Wells, BBC Music Studios – and educational institutions, including London College of Fashion. It will attract 1.5m visitors and give a £1.5bn boost to the economy, and I couldn’t be prouder of the long-term impact this will make.

‘

Creativity is a long game and resilience is essential. I think this is one of my greatest learnings. Forging a career as a creative requires grit, determination and the ability to never give up. Ideas and imagination are at the heart of what we do in the creative industries, but the really hard bit is realising them. How many times have you listened to a film director say “This movie took me ten years to make?” If I was to give any other advice I’d say, beware of group think. As the late John Ashford, a pioneering curator in contemporary dance and an early mentor told me: it’s essential you form your own taste. Even in a creative field like the arts, a sense of who’s in and who’s not can take hold. Don’t be afraid to disagree, champion ideas and people on the outside, develop your own direction, and stay true to your own taste. Having said that, it’s still important to find your crew and support each other. The majority of creative roles are freelance, with challenging working conditions, so this really helps to make sure no one feels alone. When you do get an opportunity or become successful, remember to hold the door open for others. The person who did that for me – took a risk and kick started my career – was the formidable Ruth Mackenzie, who ran the Cultural Olympiad in 2012 and is now director of arts for the British Council. She was instrumental in awarding me an Arts Council traineeship, which meant I got to work across the dance world in various institutions and be mentored by Ruth and other leaders. Incidentally, my dear friend Indhu Rubasingham got the award for theatre at the same time and is now artistic director of the National Theatre. It was life-changing for both of us. Lola Young (the baroness not the pop star) gave me my first job at City Hall. Lola grew up in foster care and her journey to where she is now – a brilliant campaigner and advocate in the House of Lords – is unbelievably inspiring. I highly recommend reading her book Eight Weeks: Looking Backwards, Moving Forwards, Defying the Odds, which tells the story powerfully.

‘

Don’t be afraid to disagree, champion ideas and people on the outside, develop your own direction, and stay true to your own taste”