Taking the rough with the smooth and enjoying life’s journey, Millie Cockton is the contemporary British designer and creative director behind self-coined label Euphemia.
Graduating from LCF, inspired by the fashion houses of Yves Saint Laurent, Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Rick Owens and Nicolas Ghesquière, Millie Cockton creates dramatic, theatrical clothing for open-minded, androgynous dressers. Working closely with her mates and muses Paul Joyce and Georgia Hudson, London-living Millie began designing her SS12 collection after becoming inspired by the underlying tones expressed within religious iconography. Taking the concepts employed within this season’s progressive aesthetic and translating each into a narrative, Millie began working on a fashion film with Paul and Georgia. Putting the focus of the film specifically on French writer Arthur Rimbaud’s poem Song of the Highest Tower, Millie describes the project, entitled Idle Youth as being about “a young guy bunking off from school, stuck in a small town, with nothing much to do but make his own entertainment.” i-D online caught up with Millie to chat filming and friendship.
What drew you specifically to the model who appears throughout the film? I think both the way that Cameron looks and his playful personality really embodied the feeling of boyish adolescence that we were trying to capture. I think there is also something very pure and angelic about him as well, he just seemed right.
Where were the locations you filmed and why did these suit the aesthetic? We choose to film in a very small seaside town- away from any kind of tourist attraction. The town had a weird desolate, yet peaceful feel to it with little to do apart from wonder the streets or play the slot machines in the arcade- we didn’t see more than ten other people the whole day filming! The water was also really important in terms of finding and choosing the location with reference to religion and spirituality.
How do you feel when you watch the film back? Watching it back is kind of bizarre but amazing. My mind works in such a visual way so I had a very strong idea of how I thought that the film would be – almost as if I had already seen it. Georgia is incredible. She captured exactly what I had envisaged and made it even better.
What is the crossover point between Paul’s, Georgia’s and your own aesthetic? We all had quite similar ideas about the film in terms of how we wanted it to look and the feeling that we wanted it to create. Both Georgia and Paul are amazing at conjuring beautiful imagery as individuals but I think that they also have a mutual respect and understanding for one another, which makes working together a pleasure rather than a chore! As well as creating strong visuals they are both great at translating ideas and concepts into feelings in their work, which was also really important in this film.
Tell me about the day spent shooting? We started the day really early, painfully early, as we had to drive out of London and wanted to catch as much of the early morning light as possible. It was an extremely windy day, which at times was challenging and poor Cameroon was freezing but it was all pretty smoothly. There was lots of laughter and not much stress and then we rounded off the day sitting on the beach eating fish and chips.
What are your ultimate ambitions for your label? There are things that I would like to accomplish and things that I would like to do but there’s a lot more work to be done in the mean time so for now I’ll concentrate on that and I will have to wait too see what the future holds.
Where do you see yourself in five years? Only smarties have the answer!
Text: Milly McMahon
Film: Georgia Hudson
Styling: Paul Joyce
