Underground speaks to Alize Demange, influencer, stylist and fashion guru on what enables her to remain proactive, as well as the introduction of the new baby Fishbowl zine, which she is launching.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.
I am a fashion stylist, born and raised in London and I’m currently working on my second zine project Fishbowl to sum it up in one sentence.
I’ve worked with some amazing brands and artists over the years recently, including Nike, Adidas, Katy B, Clarks and Maya Jama. I love collaborating and bringing fresh ideas to life from the concept development stages, to production, research, sourcing and styling itself. There really is a lot more to styling then perhaps initially meets the eye. It can be hard work, but it’s exciting and enables me to story tell through my work.
We love fishbowls IG feed and are excited to see where the zine goes. What inspired its title and what can we expect from it?
Thank you very much. I wanted my new project to be a place where we can talk about issues and subjects in a way that is transparent within its own community. Fishbowl will be a quarterly zine exploring one issue/ subject per release acting as a bubble for whatever we decide to discuss within it. I’m eager to be more conceptual within my work as well as considerate and honest about the world we are living in, and how this affects us as young people. I’m making a baby called Fishbowl and I just want it to represent reality but also encourage hopes and dreams.
You are always proactive and it is clear you have a strong work ethic. What keeps you creating?
I suffered from bad anxiety and depression once I started university, which carried on for years. I would avoid people, classes and work based on fear of failure. This developed into long stretches of uncompleted work, dropping out and struggling once I got back into education. It got pretty bad to the point where I had to take action for myself. I started exploring and understanding what was going on with me, and why I was behaving like this. This was when I wanted to take control of my life where I could, which for me was mainly through my work. I started to make sure I was completing my goals. This led to me seeing small results, which in turn, grew into bigger results. It was the reassurance I needed to almost say to myself that I could be exactly what I wanted to be! Even though, maybe I’m not currently able to control other aspects of my life, my work and its rewards make me happy. Whereas, my absences and stagnant moments deprived me of opportunities in my career, which almost heightened the period of unhappiness for me, making it worse. I feel that I must keep creating in order to express myself, push myself and contribute in some way, however small it may seem, to the world which I hope may inspire others to do the same.
What advice would you give to other creatives hoping to start something themselves?
My advice would be to try to do as much research about what it is you want to do. Educate yourself in every possible way, as there are a million things to learn about your sector. The route you believe is right for you, after research may turn into something completely different. Try to be both wary and open to this. Work experience and shadowing people who have already been there or are doing it, is key too!
Lastly, what do we need to know about you that we don’t?
I love to cook actually. I come from a creative family who have been and to this day, are still extremely influential towards me as a person. This impacts on my past and previous actions and is especially the case through music and art. I love them a lot x
