Chameleonic is a word that comes to mind when speaking to Shona Heath, a designer of sets, costumes, productions, exhibitions and much more. There’s a fluidity to her practice, her intuitions guided by a desire to turn new corners with each project. It goes some way to explaining her response to the Academy Award she picked up at the beginning of 2024 for her work on Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things, alongside co-production designer James Price. “There was something about that Oscar,” the designer tells us from her east London studio. “There was something about it that felt like a full stop that I don’t like.”

Drawn to the storytelling in the pages of fashion magazines, Heath studied fashion at the University of Brighton in the late 90s, soon discovering her passions lay not in designing prints or collections but in costumes. After graduating, she ran the costume department at creative studio The New Renaissance, which made elaborate pieces for carnivals, music videos and fashion houses like Moschino.

An invitation to work on a Dazed & Confused shoot by her friend Cathy Edwards – the magazine’s then fashion director – led to designing windows for fashion designer Martine Sitbon, which then led to more opportunities. She has since gone on to work on fashion editorials, campaigns, stores and show sets for Liberty, Prada, Dior and others. “It sort of spreads like ink,” she says.