“Some people have really beautiful elbows,” says fashion designer Johanna Parv, thrusting her arm towards me to observe. She's dashing around her cosy east London studio – an ex-frame factory that first opened in 1900 but is now home to a flock of artists, designers and other tormented, yet impeccably dressed, creatives.
It's a grey day outside and the studio isn't much brighter, just a blur of dark, tonal materials. Parv's demeanour makes up for any lack of colour. The 31-year-old is vibrant and passionate, with a punchy, blunt assuredness that will catch you off guard. Each time she sits down she's up again within 30 seconds, throwing sample after sample in my direction, demonstrating how her clothes can conceal or reveal different parts of the body (hence the elbow thrusting).
“It's not just boobs that are sexy!” she insists, and
