STYLING & CASTING DIRECTOR Shuvan Khuntia
PHOTOGRAPHY Kamila Banks, Gift JR Gwambe, Julius Hines, Henry James, Alex Massek, Edward Cooke
HMUA Darren Agyei-Dua, Rion Asai, Phoebe Heard, Momoka Imura, Hirota Kazuya, Tracey Quinn, Hirono Sakamoto, Jun Sato, Yankee Tsang
MODELS Akutch Chol, Domin Chong, Mariam Chonkadze, Lulu Faulks, Lydia Marcy, Taka, Tori McLelland, Katie Mullaney, Hatty Pellegrino, Petra Pennings, Izzy Stevens
FASHION ASSISTANTS Jeeya Balwani, Aminata Cisse, Tina Musiba, Gianella Sotomayor, Jake Winters, Sabrina Warsame & Maheen Malik
PHOTO ASSISTANTS Charlie Zampetti, Luke Latham & Stef
HEADER IMAGE Full look: Weisen Hong
This interview features as part of BRICKS #15 I Support You issue’s Portrait series. You can view the full series here, and order an issue now from our online store.
The Great British Storefront is a visual ode to the quiet poetry of the British high street, exploring how fashion interacts with the everyday spaces that shape identity, nostalgia and belonging. From corner shops to long-standing local institutions, each storefront becomes a stage where style intersects with subculture, memory and community, transforming the ordinary into something cinematic and resonant.
Created by London-based stylist and casting director Shuvan Khuntia alongside more than ten photographers and creative teams, the project has grown to encompass over 220 independent businesses across the capital. What began as a series of fashion test shoots, however, soon revealed itself to be something much bigger. “Probably around location twenty,” Khuntia tells BRICKS. “Up until then I was thinking shoot by shoot, just finding interesting backdrops and making images I was proud of. At some point I started noticing that I was building a record of something. The storefronts we were documenting were changing. Some of them had already gone by the time I got back to the same street. That is when it shifted for me.”
At some point I started noticing that I was building a record of something. The storefronts we were documenting were changing. Some of them had already gone by the time I got back to the same street. That is when it shifted for me.
He continues, “I realised we were not just making fashion images but rather capturing places that existed right now and might not exist in a few years. That felt like a responsibility, and it changed how seriously I took the project.”
Captured in and around distinctly recognisable locations chosen for their character, history and charm, the images focus on the textures, colours and signage that give these spaces their personality. By examining the relationship between the personal and the public, the project reflects on how identity is shaped not only by what we wear, but also by the environments we inhabit.
For Khuntia, placing fashion into these familiar settings fundamentally changes the way both are understood. “I think fashion is most interesting when it is placed somewhere it does not obviously belong,” he explains. “If you put a beautifully styled look in a glass building or a studio, the clothing carries the image on its own. But when you put it outside a chicken shop or a dry cleaner’s, something else happens. The environment talks back. You start asking questions about who this clothing is really for, who actually moves through these streets, and what beauty looks like outside of the places it usually gets to exist. That conversation between the garment and the street is what I am always chasing.”
If you put a beautifully styled look in a glass building or a studio, the clothing carries the image on its own. But when you put it outside a chicken shop or a dry cleaner’s, something else happens. The environment talks back. You start asking questions about who this clothing is really for, who actually moves through these streets, and what beauty looks like outside of the places it usually gets to exist.
At a time when questions of identity and belonging sit at the heart of political discourse across the UK and around the world, The Great British Storefront offers an insightful reflection on what it means to be British today. These often-overlooked shopfronts act as living records of multicultural Britain, where migration meets memory, tradition meets reinvention, and everyday life becomes a canvas for cultural collaboration. The project also arrives as Britain’s independent high streets continue to face mounting pressure: more than 13,400 UK shops closed in 2024 alone – the equivalent of around 37 every day – with retail analysts forecasting further closures this year.
Over the course of capturing more than 220 locations, Khuntia has watched those landscapes begin to change. “The thing that strikes me most is the transitory nature of the businesses on our high streets,” he says. “The rate at which independent businesses are disappearing has accelerated. We have documented streets where a couple of shops have already gone in the last year. What tends to replace them is either a retail chain or residential conversion, and both of those things erase the visual character of a street almost completely.”
He has also found that the places retaining the strongest sense of identity are often those rooted within London’s migrant communities. “The most layered, most photogenic storefronts tend to be in areas with strong migrant community roots. The signage is multilingual, the colour choices are bolder, the ownership has often been in the same family for a generation. Those are the places that still feel genuinely distinct. They are also often the places under the most pressure.”
Choosing the locations to shoot has not been a planned-out process. “It is mostly instinct, honestly,” Khuntia says. “The best storefronts have layers. Old signage over new signage, a faded name underneath a current one, a plant someone has been keeping alive in the window for years. Those details tell you that a place has history and that the people there have invested something of themselves in it. When I walk past something and feel like I am trespassing on something genuinely alive, that is usually the one.”
The most layered, most photogenic storefronts tend to be in areas with strong migrant community roots. The signage is multilingual, the colour choices are bolder, the ownership has often been in the same family for a generation. Those are the places that still feel genuinely distinct. They are also often the places under the most pressure.
Full look: Daniel Haworth
Growing up around corner shops, fishmongers and neighbourhood salons also shaped the project’s perspective. “I think a lot of fashion imagery implicitly tells people that beauty lives somewhere other than where they are,” he says. “I wanted to make work that said the opposite. That the street you walk down every morning is already full of it.”
The project’s understanding of community has evolved alongside its growing archive. What began as an exploration of architecture and visual culture became, through countless conversations with business owners, something far more personal. “You cannot stand outside a place photographing it and not eventually end up in a conversation with the person who runs it,” Khuntia explains. “And those conversations are always surprising. People have been doing this for decades, quietly, without any acknowledgement that what they are building is worth noticing.”
One encounter with the owner of a hardware shop proved particularly formative: “He knew every family on the street by name, what they needed before they asked, where their children had ended up. He was essentially the memory of the whole neighbourhood.” It changed the way Khuntia understood the project itself. “Talking to him made me understand that these storefronts are not just architecture. They are relationships. That changed what I was trying to document. I stopped thinking about the buildings and started thinking about the continuity they represent. They are core tenets of the community they serve.”
Enjoyed this story? Help keep independent queer-led publishing alive and unlock the BRICKS Learner Platform, full of resources for emerging and aspiring creatives sent to you every week via newsletter. Start your 30-day free trial now.