On a recent Tuesday evening in London, editors and influencers invited to preview Jigsaw’s new collection tried on fringed suede jackets and flicked through rails of spring dresses. But if the clothes were the main event, they faced competition from the food: trays of sorbet-filled lemon halves, platters of maritozzi (Italian cream-filled brioche buns), a mess of Gildas and one enormous, elaborately plaited loaf of bread, plus an accompanying butter mountain. “I think I need to cancel my dinner plans,” one guest murmured.
The spread represented something of a greatest-hits line-up from Hands, the London-based food-styling, events and catering business. Since 2022, co-founders Charlotte Forsyth and Sofie Thompson have dished out those maritozzi to guests at a Ferragamo breakfast, made pizza for Loewe, sliced celebration cake for guests at a Veja x ba&sh launch and presented towering croquembouches at a Mejuri event.
For the opening of jewellery brand Completedworks’ new showroom, they covered the expansive aluminium table at the heart of the space with prawn towers, fresh crudités, braided challah, butter mounds and profiteroles. “The contrast between the utilitarian feel of the table and the opulence and abundance of the food constructions was perfect,” artistic director Anna Jewsbury says. “It wasn’t just ornamentation — it was also delicious food.”
To anyone who might snipe that fashion people don’t eat: at a Hands event, they do. Not just artfully arranged single-bite canapés, either. Thompson describes their aesthetic as “big, carby, yummy food”. She and Forsyth mine cookbooks from the ’70s and ’80s for recipe inspiration and encourage guests to tear into loaves of bread.
Fashion clients can’t get enough. “I love their sense of playfulness, and also that they riff on the classic dinner party in such a current way,” says Daisy Hoppen, founder of the DH-PR agency, who contacted Thompson and Forsyth after finding them on Instagram.
They’re far from the only food creatives to enjoy a synergistic relationship with the fashion industry. In Paris, Zélikha Dinga of Caro Diario creates thematic menus for Alaïa, Ganni and Alexander McQueen; Balbosté concocts surreal feasts for Loewe, Chloé and Mugler; Andrea Sham has become luxury brands’ go-to pâtissière for her characterful cakes; and chef Monika Varšavskaja designs multisensory events for Hermès and Ami Paris. In New York and London, Laila Gohar and Imogen Kwok are the chef-artistes behind photogenic spreads for Simone Rocha, Alighieri and Prada.
To Forsyth, Hands’ appeal stems from her and Thompson’s facility for fostering a sense of community and connection. “Food is quite magical, you know. It’s this amazing thing that brings people together and breaks down barriers,” she says from across a lunch table at Rose Bakery on the top floor of London’s Dover Street Market. “And if the food’s not good, it doesn’t do that.”
Thompson is from Liverpool, where Forsyth went to university. The two had mutual friends and followed each other on Instagram, but didn’t meet until they moved to London. Forsyth worked as a social media manager at Harvey Nichols, Thompson was an ecommerce stylist at Net-a-Porter, and both planned their weekends around which restaurant they would try next. “We were two people who posted a lot about where we were eating,” Thompson says. “We became friends because we had this food-fashion crossover.”
They didn’t consider food careers until the Covid-19 lockdowns. On daily walks, they’d send each other voicenotes rhapsodising about restaurant meals past. They started a supper club out of Forsyth’s flat, a classic party flat and “beautiful space to get content” in a converted perfume factory in Peckham. While food is the focus, they understood instinctively that visuals mattered. “We both photograph our work well,” Thompson says. After two events, brands started to get in touch.
The name Hands comes from the maxim, “many hands make light work”. Their first official event was the opening party for Joan, an independent boutique in Leyton. Next came a dinner for inclusive swimwear brand Youswim in Shoreditch (not without its challenges: they arrived to find that a rock band performing next door had commandeered the shared kitchen as their green room). After that, Thompson says, “It just got huge very quickly.”
Both women attribute the current close relationship between fashion and food, at least to some degree, to Instagram. “Brands understand that food and events offer this huge moment of content. It’s theatre, it’s set design, it’s fashion, it’s food — these creative worlds are fusing together. It’s all hybrid,” Thompson says. Forsyth nods, adding: “Food can be beautiful and alluring and create an environment and help illuminate some aspect of a brand. But food should never be there just to view. It should always be there to be enjoyed.”
While their focus remains on brand bookings, recently the duo have dipped a toe into hosting their own events. On a Sunday during London Fashion Week in February, a fashionable crowd that could have been transposed from that morning’s JW Anderson show gathered around long tables for a ticketed lunch at Bistro Freddie, the east London it-spot. Guests took the time required to drink one martini to loosen up (the Hands signature drink is “quite boozy, always vodka, with a lemon twist, and really, really cold, so that you down it”, says Thompson) and tear into chicken and tarragon pies, fries and green salads.
The business is still tiny. Both women work full-time: Forsyth on social-media projects and Thompson in restaurant PR. But they’re fielding more requests every week, and hope to secure a dedicated studio space soon. Working out of their home kitchens is becoming more challenging as client briefs become more elaborate. Lately, some clients have even asked Hands to replicate their own menus from past events. “It’s nice to be creative and try new things,” Thompson says. “But it’s also nice to know that we can do something really well that people love.”
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