Millie Diamond is an artist, stylist and creative director who predominantly makes use of found items across all her work. “I communicate with anything that I can,” she says. “If you can do something visually, then I do it.”

That’s a fairly unassuming way to describe her output, which is anything but. She’s lived in various Hackney Wick warehouses on and off over the years, drawn to the area for its uncompromising creativity and ever evolving street art landscape.

“I love being in spaces that visually stimulate me,” she explains. “For me, this is the most colourful and visually interesting part of London. It feels really authentic to me.

“It’s still got a heart and it’s got a history. Architecturally it appeals to me, as I really like industrial spaces, so I love the stories and the creative history, and as with my own work, context is everything.”

Her interiors projects often start with the building itself, and ways to reference and “weave in” the heritage through the design while also making it feel thoroughly contemporary. At home, the palette is determined less by design catalogues than by what the street offers up.

“Most of the stuff in there I foraged from the street,” she says. “I bought concrete blocks for the kitchen. But it’s mostly like, how can I do this as cheap as possible? It’s about being industrious.

“I’m basically a curator of things, of objects. It applies to whatever it might be – clothes or art or interiors – it’s still the same. I look for meaning in things, or create new meaning bringing together old things.”

Her approach was shaped early by her father, who used to ask her how she’d survive as the last person on Earth, suggesting she’d be well prepared for any upcoming Mad Max dystopia, should that befall civilisation. It’s why she’s happy to drag home enormous sheets of discarded Perspex and sit on them until the right idea appears.

“The other day, I was looked at the windows in here and felt they were really ugly, but there didn’t seem much I could do. Then I remembered I’ve got these sheets of Perspex. So I just went and put them in the window… it just made the room so much nicer. The light’s really nice in there now and it’s just such a simple fix.”

It’s the same approach that she’s brought to her sizable Insta following @themilliediamond, where she also treats how she dresses as a collage of items that represent a strong visual language full of protest, irony and social commentary.

“I wouldn’t say I’m a designer, because I don’t necessarily feel the need to make the clothes,” she says. “It’s more that I use clothing to communicate things. I like to use style as commentary on all that stuff, and to ask questions, but I’m not necessarily trying to put my opinion across.”

Her dumpster-diving endeavours around Hackney Wick have produced numerous finds, as the transient nature of warehouse living means items can pass through a few cycles of being chucked out, given a new life, and then passed on once again.

Picking up these pre-loved items has given her a following but also, inevitably, her fair share of trolls. That’s something she’s learned to turn around into a pushback that now informs many of her garments.

After one kilt-styling video went viral, the trolls did their worst, an experience which ultimately sharpened her intent. “I woke up and was like, fuck this. I am not going to be intimidated,” she recalls.

“I don’t want to live my life like this. I do not want to feed this narrative, so I’m going to just do what I was doing anyway.” That defiance is seen in her slogans, like ‘Cancel Cancel Culture’, to pieces that literally wear the insults thrown at her.

“People had called me a ‘Punk Poser’, so I made a garment which said ‘punk cosplaying poser’ on it, then posted that and styled it all cute.

And then everyone commented on that, saying, ‘See, you just use the Sex Pistols’, so I added a line saying, ‘The demonstration will continue in the comment section.’ And still people carry on. I find it fascinating.”

Influenced by a mix of art, politics, religion, pop culture, literature, “basically everything - but it tends to come back to subculture and history”, Millie is less interested in specific designers and more by their meaning and how that’s influenced by culture and context.

“If I had to name someone, it would be Malcolm McLaren, more for his approach than a particular aesthetic. He approached fashion, music and culture holistically over the years. SEX and Seditionaries is obviously iconic, but it isn’t just the clothing, it’s the whole shebang.

He and Vivienne Westwood used fashion as provocation, commentary and confrontation. He consistently treated culture as something he could question, experiment with and even weaponise, not just something to reference.”

Her latest evolution brings all these threads together – interiors, punk energy dialogue… and collage – into a series of workshops she’s launching from her Leyton studio under the name Domestic Riot.

“I’ve started collaging and decoupaging a lot,” she beams, “as it ties the interiors and the visual fashion side of things.” The idea is simple, but loaded.

“People come and either I can supply furniture, or they bring a piece that they want to decoupage, and we do it with Riot Grrrl music or whatever for a fun, punky inspired day.

“I like the idea of it being a workshop where conversation happens as well. It’s as much about the group and the craft. It’s about meaning, about talking, and about what we’re doing together.”

That intentionality and creative passion runs through all of Millie’s output, from post-industrial makeovers to provocative social media posts.

It may often just look like glorious chaos, but there’s a laser-focused process at work behind every new forage, find and fashion.

Find out more: milliediamond.com

This article first appeared in issue 20 of The Wick.