2026: The Year of Sandflower

When we zoom, SANDFLOWER has touched down in London. On her itinerary today was shooting a music video outside Buckingham Palace, and now she’s about to give us the scoop on all things Sprayground, and her recent release The Radiant Explorer, from her hotel room. 

We were blessed to see Sandflower live at the Sprayground London Fashion Week debut in September and it was a real PTR (Performance To Remember). The already bold design language of the NYC-born label SPRAYGROUND, founded by David BenDavid in 2010, was dialled up to the max as Sandflower took hold of the mic. The stage served bold, fearless looks with attitude and the accompanying beats, The Sandflower X David Sisko collab, made the show a full sensory statement. So, we got in touch with the lovely Natalia Cassel to arrange a call with the powerhouse behind the brand - it isn’t in her Insta username for nothing, @sandflowerpower !

Can you get much cooler than VP and Creative Director of Sprayground, born in Brooklyn and singer in the hit Netflix movie “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” (our 13-year-old selves are shaking). This call was a big deal, much bigger than that online school business we previously associated the software Zoom with in the lockdown days. We took our places at the desk, pen and pad at the ready.

Firstly, we give each other the low-down on our respective cities, hers being NEW YORK, ours being (just) YORK. We move to London, asking what her favourite thing to see has been, and she replies with “the Queen Victoria sculpture”, which she admits she was impressed by when using Buckingham Palace as the set for her latest MV. 

STAYING CURIOUS is at the top of Sandflower’s radar, as she kicks things off with a lesson on being open to asking questions and letting them guide you. This is the recipe to being a multi-faceted creative it seems, as this approach has navigated a genre-fluid path in her musical career, bridging the worlds of quantum physics, high fashion and art. 

We decide to dig a little deeper within the subject of quantum physics, feeling its foreignness as two girls who once upon a time were forced to do maths and science. However, Sandflower relates to us and reassures us that there’s a lot to be said about spirituality and ethereality within this vast discipline (don’t judge a book by its cover in other words - it’s not all equation sheets). She approaches her music as energy - something that cannot be created or destroyed, and harmonises this with her legacy. She’s creating something that will always be out there for people to connect with and she’s here to stay. 

This word ‘curious’ crops up again as she talks SPRAYGROUND and the process of collaborating on the show’s set design and soundtrack with David Sisko (Grammy recognised producer): 

“I wanted to leave something for the people of London, for the creative thinkers of London, for the curious folks of London” 

Sandflower live is not your average gig experience. It’s theatre. She doesn’t perform for the crowd, she gives to them, altering their brain chem with her electric sound. She thinks theatrically and doodles her thought process as “concentrating on the show part and letting the fashion do its thing”.

She truly understands the assignment of creating something on a par with the loud volumes spoken by the Sprayground aesthetic, with its edgy ‘shark mouth’ and graffiti motifs, and speaks on the importance of curating a set on the same vibe. To go ‘simple and chic’ would be an understatement, when it's Sprayground, go bold or go home! 

I love how fun Sandflower is - I wish my science teachers taught me quantum physics like she did. She really knows how to put the fun in fashion and translates the experience of watching a fashion show into sensory bliss. 

“Fun is a word I don’t see as frequently, having a cathartic moment through fashion…”

Now her LP is out, The Radiant Explorer, which continues to synthesise all those electronic, pop and cosmic sounds she brought to the LFW stage. There’s also Bali on the beat, as she reflects on being inspired by her recording retreat here and how she hears it in her music. Yes that’s it, Sandflower has taken her live shows around the world from Brooklyn to Bali - she’s not a stranger to anyone’s Spotify listening history. If you don’t already know her, now’s the time!

The Radiant Explorer not only embeds the aesthetics of traditional Bali instruments, latin beats and true Sandflower character; it comes as a reminder that taking risks is not as dangerous as it is made out to be but rather an empowering step towards self belief. She admits that songs like ‘The Wanderer’ and ‘Oceans’ came easily while ‘The Real Deal’ took longer to navigate as there were more elements to unify. But to Sandflower, no challenge is a threat as she reminds us to “let the good stuff come out of the hard times.” For someone whose mind seems to go a million miles an hour, Sandflower assures us she has had her share of inspiration block but that you cannot wait for inspiration to come to you; rather you must be open and observant to the world around you now. Her approach to following your own journey and practicing your art is refreshing to hear in a world of seemingly straight paths, and she is doubtlessly a very valuable voice to aspiring creatives of all kinds. 

From our interview today, not only has her talent as a musician been reaffirmed but also as a speaker, as she paves new ways of understanding in such a cool, effortless way. Agony aunts can be left in 2025 as this is the year of Sandflower! Some valuable lessons we learned from her will be dropped in our Mini Zine, due to land at the end of this month, alongside her 2026 goals! But for now, here’s one of our favourites: “Who cares if they don’t like it - I like it is the new take.”

Start Listening to The Radiant Explorer here: