Nicholas Daley explores the interplay of fashion, music and culture. Community, craftsmanship and culture lie at the heart of Nicholas’s work. He is also the new creative director of Blue Creator Fund, as announced today by Chelsea Football Club, Chelsea Foundation and VERSUS.

Having graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2013, Nicholas launched his eponymous brand in 2015, a practice intertwining personal narrative with wider Black British and diasporic themes. He has won several prizes for his work, most recently the Saks Fifth Avenue New Era fashion award in 2024.

He has long supported programmes designed for young creators and regularly guest lectures and leads course projects with universities, arts and fashion schools. His collaboration with Chelsea Foundation, Chelsea FC and VERSUS builds on this commitment to nurturing emerging talent, as well as his previous partnership with Chelsea on the Tied Together project, celebrating Black History Month 2023 and honouring Chelsea legend Paul Canoville.

Here, we dive deeper into why Nicholas joined the Blue Creator Fund…

What drew you towards becoming the new creative director?

It's a great opportunity to bring my experience in my career so far within design and the arts. The programme which Chelsea has created with the Blue Creator Fund is really important. It's important that institutions or football clubs can help support the next generation of creators, especially now in a time when funding within the arts has been cut.

I'm a big advocate for any opportunity where I can bring my brand and my experience. Off the back of collaborating on projects with Chelsea last year, celebrating King Canners [Paul Canoville], which was an amazing thing we did, it's great that we can carry it on and that we're working together on the Blue Creator Fund.

• Click to apply for this year's Blue Creator Fund

Why is the Blue Creator Fund such an important project for diversifying both the football and creative worlds?

I feel any club or institution should definitely try to do as much as it can in many different aspects. Chelsea are showing that they're also aware and wanting to support young creators and young individuals who want to try and bring forward their ideas creatively. The success of the fund last year has been really great. There's so much crossover between football culture, fashion, design and creativity, it's great that Chelsea has this programme, and hopefully it inspires other clubs to do their part.

Why do you think the fund itself is needed?

Whether it's creatively, financially or spiritually, the mentoring I've had or I've gone out there to find for myself, through internship programmes, collaborations, and universities which I've been a part of, have all helped get me where I am today. Young creators who want to grow their vision, their brands, their art, need to try to find as much support as they can to really help them grow.

That's the reason why the Blue Creator Fund is important, because that one opportunity to get things going can help propel your vision. Sometimes that's all it takes and then things continue to snowball. That's something which I've personally experienced through applying for funding. It gives you confidence having the backing of organisations, and definitely the Blue Creator Fund will give that to the applicants and the winners who receive the funding and the mentoring.

As creative director, what are you most excited for about your Blue Creator Fund journey?

I'm just excited to see the applicants and their new work and ideas. It will be really important to see how that comes from the application process, through to the mentoring, right the way up to their work being displayed at the Saatchi Gallery, which is such an iconic art and design institution.

Seeing their work hung in the Saatchi Gallery, surrounded by really great, interesting mentors, being supported by one of the biggest clubs in the world, should really give the winners that intrinsic self-confidence and belief that their work and their creativity can take them even further.

I've been fortunate to win fashion awards, both nationally and internationally. As a result, I would say that every time you get that mentoring, funding or opportunity to showcase yourself and your work at really good platforms, you really get that sense of belief.

What piece of advice or knowledge do you think is most important for aspiring creators to understand?

You have to please yourself first. It sounds very simplistic, but you have to believe in your creations. If you don't believe in it, if it doesn't feel authentic to you, then it's hard for you to then explain that to someone else, whether it's your family, your friends, a gallery, a store or a buyer.

Hard work is important. A tailor I worked with, his phrase was 'labour of love'. You've got to love what you do and you've got to believe in what you do.

If you could say one thing to future Blue Creator Fund applicants, what would it be?

Be confident, but also streamlined. Focus on the most important parts of what you want to say when applying. Also, look at the winners last year. See how you feel that your vision and creativity could benefit from the mentoring, as well as how it could also benefit you, as a creative. Make a list of what you would want to achieve from the fund and where you'd like to see yourself. Ultimately, just try to be authentic. Try to really tell your story through the creative medium

Why do you think it's important that funds like this target people from underrepresented backgrounds who haven't had opportunities in the past?

The creative arts are expensive. It's something that I had to battle with at university during my studies, because all creative mediums need practical tools. Access to costly tools is something often overlooked, so I think having the Blue Creator Fund will allow creators from underrepresented backgrounds better access to better equipment, giving them more autonomy over their creative ideas.

Whether it's through football culture, fashion, design, photography, fine art, you need to have diverse voices in order to get a good sense of the world and society. The Saatchi Gallery is an amazing creative institution that has supported a lot of artists over several decades, something that's prominent in the UK. I feel like Chelsea definitely has a part to play in terms of how they support creative talents through the Blue Creator Fund, which hopefully allows for stories to be told which haven't been heard.

It also provides support to individuals who don't have the access or the resources in comparison to those who do. When I went to my design school there were very few lecturers and teachers of colour, so I want to be visible for others, because you need to see people who are like you working in the spaces that you want to work in. There are many fashion designers that I've looked up to across the Black community who have been really important in my own journey. I think visibility is really important, and that was another key factor in why I wanted to be part of this year's Blue Creator Fund.

Hopefully, as a result of the fund, there will be some really interesting creators coming through from different walks of life, from different socio-economic backgrounds.

• Apply now for the Blue Creator Fund