My Mission Is...

In this week's episode we talk to Libby Haan, designer, musician, and fashion PR veteran. Several years after a breast cancer diagnosis and various related surgeries, Haan was having a hard time finding comfortable shirts and undergarments. So she decided to create her own. In 2018, Haan launched Who Shirt Company, a label of soft, wearable shirts with built-in shelf bras. Haan utilized her 20-yea...

Joining Mission today is our favorite women-in-tech advocate, Rosario Casas. A longtime friend of Mission and an all around tech savant, Rosario uses her extensive experience in the tech field to offer fine-tuned expertise to every project she approaches. Her accomplishments in the tech world include co-founding tech companies such as BCPartners Tech, XR Americas, and Dreamers and Doers, as well a...

Today, Mission is joined by Hassan Pierre, the co-founder of Maison De Mode, a hybrid ethical fashion retailer that curates a selection of the best luxury sustainable fashion for their online boutique and brick and mortar pop-up shops. Hassan co-founded the company in 2015 alongside Amanda Hearst. The Parsons alum is now also a board member of ‘Well Beings Charity,' an organization that elevates a...

Joining Mission today is John Grauwiler, teacher and founder of activism group Gays Against Guns. Before forming GAG, Grauwiler was an English teacher in New York City who was rocked by the news of the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting, prompting him to form a coalition that is “committed to nonviolently breaking the gun industry’s chain of death.” Also a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Pow...

Today, Mission is joined by author and New York pioneer Owen Levy. From growing up in Brooklyn to being mentored by poetry vanguard Marianne Moore and working a variety of jobs in the arts, Levy’s life is full of stories, some of which he shares with us today. His first novel, A Brother’s Touch, which came out in 1982, was a smash-hit, detailing his life as a young Black African-American male in N...

Joining us this week is musical artist and all round innovator Dr. Kate Stone. From her time exploring Australia to her college success stories to her sensational electronic performances, Kate Stone has used optimism and a thirst for new ideas to fuel her adventures. Among her accomplishments is her 2018 TED Talk, “The press trampled on my privacy: Here’s how I took back my story” which now has ov...

In this week’s podcast, Mission sits down with ‘model mogul’ and president of IMG Models Ivan Bart. Bart’s illustrious career has seen placements at talent powerhouses such as Ice, Wilhelmina, and Ford Models, before finally settling at IMG. In his time with the agency, Bart has overseen the management of a fleet of A-List models, including Gigi and Bella Hadid, Joan Smalls, and Hailey Bieber, as...

For this week’s Mission podcast we got the chance to virtually chat with Anita Bitton, casting director extraordinaire who has worked on campaigns and runway shows for big-name fashion brands like Marc Jacobs and Miu Miu. Born and raised in London, Bitton first interned for stylist Edward Enninful at i-D magazine before landing a job at Next Model Management in New York. She later went on to work...

Trailblazer Christina Adane exists at the forefront of England’s youth climate movement. The 16-year-old is co-chairwoman of the Bite Back 2030 organization which aims to “achieve a world where all young people have the opportunity to be healthy,” by urging the government to feed vulnerable children. In addition, Adane is a creative and speaker, writing poems pertaining to the Black Lives Matter m...

In this episode, hosts Sharleen Spiteri and Karina Givargisoff sit down with LA-based makeup artist Kate Lee. Throughout her illustrious and evolving career, Lee has garnered A-List clientele, working with the likes of Dakota Johnston, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain. Her work regularly appears in publications such as Vogue, ELLE, and Vanity Fair, as well as in campaigns for industry giants in...

In episode 16, hosts Sharleen Spiteri and Karina Givargisoff talk with Glasgow-born Faye McLeod, the Visual Image Director at LVMH. With a degree in fashion design from Glasgow Clyde College, McLeod started her career working in both window and set design for the likes of Selfridges and Topshop. In 2009 she became the Creative Director of Visual Merchandising for Louis Vuitton and later advanced t...

Daughter of Paul and Linda McCartney, Mary McCartney is an accomplished photographer and filmmaker. When she’s not taking portraits she’s advocating for the environment and a vegetarian lifestyle. Alongside her father Paul and sister Stella, the three launched Meat Free Mondays, a non-profit organization which aims to raise awareness about the environmental determinants of animal agriculture and i...

In our 14th episode, Sharleen and Karina speak to social activist and founder and CEO, Fereshteh Forough. Fereshteh moved from Afghanistan to Germany in childhood and eventually settling in the United States. She has a degree in computer science and a Masters from the Berlin Technical University. In 2013, Fereshteh presented a TED Talk on digital literacy. In 2015, she founded Code to Inspire, an...

Phillip Lim is a world renowned fashion designer born in Thailand and of Chinese descent. He and his business partner, Wen Zhou, debuted their label 3.1 Phillip Lim in 2005 at New York Fashion Week and have been creating stunning designs for the global modern citizen ever since. Since the brand’s inception, 3.1 Phillip Lim has gone on to receive numerous accolades for their work, including 3 CFDA...

This week we sat down with Olga Iserlis, founder and CEO of Adagio Events. Iserlis has 20 years of experience in business and event planning and the high-profile client list to match: she’s worked with Prada, Ferrari, American Express, and many more, and is regularly featured on the Tatler 300 list of Singapore's Most Powerful Elite. In 2016, she released Save the Date, a coffee table book that go...

This week, Mission Founder Karina Givargisoff and Texas lead singer Sharleen Spiteri are joined by London-based fashion designer Nick Wakeman. In 2010, Wakeman used her experience as a menswear designer to launch her own brand, Studio Nicholson, for which she designs clothes for both men and women, creating garments that focus on softness, tailoring and craftsmanship. This episode sees Nick discus...

This week we talk to environmental power couple Philippe & Ashlan Cousteau who are working hard to save the planet. You may know them from their Travel Channel series Caribbean Pirate Treasure or as co-hosts on documentary shows like Nuclear Sharks and Treasures of the Terai . Philippe is a multi Emmy-Nominated TV host and producer as well as an author, speaker, and social entrepreneur. Ashlan...

This week we speak with UK based Professor Mike Barnes to discuss the medicinal benefits of cannabis. In recent years the medical legalization of marijuana has become a hot topic in mainstream political debate. As such, it’s now more important than ever to be armed with factual information on the subject. In this educational episode, Sharleen and Karina get all of their marijuana-related questions...

This week we speak to Noel Fitzpatrick, otherwise commonly known as Supervet from his TV show by the same name. The show follows him and his team while they work to implement progressive surgical techniques to cure animal maladies. He is a leading orthopedic-neuro veterinary surgeon, who over the past ten years has been developing custom implants for hip replacements in animals, which allow his pr...

This week we share the Mission x COS panel, recorded last week at the COS 5th Avenue store to launch the Restore collection, created in partnership with The Renewal Workshop, who helps provide circular solutions for apparel and textile brands. Moderated by Mission’s EIC Karina Givargisoff, the panel featured Nopor Stuart, Head of Sustainability at COS, Abrima Erwiah, Co-Founder and President...

Our sixth episode, which was our first live recording of “My Mission is…” is a conversation between Fisher Stevens, director of award-winning climate change documentary Before the Flood (co-produced with Leonardo DiCaprio for Nat Geo) and Ethan Novek, chemical engineering student at Yale who made the Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2018 and holds 12 patents for CO2 technologies. Both cynical and optimi...

This week we speak with Dylan Jones, editor-in-chief of British GQ and the chair of London Fashion Week Men’s who is often credited for being integral to its success.  In this raw, humorous and multi-dimensional conversation you’ll hear about the nostalgia of growing up in the late 70 early 80s, as Dylan fondly remembers being obsessed with pop culture and drawn to London as the nucleus for s...

This week’s guest of “My Mission is…” features Francisco Costa, founder of Costa Brazil; a lifestyle brand with a mission to innovate in sustainability and reinterpret what beauty is all about. Costa first entered the fashion industry 30 years ago when he left Brazil at the age of 19 not knowing any English. Surrounded by fashion from an early age, with his mother owning a children’s wear fac...

This week, we speak to Mission’s first supporters, Lauren Bush Lauren. Former model and actress, Lauren is a social entrepreneur, hunger activist, Earth lover and mama of two young boys. She founded the bag company, FEED in 2007, which creates products that make a tangible impact on the life of a child. Through their on the ground partner, the World Food Programme, FEED has provided over 107...

In this episode, we speak to respected explorer, eco-warrior and entrepreneur, David de Rothschild, who puts nature at the forefront of everything he does. From working professionally with horses as a teenager (an experience he believes began his partnership with nature) to graduating from computer science, owning and selling a successful merchandising company by the time he was 20, and, becoming...