Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud

Debbie Harry is an American rockstar, exploding onto the music scene as the platinum haired lead vocalist of Blondie. After gaining an Arts Degree from Centenary College in New Jersey, Debbie Harry moved to New York and worked as a Playboy Bunny and a dancer before forming Blondie in 1974 with Chris Stein, who was her romantic partner for 14 years until 1987. The band released its eponymous debut...

Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress. Known for her portrayals of interesting, singular women, she rose to fame playing Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View in 1985, and the titular character in Lady Jane in 1986. In 1999, Bonham Carter broke free of her “English rose” reputation by playing femme fatale Marla Singer in Fight Club. She portrayed the malevolent witch Bellatrix Lestrange in t...

Willy Chavarria is an American fashion designer. Born and raised in California, he studied graphic design at the Academy of the Arts, and got his start in clothing design working in the shipping department at Joe Boxer, eventually taking on a role in the company as a designer. Willy Chavarria worked at Calvin Klein as the Senior Vice President of Design until 2024. He launched his eponymous label...

Annie Leibovitz is one of the most influential contemporary American photographers. Born in Connecticut, Leibovitz moved frequently in her childhood due to father’s position in the US Air Force. She took her first photos in the Philippines during the Vietnam War. After studying painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, Leibovitz began working at Rolling Stone magazine, and after three years was...

Richard Russell is a record producer, musician, and the owner of XL Recordings. Richard joined XL as an A&R Scout in 1991, and in 1992 released the single The Bouncer with XL co-founder Nick Halkes, which was featured on Top of the Pops and led to a record deal. Russell pursued a career at XL, and by the mid-1990s was co-owner and chairman of the company. He has worked with artists including Gil S...

IB Kamara is a stylist, journalist, musician, and creative director. Born in Sierra Leone, IB moved to The Gambia as a child to escape from civil war, settling in London aged sixteen. Kamara studied Fashion & Communication at Central St Martins, where he began interning with legendary Buffalo stylist Barry Kamen. In 2016, IB curated an exhibition titled 2026 at Somerset House, exploring the concep...

Rosalía is a Grammy award winning Spanish singer-songwriter. Her work transcends genre, blending folk, avant-pop, hip-hop, jazz, reggaeton, and traditional flamenco. Born and raised in Catalonia, Rosalía has a degree in Flamenco Interpretation from the Catalonia College of Music, basing her second album El Mal Querer on her thesis, inspired by a 13th century Occitan poem. Her third album Motomami...

Alexa Chung is a presenter, writer, model, and photographer. A muse to many in the creative industry, Alexa is globally recognised for her impact on fashion and culture. After modelling in her teenage years, Alexa went on to host the Channel 4 music show Popworld, with a signature satirical humour that has made her hugely popular. She has since hosted TV programmes for MTV, BBC, and Netflix. After...

Arthur Jafa is an American artist. Raised in Mississippi, he studied architecture and film at Howard University, and has been working as a filmmaker and artist for over four decades. He has had a successful career as a cinematographer, working on films including his ex-wife Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, Spike Lee’s Crooklyn, and Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Jafa has also directed music...

Tessa Thompson is an American actor. Her father is the musician Marc Antony Thompson who founded the musical collective Chocolate Genius Inc. She was raised between New York and Los Angeles, making her stage debut as Ariel in the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest. Tessa has been nominated for two BAFTAs and a Primetime Emmy for her work in the 2021 film Passing dire...

Ocean Vuong is a Vietnamese-American author, poet, and professor. Born in Vietnam, Ocean Vuong came to America aged two and was raised in Hartford, Connecticut, working in his mother’s nail salon from an early age. He received his BA in Nineteenth Century American Literature from Brooklyn College, and an MFA in Poetry from NYU, where he is now a Professor of Creative Writing. Vuong became an inter...

David Cronenberg is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. Credited with creating the body horror genre, Cronenberg has written and directed over twenty feature films including Videodrome, Dead Ringers, and Rabid, with his 1996 film Crash winning the Special Jury Prize at Cannes for “originality, for daring and for audacity.” In 2006 he was awarded the festival's Lifetime Achievement Award. Ma...

Dame Zandra Rhodes is an English fashion designer. She originally became famous for her beautiful, wildly coloured textile prints, going on to design her first collection in 1969. She started experimenting with her own look, shaving her eyebrows and dying her hair bold colours until she settled on pink as her signature hue. She became a sensation in New York when Diana Vreeland, the legendary edit...

Kojey Radical is a British musician and visual artist. Born and raised in East London, Kojey - real name Kwadwo Adu Genfi Amponsah - studied Fashion Illustration at the London College of Fashion and has been described as UK Rap’s ‘Renaissance Man’ in reference to his love of fashion and the disarming and dazzling way he wears clothes. He co-hosted the British Fashion Awards in 2023 and 2024. Throu...

Rachel Kushner is an American author and essayist. The daughter of two beatnik scientists, Kushner began her Bachelor’s degree in political economy at the University of California aged 16, and then moved to San Francisco and worked in nightclubs. After an MFA at Columbia, studying under Jonathan Franzen, Rachel Kushner published her first book, Telex from Cuba, in 2008, and has since published fou...

Amelia Dimoldenberg is an English comedian, writer, and the creator and presenter of her sensational Youtube series Chicken Shop Date. Chicken Shop Date began as a column in a youth club magazine, originally focusing on Amelia interviewing British grime artists in chicken shops around London. It has since expanded to one of the most popular series on Youtube, with Amelia interviewing some of the w...

John Malkovich is an award-winning American film star, theatre actor and director. After ten years in Chicago as an original member of the legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Malkovich made his Broadway debut in 1984 as Biff in Death of a Salesman. He appeared in many highly acclaimed films throughout the 1980s and 1990s, gaining widespread attention and admiration in his compelling performance...

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis Mashup I have pulled out some of my favourite moments with the fascinating guests who have graced the couch. I hope you enjoy. Please keep subscribing and liking if you can. See you in September. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nick Knight is among the world's most influential and visionary image makers and the founder and director of award-winning fashion film website SHOWstudio.com. He has consistently challenged conventional notions of beauty and is fêted for his groundbreaking creative collaborations with leading designers, including Yohji Yamamoto, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen. Nick Knight has produced advert...

Sarah Joe AKA Mia Khalifa is a Lebanese-American media personality, activist, and entrepreneur, known for her charismatic presence online and her bold advocacy work. She first rose to public attention in 2014 aged 21 when she was involved for just 3 months in the adult film industry. She has since transformed her platform into a powerful voice for body autonomy, immigrant rights, and breaking stig...

Beth Ditto is an American singer and songwriter. She is best known for her hugely popular Indie rock band Gossip and her advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights. Her voice has been compared to that of Janis Joplin and Tina Turner. She is a much loved and respected figure in the fashion world, who has walked for Marc Jacobs and Jean Paul Gaultier and appeared on the covers of numerous high fashion magazines inc...

Alessandro Michele, creative director of Valentino, is an Italian fashion designer. He is widely regarded as one of the most visionary and transformative figures in contemporary fashion. He came to prominence with his groundbreaking tenure as Creative Director of Gucci from 2015 to 2022, redefining the brand with his romantic, and gender-fluid aesthetic. Blending poetic historical references with...

Lorde is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. She is a Grammy-winning artist and cultural force, known for her genre-defying sound, introspective lyricism, and striking creative vision. She gained recognition at the age of 16 with her breakthrough album Pure Heroine and the hugely successful single 'Royals'. She has redefined the contours of modern pop - merging poetic storytelling with minimalist...

Haim is an American rock band made up of three sisters: Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim. Hailing from Los Angeles, the siblings grew up in a musical household, playing in a family band before forming HAIM in 2007. Their unique sound blends elements of classic rock, R&B, folk, and '90s pop, creating a genre-defying style that feels exciting, nostalgic and modern. The band gained major attention with...

Courtney Love is an American singer, songwriter and actress, who rose to prominence as the lead singer of Hole, which she formed in 1989. Her life has been subject of intense media scrutiny, particularly her marriage to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain from whom she has a daughter Frances Bean, and her candid battles with addiction and personal loss. Among her distinguished acting roles, she was nomin...