Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud

Grace Coddington is a British fashion editor, stylist, and model.

After winning a Vogue model competition in 1959, Grace pursued a modelling career in London and Paris. Landing a job as Junior Fashion Editor at British Vogue in 1968, she worked under the legendary Bea Miller, and then as Fashion Director under a young Anna Wintour. Lured to New York by Calvin Klein in 1986 to be his design director, she was invited back to Vogue when Anna Wintour took over as Editor in Chief of American Vogue in 1988. Coddington worked as Creative Director at American Vogue until 2016. 

Grace rose to wider fame as the standout of The September Issue, R. J. Cutler’s documentary about Vogue magazine. Since leaving Vogue in 2016, Grace has collaborated with Louis Vuitton and Astier de Villatte on capsule collections, styled for Vogue and W Magazine, and modelled for brands including MERIT.

Coddington wrote an eponymous memoir in 2012, and is the author of the Phaidon titles Grace: Thirty Years of Fashion at Vogue, Grace: The American Vogue Years, Marc Jacobs Illustrated , and Grace: Now, which was published this year. She has written and illustrated the series The Catwalk Cats with her partner Didier Malige, and is the muse for the three-book GingerNutz series, created by her close and frequent collaborator, the late Michael Roberts.

She lives in New York City and Long Island with Didier Malige, her boyfriend of nearly thirty years, and their two cats, Bart and Pumpkin.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Grace Coddington discuss changing your hair after a breakup, Sex, and Anna Wintour.

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Blindboyboatclub is an award-winning Irish author, documentary‐maker and podcaster.

As a writer, he has published three collections of best-selling and critically-acclaimed short stories, blending myth, satire and the vernacular power of Limerick into fiction that is both darkly comic and profoundly humane. In 2026, these stories were adapted into a play “Animals” which is debuting at Ireland's national theatre, The Abbey.  

He began his podcast in 2017, combining social commentary and insightful interviews, quickly gaining a large following. He regularly tours his podcasts globally, with sell-out shows where his mix of sharp wit, empathy and social insight draws audiences into bold conversations about culture, politics and the human condition.

His screen work, including documentaries on modern slavery and the UK housing system, has won a Grierson award in 2025, an RTS award, a Sky Arts nomination and the BAFTA long list, establishing him as one of Ireland’s most distinctive documentary voices.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Blindboy discuss Autism, Alpha Male codes in the changing room, and if Psychoanalysis is like After-Sex talk.

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Tim Walker is an English photographer. He began taking pictures as a young boy and, after leaving school, worked in the Cecil Beaton archive at the Condé Nast Library before studying photography at Exeter College of Art. 

After university, he moved to New York to assist Richard Avedon, before returning to England where he shot his first fashion story for Vogue aged just 25. He became known for his lavish tableaux and ambitious narrative-driven shoots on location around the world, working with extraordinary props and sets, often in collaboration with set designer Shona Heath. Walker has made six short films, including 2010’s The Lost Explorer and has created album art for artists including Harry Styles and Kate Bush.

He has staged solo exhibitions at major institutions including The Design Museum, Somerset House, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. Walker’s photographic prints are housed in private collections and in public institutions including the V&A and London’s National Portrait Gallery.

His newest exhibition, Tim Walker’s Fairyland opens this week at London’s National Portrait Gallery. 

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Tim Walker discuss healing heartbreak through sex, being fired by Richard Avedon, and what is Extreme Beauty.

Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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We recorded this episode in the summer before the announcement that Glenn Martens would be stepping down as Creative Director of Diesel.

Glenn Martens is a Belgian fashion designer and the creative director of Maison Margiela. 

Martens graduated first in his class from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, and then worked as a Junior Designer at Jean Paul Gautier from 2008 to 2012. Martens had an eponymous label which released three collections, before he joined Y/Project in 2013, quickly becoming Creative Director following the death of co-founder Yohan Sefarty. Martens worked at Y/Project until 2024. 

In 2020, he became the Creative Director of Diesel, where he redefined the brand’s approach to denim through experimentation with silhouettes, innovative washes, treatments and materials, while also introducing more responsible practices. He also led collaborations with the Tom of Finland Foundation and Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty. Martens announced his departure from the role in September 2026, with his final show at Milan Fashion Week. 

In 2025, Martens was announced as the new creative director at Maison Margiela, and will show his fourth major collection with the brand at Paris Fashion Week this month.

Martens won the ANDAM Grand Prize in 2017 with Y/Project and received a special prize, the Family Fund Award, from ANDAM in 2020. 

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Glenn Martens discuss being a good leader, the sexiness of women’s necks, and designing Chloë Sevigny’s wedding dress.

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Carlos Acosta is a Cuban dancer, choreographer, and director. Acosta won the Prix de Lausanne aged 16, and became the youngest Principal at the English National Ballet in 1991, aged 18.

Acosta returned from classical ballet in 2016 after 28 years of performance. During his ballet career, he wrote and choreographed Tocororo, which broke box office records at Sadler’s Wells when it premiered. He also choreographed Royal Ballet productions of Don Quixote and Carmen. In August 2026 Acosta returned to the Royal Opera House stage for a weeklong run of shows, including performing Havana Suite with his eldest daughter Aila

In 2016, Acosta established his dance company Acosta Danza, which tours the world and has a training academy in Havana and London. Acosta is curating a double bill of his company at Sadler’s Wells in October 2026. He became the Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2020, reinvigorating the company with commissions including Black Sabbath the Ballet. 

Acosta has written two books; his memoir, No Way Home published in 2007, and a novel titled Pig’s Foot. Yuli, a film inspired by his life, was released in 2019, with Acosta playing his adult self. In 2015 Acosta was awarded a CBE and earlier this year he received an Honorary Doctorate in Oxford. 

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Carlos Acosta discuss sugar addiction, ballet dancers’ smiles, and the importance of male ballet dancers.

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Martine Syms is a multidisciplinary artist working across film, video, photography, and publishing.

Born and raised in California, she studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and gained an MFA from Bard College. From 2007 to 2012, she co-directed Golden Age, an artist-run space in Chicago, and had her first solo exhibition at Bridget Donaghue gallery in New York in 2015. She has exhibited at international art institutions including the ICA, MoMA, Sadie Coles HQ, and the Walker Art Museum.

Syms has published several books including PICTURES 2014-2024 and SHE MAD, and has her own publishing imprint, Dominica Publishing, which publishes artist books and zines.

Syms practice combines conceptual grit, humour and social commentary. Her videos and installations are highly technical, reflecting her acute attention to detail in cinematography, sound and editing. Syms uses filmmaking as a means of storytelling to uncover personal and societal truths and employs sound to foster dialogue and form/perform identities. In 2023, she made her feature directorial debut with The African Desperate, and is premiering her new film RW-LO in a solo show at Sadie Coles HQ in September 2026.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Martine Syms discuss matching your nails to your underwear, Taurean energy, and Original Sin.

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Anthony Vaccarello is a Belgian fashion designer. Born to Sicilian parents in Brussels, he studied law for one year before moving to the renowned La Cambre art and design school. Upon graduation, Vaccarello spent two years working for Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi in Rome, and then launched his eponymous label Anthony Vaccarello in 2009.

Since 2016, Vaccarello has been Creative Director of Saint Laurent. During his ten years at the helm of the brand, Vaccarello has upheld Yves Saint Laurent’s creative legacy with irreverent modernity. Across his tenure, he has steadily reinforced the House’s identity with coherence and authority, mixing genres, and empowering a highly desirable vision. Through Vaccarello’s work, Saint Laurent has developed relationships with cultural icons from Madonna to Charlotte Gainsbourg, Connor Storrie to Charli XCX, and Zoe Kravitz to Kate Moss.

In 2023, after working with some of cinema’s leading directors including Pedro Almodovar and Jean-Luc Godard, Vaccarello established Saint Laurent Productions, with the house being the first luxury brand to support filmmaking. Since then, Saint Laurent Productions has supported films from luminaries including Paolo Sorrentino, Claire Denis, David Cronenberg, and Jacques Audiard.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Anthony Vaccarello discuss the ankle fetish, Saint Laurent women, and how he wanted to dress his mother.

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David Sedaris is an American author and humourist. 

David’s first book, Barrel Fever, was published in 1994, and he has since published fourteen books including Calypso, and Me Talk Pretty One Day, with his essay collections regularly appearing on the New York Times’ bestseller list. His latest book, The Land and Its People, was published in May 2026.

He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and to NPR. His BBC Radio 4 series, ‘Meet David Sedaris’, won a BBC Audio Drama Award in 2026. In 2019, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, the Jonathan Swift Prize for Satire and Humor, and the Terry Southern Prize for Humor.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and David Sedaris discuss loving Comme des Garçons, his bullying father, and living in a nudist colony.

Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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RERUN: In the first episode of Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud, I was joined by the legendary fashion master of avant-garde gothic elegance Rick Owens as he lies on the couch. Rick Owens is known for his preoccupation with distortion and exaggeration of the human form through clothes. Together he and I talk about how this plays out with his own physical transformation; what are his current obsessions; and how nothing could be cooler than not having to hold a glass in his hand when he (rarely) walks into a social situation. Honest and insightful, this is a conversation with one of fashion's most enigmatic figures that you won't want to miss.

Rick Owens is an American fashion designer. Born and raised in Porterville, California, Owens studied pattern-making and draping at Los Angeles Technical-Trade College, launching his eponymous label in 1994. 

Since 2003, he has lived in Paris with his partner Michele Lamy, in a five-story townhouse which serves as both home and atelier.He has launched five fashion labels, a furniture line, and written four books on his own work and two about the designer Larry LeGapsi, who he has cited as a major inspiration

Owens was a recipient of the 2002 Perry Ellis Award for emerging talent, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the CFDA in 2017, the Cooper-Hewitt Design Award for fashion design, and Menswear Designer of the Year Award at the 2019 CFDA Fashion Awards. 

His first museum exhibition and retrospective, chronicling over 20 years of his life's work, entitled, "Subhuman Inhuman Superhuman" opened at the Triennale di Milano in 2017, and in 2025 the Palais Galliera showed a retrospective of his work entitled “Temple of Love”. In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Rick Owens discuss nipples, his authoritarian father, and the freedom of wearing a heel.

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RERUN: Zadie Smith was one of my first recordings of Fashion Neurosis. She arrived on a bicycle in the pouring rain, a more typical June day in London 2024. I didn't know Zadie well, but she owned a couple of my velvet suits and she is one of those writers who dresses as brilliantly as she writes. Writing is such a glamorous thing. Seeing a body clothed with style makes me wonder how that person thinks. This is why I was so keen to see Zadie Smith lying on my couch -  to see her and to hear her. 

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Zadie Smith is a British novelist, essayist, and short story writer. 

She is the author of six novels and her first book White Teeth was completed during her final year at Cambridge University. Published in 2000, White Teeth became an instant international bestseller - winning numerous awards, making her one of the most sought after and widely read young literary figures. Smith’s most recent book is The Fraud, published in 2023. She is also the author of two short story collections, including Dead and Alive published in 2025, and a play, The Wife of Willesden.

Zadie Smith has lived in Rome and New York, where she taught fiction at Columbia, then joining New York University as a tenured professor of fiction in 2010. In 2023, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Zadie Smith discuss the importance of lipstick, being inspired by the fashion of fictional characters, and losing her entire wardrobe in a fire.

Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Chapters:

00:00:00 Intro

00:00:21 What are you wearing today?

00:01:19 Obsessions

00:02:20 Zadie’s Mother’s Style

00:05:44 Fashion Dreams

00:08:00 Beauty and intelligence

00:12:18 Where to start an outfit

00:14:52 Clothing individuality

00:19:30 If you fancy someone…

00:24:40 Clothes to improve mood

00:33:00 Shyness

00:41:20 Nudity

00:43:30 Dressing like literary figures

00:47:00 Hair

00:50:14 Outro

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RERUN: I never expected to have Kate Moss as a Fashion Neurosis guest. I knew she hated being filmed and is famously private. I had been doing little experiments with set ups before Covid and one day we were having tea together and I showed her. ‘I want to do this,’ she said. I could hardly believe what I was hearing. I knew I must have made something good if Kate wanted to be part of it. Her episode will always be one of my favourites. Her brilliant irreverent wit is second to none. 

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Kate Moss is an English model. Born in Croydon, she started modelling aged 15 after she was scouted in an airport. She rose to fame in the 90’s during the era of the Supermodel, quickly becoming the most sought after of them all. She is beloved by photographers and designers for her remarkable ability to bring a kind of spellbinding magic to the table. Her work ethic is legendary and she has an instinct for recognising a good idea before anyone else – and wanting to be involved. When I started my brand and decided to have my first catwalk show in 1994, I got a call from Storm Models saying ‘Kate will walk in your show’. I could scarcely believe what I was hearing. This was a typical act of the generosity and imagination she is also known for.

Kate Moss holds the world record for appearing on the most Vogue covers: 78 of the ‘Big Four’, 43 of them British Vogue. As well as starring in countless ad campaigns she has designed collections in collaboration with various fashion brands including Top Shop, Longchamp, and Zara; guest edited magazines; and created her own skincare and beauty range Cosmoss. In 2002 – just as she became pregnant with her daughter Lila she sat for a naked portrait by the artist Lucian Freud which was later sold at Christie’s for £3.93 million.

She is more in demand at age 50 than she has ever been – both in front of the camera and as a celebrity guest on the front row. Kate Moss is a cult name, and her face is recognized throughout the world. She is a private person and rarely gives interviews. She is loved and admired for her iconic sense of style, no one puts a look together like she can. She is famous for her humour and charm, casting a kind of dazzling spell on those who meet her – it is known as ‘being Mossed.’

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Kate Moss discuss Fashion Police, wearing a heel to feel naked, and sitting for my father Lucian.

00:00:00 Intro

00:00:18 What are you wearing today?

00:01:14 Childhood fashion

00:03:10 Body

00:06:20 Clothes that make you feel different

00:08:00 Dressing up friends

00:12:00 Where to start with an outfit

00:14:19 Fashion police

00:20:57 Attractive clothing

00:22:14 If you fancy someone…

00:25:49 Walking for Vivienne Westwood

00:32:03 Supermodel era

00:37:13 Stripping and nudity

00:39:18 Clothes to improve mood

00:39:55 Presents

00:41:51 Fashion kinks

00:46:35 Outro

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A live, audio-only recording from my conversation with Laurie Anderson at the Tribeca Festival in June 2026.

Laurie Anderson is an American writer, director, composer, visual artist, musician, and vocalist whose groundbreaking work spans art, theater, experimental music, and technology. 

She has created numerous multimedia stage performances, published ten books, and been nominated for five Grammy Awards, with her visual art exhibited globally at institutions including the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Anderson has a BA in Art History from Barnard College and an MFA in Sculpture from Columbia University, and has been a fixture of the New York avant-garde art scene since the 1970s. Her notable early performances include Duets On Ice and Institutional Dreams. She shot to global fame in 1981 with the release of her song “O Superman”.

She made her directorial debut in 2015 with the film Heart of a Dog. In 2021 she delivered the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds. In 2024, she premiered ARK: United States Part 5 at Factory International in Manchester, released her studio album Amelia on Nonesuch Records, and was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the Gold Medal for Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 

She currently has two installations at the Venice Biennale Arte 2026, titled In Minor Keys. Her latest album, Let X=X, was released in May 2026.

In this special live episode of Fashion Neurosis at Tribeca Festival in June 2026, Bella Freud and Laurie Anderson discuss extreme courage, loving Lou Reed, and Sigmund Freud.

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Shania Twain is a Canadian songwriter and artist. She is a five-time GRAMMY Award winner, and the top-selling female country-pop artist of all time. 

Born in Ontario, Shania Twain experienced a childhood fraught with deprivation. From the age of 8, her mother would take Shania to perform after hours in local bars in order to raise grocery money, but also to showcase the extraordinary talent of her daughter.

Through her bold and boundary-pushing lyricism and musical style, Twain helped redefine country music for a global audience, opening the door for the genre-blending sound and cultural crossover shaping country and pop music today.

Often nicknamed the Queen of Pop, Twain has released seven acclaimed studio albums, with more than 100 million albums sold worldwide. Her era-defining catalog includes timeless hits such as “Any Man of Mine,” “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” “You’re Still the One,” and “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”.

In 2022, the career-spanning documentary Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl, was released, with an accompanying Highlights album. In July 2026, Shania released her seventh full-length album, Little Miss Twain, which marks her most personal and introspective work to date, and was a special guest for Harry Styles during his Wembley Stadium residence.

A renowned fashion icon and enduring cultural force, Twain continues to influence generations across music, style, and pop culture.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Shania Twain discuss taking her horse on tour, Dolly Parton, and being attracted to great hair.

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RM is a South Korean rapper, songwriter, music producer, and the leader of pop royalty BTS. 

His discography includes solo mixtapes RM (2015) and mono. (2018), as well as solo albums Indigo (2022) and Right Place, Wrong Person (2024), which showcase his remarkable versatility across genres. BTS have released ten studio albums since 2014, are among the world’s best-selling musical acts, and have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards worldwide.

As a creative powerhouse and avid art enthusiast, RM is renowned for crafting profound lyrics often inspired by various art forms. He has an extensive personal art collection with a focus on both contemporary and antique Korean art, and is curating an exhibition with SFMOMA for late 2026, pairing Korean artists with Western ones. 

His flexible and philosophical approach to music and ability to push creative boundaries with cutting-edge collaborations has led him to work with a diverse range of artists, including Erykah Badu, Anderson Paak, Lil Nas X, Mahalia, and more.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and RM discuss Stendhal Syndrome, Rick Owens, and the mantle of leadership.

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Rashida Jones is an award-winning American actor, writer, producer, and director with a dynamic body of work spanning film, television, and documentary filmmaking.

Her extensive acting credits include Sofia Coppola’s On The Rocks, The Social Network, Celeste and Jesse Forever, as well as the television series Parks and Recreation, The Office, Angie Tribeca and Sunny, which Jones executive produced. Jones will star in Lena Dunham’s upcoming film Good Sex, alongside Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo.

In 2025, she received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her performance in “Common People,” the premiere episode of the latest season of Black Mirror. 

In addition to her work in front of the camera, Jones has built an acclaimed career as a writer, director, and producer. She co-directed the Grammy and Critics Choice Award–winning documentary Quincy and co-directed and co-produced the short documentary A Swim Lesson, which was shortlisted for the 2025 Academy Awards. Her directing credits include episodes of the television shows #blackAF and Angie Tribeca. Jones co-produced the Emmy-nominated documentary Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On. 

Jones co-wrote the film The Invite with longtime creative collaborator Will McCormack, directed by Olivia Wilde, which was recently released. Additional writing credits include the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive,” the Oscar-winning Toy Story 4, and the Independent Spirit Award–nominated Celeste and Jesse Forever, in which she also starred. Jones and McCormack also run the production company Le Train Train, through which they have developed and produced a range of film and television projects.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Rashida Jones discuss fathers with style, Sofia Coppola, and falling in love with Kermit the Frog.

Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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Flea, born Michael Balzary, is a musician, writer and actor. He is one of the founding members and the bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

Flea is a legend in the musical fraternity. His style, both sartorially and musically is instantly recognizable and brings an emotional charge to everything he is involved with.

Flea met Anthony Kiedis in high school in Los Angeles, and they formed the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1982. The band achieved major mainstream success with their album Blood Sex Sugar Magik in 1991. The band most recently released their thirteenth album, Return of the Dream Canteen, in 2022. 

In 2001, Flea co-founded the Silverlake Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, which is dedicated to supporting young people in learning about and performing music

In 2019 Flea released his memoir Acid for Children, which describes his chaotic and turbulent childhood until forming the Red Hot Chili Peppers.Flea has won six Grammys and has just released his first solo album, Honora, which sees him pick up the trumpet once again and includes collaborations with Nick Cave and Thom Yorke.In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Flea discuss unpredictable parents, finding freedom in music, and the role of the moustache.

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Leïla Slimani is a French-Moroccan writer. Born in Rabat, Morocco, she moved to Paris aged seventeen to study media and journalism at Sciences Po. 

She is the author of seven books published in the English language. Her debut Adèle was published in 2014, followed by Lullaby, which made Slimani the first Moroccan woman to win France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt. Her non-fiction work Sex and Lies compiles accounts of sex and sexuality from Moroccan women she had interviewed while on a book tour, while The Scent of Flowers at Night is a meditation on art, life and the craft of writing. Since 2020, Slimani has published a trilogy of semi-autobiographical works, beginning with The Country of Others, followed by 2022’s Watch Us Dance and I’ll Take The Fire, released in 2025.

A journalist and frequent commentator on women’s and human rights, she is French president Emmanuel Macron’s personal representative for the promotion of the French language and culture. She has served as a jury member at Cannes and as a judge for the International Booker Prize.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Leïla Slimani discuss the attraction of Russian novels, how grief can lead to creativity, and phobias.

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Charli xcx is a British musician, artist, and actor. Raised in Essex, she recorded her first album at the age of 14, and was discovered after posting demos on MySpace and performing at East London raves. She has since released six studio albums, with her seventh album Music, Fashion, Film releasing on the 24th of July.  

One of the defining artists of our time, Charli moves seamlessly between the experimental and the mainstream, building a career characterised by reinvention, collaboration, and a singular approach to artistry that has influenced both the sound and visual language of contemporary culture. 

Her work has earned widespread critical acclaim including five BRITs and three Grammy Awards, as well as the prestigious Ivor Novello Songwriter of the Year award in 2025, cementing her status as one of contemporary pop’s most influential creative voices.

Beyond music, Charli has become a defining presence in fashion and contemporary image-making and has expanded her creative practice into film, where she acts, writes, produces and scores projects, including a recent collaboration with John Cale of the Velvet Underground on the Wuthering Heights soundtrack. In 2026, Charli starred in and produced the film The Moment, a mockumentary about the musician preparing for a world tour, and is set to feature in films by directors including Gregg Araki, Takashi Miike and Romain Gavras.

In this episode, Bella Freud and Charli xcx discuss Music in Fashion, working with the legendary John Cale, and when being jealous is the greatest compliment to a peer.

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John Currin is an American painter. Currin is widely recognised for his figurative oil paintings in which themes of sexual personae and historical painterly genres appear in surreal and sometimes disconcerting guises. Oscillating between a graphic sexuality and playful symbolism, Currin captures the tones and textures of everyday life with an acute sensitivity and a meticulous attention to detail.

Currin has exhibited internationally at galleries including Sadie Coles, Dallas Contemporary, Museo Stefano Bardini in Florence and Gagosian in New York. His first solo show was at White Columns in 1989, and in 2003, a mid-career survey of his paintings travelled to the Serpentine Gallery, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. 

His most recent exhibition is Opening Credits at Sadie Coles HQ in London. 

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and John Currin discuss the importance of clothes in his paintings, Jarvis Cocker, and the nuance of Sean Connery vs Clint Eastwood.

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Colm Tóibín is an Irish writer. Born in Enniscorthy, he is the author of eleven novels, including The Master, Brooklyn and The Magician, and two collections of stories. 

His novel Brooklyn was an immediate bestseller on publication and was adapted into an Oscar- nominated film starring Saoirse Ronan in 2015. His most recent novel Long Island is a sequel to Brooklyn. In his new short story collection The News from Dublin, these luminous short stories delve into the days and nights of those living far from home: lives of great longing, at a great distance from past lives and past selves.

Colm Toíbín has been three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. He was appointed the Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2025.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Colm Toibin discuss string underpants, playing tennis with Pedro Almodovar, and Irish trauma.

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Stephen Jones OBE is a British milliner and designer, highly regarded as one of the most radical of the 20th and 21st centuries. Jones studied at St Martins, spending his evenings at the Blitz club, immersed in London’s fashion and punk scene in the 1970s.

In 1980, Stephen opened his first millinery salon in the heart of London. This shop was visited by rock stars and royalty, from Diana Ross to Diana, Princess of Wales. Over four decades later, Jones’s era-defining designs continue to attract a celebrity clientele which includes Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Mick Jagger, and British Royalty.

Since the early 80s Stephen Jones has collaborated with designers from Vivienne Westwood and Claude Montana through to his current work with Thom Browne, Christian Dior, and Matières Fecales. Jones’ hats have been an integral component in some of the most memorable runway events of the past four decades, including his work on John Galliano’s spectacular Maison Margiela Haute Couture SS24 show presented under the Pont Alexander III.

Jones was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours, and received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the British Fashion Council in 2008. In December 2024, he was named British Accessories Designer of the Year at the Fashion Awards.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Stephen Jones discuss being a 1970s punk, fashion breakdowns, and communicating through a hat.

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Peaches is a Canadian singer songwriter, producer, director, and performance artist. She first catapulted to stardom with her 2000 debut album, The Teaches of Peaches, which introduced the world to her sexually transgressive, fiercely assertive and captivating persona. Since then, Peaches has released four more trailblazing albums, won the prestigious Polaris Heritage Prize, collaborated with everyone from Iggy Pop and Daft Punk to Christina Aguilera and Yoko Ono, and had her music featured in cultural watermarks like Lost in Translation and The Handmaid’s Tale.

In addition to her musical output, Peaches has directed over 20 music videos, co-curated a photo book of her life, What Else Is in The Teaches of Peaches, created a host of immersive installations and performative works, and penned the electro-rock opera Peaches Does Herself, which was adapted into a film shown at over 70 festivals.

The subject of two acclaimed documentaries, Peaches Goes Bananas and Teaches of Peaches, Peaches has also played the title role in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins and continues to perform her widely lauded one-woman show, Peaches Christ Superstar.

In February 2026, Peaches’ released her first album in over ten years, No Lube So Rude.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Peaches discuss Jesus Christ Superstar, being outlandishly normal, and having her shoelace tied by John Malkovich.

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Jerry Hall is an American model and actor who rose to fame in the 1970s, becoming one of the world’s most sought-after supermodels. Born and raised in working-class Texas, she was discovered at 16 on a beach in St. Tropez, and moved to France to model, sharing a Paris apartment with Grace Jones and Jessica Lange.

She has been photographed by the greatest photographers including Helmust Newton and David Bailey, and by 1977 she had graced the cover of 40 international fashion magazines. Hall was a muse to the artist Andy Warhol and fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, and sat for Lucian Freud when she was eight months pregnant. Her appearance on the cover of Roxy Music’s Siren became one of the defining images of the decade and cemented her place within both fashion and popular culture.

Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger became a glamorous, high profile couple in 1977, marrying in Bali in 1990. They are the parents of four children, including fellow models Georgia May and Elizabeth Jagger.

In 2021, Hall returned as the face of Saint Laurent, fronting the Spring/Summer 2022 campaign, photographed by David Sims. She starred in Dolce & Gabbana’s 2024 beauty campaign alongside her daughter Georgia, and became the face of Jean Paul Gaultier Fashion. She appeared on the cover of Perfect Magazine in 2024, and Harper’s Bazaar España. In 2025, she was honored as part of Chloé’s portraits campaign, celebrating the brand’s most iconic women.

In 2026, the year she turns 70, Jerry has joined the cast of Celebrity Traitors, further cementing her status as one of Britain’s most enduring and entertaining cultural figures.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Jerry Hall discuss dressing up with Grace Jones, being married to Mick Jagger, and discussing cleaning products with Andy Warhol.

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FKA twigs is a Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter, producer, dancer-choreographer, visual artist and actor. Raised in Gloucestershire, twigs moved to London aged 17 and became embedded in the underground art and club scene.

She released her debut EP EP1 in 2012, and breakthrough album LP1 in 2014, establishing herself as a singular creative force who writes, directs, and physically embodies her work. Her subsequent albums Magdalene (2019), Eusexua (2025), and Eusexua Afterglow (2025), melded movement, experimental sound, and cinematic storytelling.

In 2022, she became the youngest solo artist ever to receive NME’s “Godlike Genius” Award, recognizing her impact as a boundary-breaking innovator across disciplines.

In addition to her musical achievements, twigs has worked as an actor in films including The Crow, The Carpenter’s Son and most recently starred alongside Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel in Mother Mary. This week, it was revealed that twigs will portray Josephine Baker in a new biopic written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré.

twigs has graced the covers of Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, Dazed, and i-D, and fronted major campaigns for Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, Apple, and Sotheby’s - where her durational performance The Eleven became one of the institution’s most-attended live exhibitions.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and FKA twigs discuss creating new language inspired by David Cronenberg, the Madonna Whore complex, and the difference between dance and doing extraordinary feats with the body.

Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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Dan Levy is an Emmy award-winning actor, writer, director, and producer. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Levy is the son of actor and comedian Eugene Levy.

Dan Levy became a sensation for his work on Schitt’s Creek, one of the most beloved shows on television, which he co-created and featured in with his father Eugene Levy and which also starred Catherine O’Hara. The series garnered countless awards, and a total of 165 nominations, including nine Emmy wins for its sixth and final season.

Levy launched a film and television production company, Not a Real Production Company, in 2022. Levy made his directorial debut with Netflix’s, Good Grief, an original film that he wrote, produced and starred in, released in 2024. Levy produced and starred in the Loewe’s advert Decades of Confusion alongside Aubrey Plaza, and produced the documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, about Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan’s 1990s all-female music festival Lilith Fair.

His new Netflix series, Big Mistakes, is a family crime comedy series which Levy co-created, stars in and executive produced.Levy is a life-long fashion obsessive, and worked to source vintage or second-hand the majority of the clothing worn by the Schitt’s Creek cast. He is a great friend of Jonathan Anderson and had his own eyewear company, DL Eyewear.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Dan Levy discuss being a High Fashion Introvert, the allure of Anthony Vaccarello’s shoulder, and the genius of Peaches and Rachel Sennott.

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Kristen McMenamy is an American model. Born in Pennsylvania, she rose to fame in the 1990s as part of the legendary group of Supermodels including Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss, Christy Turlington, and Linda Evangelista.

McMenamy was a muse to Peter Lindbergh and Karl Lagerfield, and her short dark hair and bleached eyebrows made her an icon of the early 90s grunge scene, appearing in the famous American Vogue “Grunge and Glory” spread shot by Steven Meisel and styled by Grace Coddington.

Known for her unconventional, androgynous look, she has worked with many of the world’s most iconic fashion photographers, including Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel, Arthur Elgort, Tim Walker, and Juergen Teller, who described her as “the best model I have ever worked with”.

After taking a hiatus to raise her children, McMenamy returned to modelling in the mid 2000s. She is more in demand than ever, a favourite of Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford and has appeared on a multitude of covers including British Vogue in 2022. She regularly walks in the shows of top designers including Miu Miu, Tom Ford, and Valentino.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Kristen McMenamy discuss how insecurity can make a good model, Karl Lagerfeld, and the artistry of the selfie.

Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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Arlo Parks is an English singer-songwriter, and poet. Born and raised in Hammersmith, West London, Parks released her first EP Super Sad Generation aged 19, going on to win the Mercury Music Prize, a Breakthrough Artist Brit Award, and Grammy nominations for her first album Collapsed in Sunbeams, released in 2021. Parks performed at Glastonbury and Coachella, opening for artists including Billie Eilish and Harry Styles.

Parks’ second album, My Soft Machine, was Brit-nominated and included a song featuring musician Phoebe Bridgers. Parks toured this album globally, and it was named one of the Best Albums of 2023 by Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Billboard.

In 2023, Parks released a debut poetry collection, The Magic Border, and has cited poets including Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Mary Oliver and Ezra Pound as influences on her lyricism.

Her newest album, Ambiguous Desire, is inspired by the clubs and nightlife scenes of New York, London, and Los Angeles, where Parks has lived since 2021, and was released in April 2026.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Arlo Parks discuss favourite album covers, restlessness, and drive.

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Thom Browne is an American fashion designer, who is widely recognized for challenging and modernizing our contemporary uniform and tailoring. By questioning traditional proportions, Browne’s designs consistently convey a true American sensibility rooted in quality craftsmanship and precise tailoring.

Browne began working in fashion in the late 1990s for brands including Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren. In 2001, Browne began his eponymous label with five suits in a small “by appointment” shop in New York City’s West Village and, in the years following, expanded his business to include ready-to-wear, accessories and fragrance collections for men, women and children. Browne has dressed leading figures across culture, including Teyana Taylor, LeBron James, Diane Keaton, Janelle Monae, and Timothee Chalamet. Browne has also become known for his highly conceptual runway presentations which have gained global attention for their thought provoking and dramatic themes and settings.

In 2023, Browne became the Chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and has been honored with the CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year Award four times, the GQ Designer of the Year, the FIT Couture Council Award, and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award.
His designs are recognized by museums around the world including the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Mode Museum Antwerpen.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Thom Browne discuss how individuality is heightened by a uniform, long vs short runway shows, and how sadness can be uplifting.

Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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Lynne Ramsay is an award-winning director and writer. Born and raised in Glasgow, Lynne made the short film Little Deaths during her time at the National Film and Television School, which won the 1996 Prix du Jury at Cannes. In 1998, she wrote and directed the short film Gasman, starring her brother James, which won the BAFTA short film award and another Prix du Jury. Her feature film debut was the 1999 film Ratcatcher, which won numerous awards, follows a young boy growing up in working-class Glasgow during the bin workers strike in the 1970s.

She has since written and directed four feature films, often adapting books such as Morvern Callar, which starred a young Samantha Morton as a woman grieving her boyfriend’s suicide at a party resort in Spain, We Need To Talk About Kevin, and You Were Never Really Here. Her latest film, Die My Love, is produced by Martin Scorsese and stars Jennifer Lawrence as a new mother suffering post-partum psychosis, whilst her husband played by Robert Pattinson struggles to cope with her illness.

Lynnw Ramsay studied photography at Napier College Edinburgh, and much of her film work has been inspired by photographers including Robert Frank, Richard Billingham and Nan Goldin, influencing her meticulous use of colour and framing.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Lynne Ramsay discuss the working class Glasgow Intelligentsia, seizing the moment on a film shoot, and the generosity of Martin Scorsese’s brilliance.

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Riz Ahmed is an Academy and Emmy Award winning actor, director, musician, and writer.

Born and raised in Wembley, Ahmed studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University, going on to study acting at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Ahmed’s breakthrough role was in the 2006 film The Road to Guantanamo. He has starred in the satirical film Four Lions, the HBO award-nominated series The Night Of, and The Sound of Metal, for which Ahmed received a Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards. More recently, Ahmed has featured in Wes Anderson’s latest film The Phoenician Scheme, and plays the titular role in Aneil Karia’s modern adaptation of Hamlet. In October, Riz will be seen alongside Tom Cruise and Sandra Hüller in DIGGER, Alejandro Iñárritu’s first English language film since The Revenant.

Ahmed is the founder of the award-winning production company, Left-Handed Films, which has produced films including the 2020 feature film Mogul Mowgli, and the 2020 short The Long Goodbye, both of which were written by and starred Ahmed, which won an Academy Award for Best Short Film.

Ahmed has written, produced, and starred in a forthcoming comedy series for Amazon Prime titled BAIT, following the struggles of aspiring actor Shah Latif, whose life takes a surreal turn as he navigates an existential crisis and a bizarre conspiracy. His performance has been described as ‘dazzling, with sharp comic timing and a mega-watt charisma.’

As a musician, his career has spanned two decades across battle rap, techno, a successful American band Swet Shop Boys, and most recently, his critically acclaimed, award-winning 2020 solo album “The Long Goodbye”.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Riz Ahmed discuss the importance of Hamlet today, using colour to represent different personalities, and how to speak by just listening.

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