Leïla Slimani

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices