Everyone is seemingly a co-host of a podcast in our digital climate and yearns to hog the mic. Although not everyone is Freud’s great-granddaughter.
Enter: Bella Freud, proprietor of the most soothing voice to grace Spotify. Hosting the podcast Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud emanates a therapy session, inviting highly acclaimed individuals from all pockets of fashion and culture to engage in a professional nap and yap.
Daughter of painter Lucian Freud and great-granddaughter of the founding father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, Fashion Neurosis seems like the natural pipeline. After all, fashion has always been forthright in neurotic tendencies. The renowned fashion designer invites her guests to lie down on her couch, which becomes a site of unravelling, and a dance of sharing and listening between host and guest. Championing her genes, host Freud dabbles in psychoanalysis and evokes a space which encourages transparency amongst her guests, exploring the unspoken language of clothing.
Weaving seamlessly in and out of deadpan humour, emotional candour and personal anecdotes, the interviews serve up equal parts comedic relief and inspiration. Each episode is intimate yet irreverent and feels like slowing down the speed of fashion discourse by airing it out through a retrospective lens.
Through a series of tailored questions, the podcast moves beyond clothing and unpacks universal themes such as anxiety, love, politics, and identity. Speaking of guests, an invitation has been extended to a plethora of visitors, and her patient list speaks for itself: Kate Moss, Jonathan Anderson, Haider Ackermann, Rick Owens… case in point.
In commemoration of the show’s first birthday this week, we have provided a listicle presentation of our favourite eps below – that are bound to become yours too.
1. Rick Owens
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King of avant-garde and saint of opium, none other than Rick Owens, takes a seat on Bella Freud's couch for the first episode of Fashion Neurosis. Bella really set the bar ridiculously high with her first guest. Radical in his design approach, Rick Owens' ethos champions alternative aesthetics, which set out to counter the homogeneity of airport gloss, a goal undoubtedly achieved through his outlandish garments. The two speak so gracefully throughout the episode and share such a natural synergy, enlightening us on a surfeit of topics. There’s no shortage of tender Michele citations in the episode, alongside the necessity of uniform, the significance of lifelong learning, vitamin handbags from The Row, and heels as a form of protest.
2. Amelia Dimoldenberg
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Two of the most highly admired interviewers in the game chop it up in this episode of Fashion Neurosis. Bella alongside the creator and host of the infamous The Chicken Shop Date – and the monarch of wit and kitschy charm – Amelia Dimoldenberg. Amelia credits the origins of the Trojan horse that is the Chicken Shop Date with The Devil Wears Prada, which served as an early impetus for her fascination with fashion. Always dressed in colour, Amelia expands on finding being sexy embarrassing, the currency of beauty and the magic in embracing awkward silence.
3. Juergen Teller
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Fine-art and fashion photographer Juergen Teller possesses a visual cadence defined by honesty – seeking to exalt everyday moments of high-profile individuals, collapsing boundaries between grit and glamour. Teller has elevated the nature of fashion photography from the ground up. Speaking on lived-in experience within his realm of work, Juergen explores how picking up a camera at 18 helped him see the world – and himself – clearly for the first time. His decision to become a photographer was conceived so innocently in his youth, driven by an underlying instinct. It is this same instinct that guides his work: playful, spontaneous and deeply attuned to the individual in front of the camera, leaving edits and artifice at the door. Throughout the episode, Freud and Teller explore a range of topics: nudity, the fear of time, and navigating relationships with parents – all underscored with relatability.
4. Kate Moss
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Kate Moss, muse and monolith within fashion’s collective psyche throughout the ‘90s and noughties, links with Bella Freud on this episode. Moss harbours her dry sense of humour and riffs on her long-standing gripes with fashion trends. Between outbursts of her contagious cackle, Moss reminisces on her fond memories of Vivienne Westwood and the punk spirit she exuded so effortlessly. Her evolution from model to fashion architect is laid bare in the conversation, as she speaks candidly about her loyalties within the industry. Perhaps our favourite tangent from the podcast is Moss emphasising the necessity of a heel when nude. The epitome of iconic, if you ask us.
5. Mia Khalifa
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Known to most as Mia Khalifa, Sarah Joe is an online media personality, activist and entrepreneur who was born in Beirut and grew up in America. First rising to fame through the adult film industry, Khalifa has carved out her own narrative by diffusing an empowering discourse surrounding body positivity. Carrying an Arabic dictionary with her at all times as a kid, her curiosity about language underscores her belief in knowledge as our most powerful tool. Within the episode, Khalifa laments on her aversion to logomania, the ick of an ill-fitting tee shirt on a man, alongside her celibacy journey and reclaiming our bodies as a vessel.
6. Jonathan Anderson
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In a candid light, away from the juggernaut that is the runway and free from the shackles of the atelier, Dior's Jonathan Anderson delves into his humble upbringing in Northern Ireland and expands on the eruption of his career since the inception of his namesake label JW Anderson in 2008. Like many others in his cohort, Anderson balances the hysteria of fashion with a pared-back uniform himself – in order to find newness for his collections. Within the episode, Jonathan Anderson opens up about how his own feelings of imperfection have catapulted him into creating beauty in a tangible format for others, his fear of complacency and his collaborative relationship with Luca Guadagnino.
7. Marina Abramović
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From insight into her childhood to the both shocking and wonderful insights into her creative life, this episode with Abramović is one of the podcast's most popular to date. For an artist mostly shrouded in mystery, we get insights into Abramović in new ways – from her thoughts on fashion to the details behind the scenes of some of her most infamous performance pieces.
