Carton d'invitation

An established leader in the beauty space, James Boehmer is embarking on a new adventure in Kent, Connecticut after years as the Global Artistic Director for SHISEIDO Makeup. That role was preceded by groundbreaking work at NARS.

The entire podcast is available in video form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNVsi0LU2Zs

Thanks for subscribing here and on Youtube, if you feel inclined to support my project.

Original music for this podcast by Ashley Rivera, Myla Carlos and Chloe Hsu.

Openly trans in 1989, Connie Fleming made her Paris modeling debut and history on a Thierry (Manfred) Mugler runway. 

Connie is a multi-hyphenate: illustrator, model, runway coach, also known as The Door Bitch in the New York club scene. She has become an advocate for trans-healthcare following her experience with breast cancer.

Growing up in Jamaica and then New York, Connie experienced violence in childhood - but was rebuilt as a teenager by developing her stage persona at Boy Bar. She became a fixture at the Paradise Garage where she was discovered by Steven Meisel. Connie is featured in a new documentary about that scene “Love is In the Legend”. And she has been seen in current day Mugler publicity campaigns and on recent Mugler and Rick Owens runways.

I talked to Connie while working on my documentary Carton d'invitation - I had wonderful memories of seeing her on the runways in Paris in the 80s and 90s - and it was important for me to ask what it all felt like for her.

To learn more about Connie follow her on Instagram @therealconniergirl

For more on my documentary project, visit @cartondinvitation on IG as well.

Original music for this podcast is by Ashley Rivera, Myla Carlos and Chloe Hsu.

Jason Duzansky recently worked as the art director on the instantly iconic book: “Linda Evangelista Photographed by Steven Meisel”. But probably without realizing it, you are always seeing images Jason helped create on billboards, in shop windows and magazines - wherever you might be in the world. Jason is a busy Creative Director based in Los Angeles and New York who works for many brands including Louis Vuitton and Chanel. Before going out on his own, Jason was "the right hand man" to Steven Meisel, serving as his in-house art director for 13 years. He grew up in Chicago and got his first break working at Visionaire Publishing in New York. 

This podcast is a Master Class for young people wondering how to break into fashion…and of course,  it is also for anyone who wants to know what it might have been like to work with Steven Meisel on all those Italian Vogue covers! Jason shares many memories working with and learning from the very private Meisel, who is considered the photographer of his generation.

Jason work is informed by a distinctive integration of typography and graphic design - he explains that his goal is to catch our eyes with work that is both chic and charming. Enjoy meeting the self-deferential and indeed very charming, Jason Duzansky in this Carton d’invitation podcast.

For more about Jason: https://www.jasonduzansky.com/

To learn about the Carton d'invitation documentary project, check out my Instagram account @cartondinvitation

You can find a video trailer for this podcast on Youtube or by checking my linktr.ee on Instagram.

To help fund continued work on this podcast series about the Golden Age of fashion in Paris, find a Kofi link in my bio as well.

Original music for this podcast was provided by Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos.

Fashion History 101 - For six decades, Tony has been immersed in the world of fashion - thinking, writing and sketching. From early 1960s YSL shows in the intimacy of the salon to the latest extravaganzas in Paris, Tony's been there, notebook in hand. We caught up as I was working on my documentary Carton d'invitation. Back in the 1990s, I often turned to him for TV interviews right after fashion shows. He was always knowledgeable - and effervescent with excitement - about the spectacles we witnessed in those days, from the first shows by Galliano at Dior to the time Martin Margiela made a "lace" dress from old sandals.

Tony started as a fashion forecaster with Sir Terence Conran, and went on to become an editor at Conde Nast, based in Australia. Prolific still, at the age of 77, Tony stays busy covering fashion for numerous magazines, commuting from his home in Palma to London and other fashion capitals.

For many years, Tony has also been a lecturer at a number of institutions including The London College of Fashion.
Tony is the author of several books such as "Top to Toe, a guide to men's grooming" and "New Icons of Fashion Illustration". 

For more about Tony, check Instagram @ t.g.therealtonyglenville

For more about the Carton d'invitation documentary, check out my Instagram account @cartondinvitation

You can find a video trailer for this podcast on Youtube or by checking my linktr.ee on Instagram.

To help fund continued work on this podcast series about the Golden Age of fashion in Paris, find a Kofi link in my bio as well.

Original music for this podcast was provided by Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos.

Partner of the late Manfred Thierry Mugler, Krzysztof Leon Dziemaszkiewicz is a Polish performance artist based in Berlin. From a little kitchen in Schillerpromenade, he and I spoke together about his highly inventive art practice - and what it was like navigating the first year of grief after the passing of his partner. 

To learn more visit his Instagram: @leondziemaszkiewicz

This podcast is part of an interactive media library which accompanies my documentary Carton d'invitation. It's a film about my work reporting for Fashion Television in Paris during "The Golden Age", the 80s and 90s. My documentary naturally revisits my encounters with Mugler so it was important - and moving - for me to be able to talk to Leon for this podcast.

A gentle warning to people dealing with loss that some of the content deals with the process of grieving.

If you would like to learn more about my documentary and the overall project, go to Instagram @cartondinvitation

Original music for this podcast was composed by Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos. Find more music by Ashley at https://vithmakesmusic.carrd.co/

Entertaining, outspoken and really funny, former fashion model and Big Brother Reality TV star, Marcellas Reynolds calls himself the “ultimate fangirl." He is the author of Supreme Models, The History of Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Fashion and Supreme Actresses as well. He co-produced with supermodel, Iman, the hit six-part Supreme Models docuseries. The series brings together many stars from Pat Cleveland to Karen Alexander and Veronica Webb to Zendaya to tell the story of Black models past and present. We sat down to talk about Marcellas’ own extraordinary life in fashion and the thrill of creating the books and the documentary.

Known as a "walking, talking fashion wikipedia", Marcellas is the ultimate fashion insider. In this podcast, he offers us a Master Class in the compelling history of the Black Model.

Find a video trailer for this podcast : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSeFQbKhdDM

Find the docuseries at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObeHmWsyshM 

Find Marcellas @marqueemarc on Instagram and @Supreme_books on Twitter. 

Buy his books online or in your favorite bookstore! 

Special consultant on this podcast: @domcreates

To learn more about my ongoing documentary project about Paris fashion in the 80s and 90s, go to @cartondinvitation on Instagram and Tiktok 

Original music for this podcast was composed by Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos. Find more music by Ashley at https://vithmakesmusic.carrd.co/

Peter O’Brien, wildly talented, humble and really funny, has been a fashion insider for decades. He sat down to share his thoughts and impressions about where things are at now and what was happening back in the 1990s when we knew each other.  I am working on a documentary and doing a Master’s about my own work making television about fashion in Paris at that particular moment in time. To be honest,  I need a lot  of help remembering, clarifying and reinterpreting. In this podcast, Peter enlightens me on many questions.

Raised on a council estate, avoiding sports and always drawing ballgowns in his schoolbooks, Peter O’Brien went from dressing windows in Dublin to attending Central St Martins in London, (telling a pre-Internet fib about having finished an Irish Leaving Certificate to gain admission). In a few short years, Peter was in Paris, working at Christian Dior under Marc Bohan, followed by Givenchy, then a brief stint as a senior designer at Chloé. In 1989 he was appointed Creative Director at Rochas, where he remained for 12 years, designing women’s wear and accessories, and overseeing menswear, perfumes and licenses.

Peter returned to Ireland in 2004 where he has since been working as a freelance designer for various lines.

He is an award-winning costume designer for theatre - and he spends much of his time now teaching a new generation of costume designers in Ireland.

For more about Peter:

Instagram: @peterobriendesign

Website: https://peterobriendesign.com/

Find a video trailer for this podcast here: https://youtu.be/BWKRfZZ_GqI

To learn more about my ongoing documentary project about Paris fashion in the 80s and 90s, go to @cartondinvitation on Instagram and Tiktok

Original music for this podcast was composed by Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos. Find more music by Ashley at https://vithmakesmusic.carrd.co/

Veronica Webb’s fancy-free strut down the Chanel runway was iconic in the 80s and 90s. In a fast rise to fame, the Detroit-native entered the emerging circle of Supermodels at the age of 19. Veronica was the first Black model to sign an exclusive cosmetic contract - becoming a spokesmodel for Revlon.  She appeared on many magazine covers including Vogue and Elle, modeled for Victoria’s Secret and acted in films including Jungle Fever and Malcolm X. Supported by mentors such as Bethann Hardison, Azzedine Alaia, Karl Lagerfeld and Andre Leon Talley, Veronica became a student of the system - her astute observational wit propelling her multifaceted career.

In this podcast, she reminisces with me about those heady days when everyone came together all at once in the fashion world to attend shows that were not possible to see any other way - before the dawn of the internet. She talks about the excitement, the clothes, the characters and her work now mentoring young Black fashion talent.

Veronica is a mother and a blogger who espouses the motto: Own your age. Own your beauty. Own your power.

She recently appeared in the docu-series Supreme Models, a history of iconic Black women who revolutionized fashion, created by Marcellus Reynolds and Iman. You can find that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQkSAKgIaJI

For more about Veronica: Instagram: @veronicawebb Website: https://www.webbonthefly.com/

Find a short video version of this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyfqmxr2uWA

To learn more about my ongoing documentary project about Paris fashion in the 80s and 90s, go to @cartondinvitation on Instagram and Tiktok

Original music for this podcast was composed by Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos. Find more music by Ashley at https://vithmakesmusic.carrd.co/

London’s Heather Stewart Whyte quickly shot to fame upon arriving in Paris, posing for all the great photographers of the time and walking the runways for every designer in town. A muse to Herve Leger, Yves St. Laurent and Dominique Isserman, Heather was also a Victoria’s Secret model. She tells a funny story about that in the podcast - and some cheeky tales about keeping Helmut Newton in his place.

Initially shy, Heather grew in confidence and was part of that group of supermodels who changed the rules. She pushed back when designers complained about her curves and she even rewrote the rules about being a mom and a model, taking her nursing babies on set - and just making that work too.

I knew Heather in the 90s, often interviewing her for Fashion Television. I was really delighted when we were able to catch up for this conversation so many years later. She recounted her memories of catwalks and photo shoots - but most especially she relished talking about the human moments: the encounters and the creativity she experienced in “The Golden Age” of fashion.

Find a video trailer for this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COTQrC6wogA

To learn more about my ongoing documentary project about Paris fashion in the 80s and 90s, go to @cartondinvitation on Instagram and Tiktok

Original music for this podcast was composed by Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos. Find more music by Ashley at https://vithmakesmusic.carrd.co/

Hear what poet and spoken word artist Cathi Rae has to say about body positivity and growing old in style. She embraces slow fashion, consuming less yet still enjoying the thrill of the find in charity shops and her own cupboard! 

A PhD student at the age of 60, Leicester's Cathi Rae teaches creative writing - and can be found doing manual labour cleaning houses two days a week. She has strong opinions about why it is important to value the body's function over form and wishes she had seen more representation of non-airbrushed older bodies when she was younger - a situation she is correcting from what she calls her "little corner of Instagram" where she posts pictures of herself in fabulous preloved styles - and sometimes in the nude.

A poet in conversation. 

Go to @cathirae on Instagram to enjoy her creative styling of preloved clothes and her thoughtful messaging.

Cathi Rae's recent book "Your Cleaner Hates You and Other Poems" is available from Amazon or the Soulful Group @ https://www.soulfulgroup.com/authors/cathirae

Original music for this podcast was composed by Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos. Find more music by Ashley at https://vithmakesmusic.carrd.co/

Follow @cartond'invitation on IG for more about Cathi Rae - and my documentary project.