Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud

Simone Rocha is an Irish designer. 

Born in Dublin, the daughter of designer John Rocha, she graduated with a BA in Fashion from The National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 2008, continuing in 2010 to graduate from the acclaimed Fashion MA at Central Saint Martin’s College, London. 

Simone debuted at London Fashion Week in September 2010, and has shown at every season since, in some of London’s most historically significant buildings such as Tate Modern, The Royal Academy of Art, Southwark Cathedral, The Old Bailey, and Alexandra Palace. 

In October 2024 Simone Rocha released her monograph published by Rizzoli, a survey of the last decade of her brand. Simone curated an exhibition titled “Girls, Girls, Girls” at Lismore Castle Arts in 2022 featuring the work of female artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, Harley Weir, Dorothy Cross and Sophie Barber. 

Rocha has collaborated with world-renowned brands, including Adidas, J Brand, Moncler, Crocs and H&M, infusing them with the signature Simone Rocha aesthetic. In 2024, Simone was the guest designer for Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture.

Simone Rocha has been awarded the Harper’s Bazaar Designer of Year Award (2016) as well as Fashion Awards for ‘Emerging Talent, Ready-to-Wear’ (2013), ‘The New Establishment Award’ (2014), “British Womenswear Designer Award” (2016), “Independent British Brand” in 2021 and most recently “British Womenswear Designer Award” (2024).

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Simone Rocha discuss loving school uniforms, Chloë Sevigny, and radical femininity.

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Nathaniel Mary Quinn is an American artist.

Born and raised in Chicago, Quinn began drawing at an early age, and went on to receive an MFA from New York University in 2002 and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana in 2023. 

Quinn’s practice operates within a world of visual metaphor, in which identifiable forms and features are mobilized to reveal aspects of character. Memories and found images unite to form composite portraits that are at once neo-Dada and adamantly realist, evoking the intimacy and intensity of a face-to-face encounter.

His first solo show was at London’s Pace Gallery in 2014, and his most recent exhibition was at the Chicago National Public Housing Museum, with a show called A Love Letter to my Mother. Quinn’s work is now held in major institutional collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Museo Jumex, Mexico City; and Centre Pompidou, Paris, amongst others.

In 2026, Quinn created the art for the cover of the Rolling Stones album Foreign Tongues.

In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Nathaniel Mary Quinn discuss his drawings of gang members in the Chicago Projects, how Cubism informed his portraits, and making the Rolling Stones album cover.

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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.

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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.

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