While the world appears to have taken leave of anything resembling objective reality, and our feeds continue to oscillate between the surreal and the mundane in a choreography of dissonance, we have returned to the quiet act of making. Production on the new season is underway, and with it comes the opportunity to explore the role creativity holds within culture. More than ornament, it serves as reflection, as resistance, and occasionally, as remedy.

Whether through personal narrative or collective observation, there is no shortage of terrain. The world, in all its instability and invention, continues to offer more questions than answers. That feels like the right place to begin.

We will be back this fall with a new season!

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In recent years, it’s become harder to tell whether fashion can still stand on its own, without leaning on the scaffolding of sport, film, or whatever cultural tentpole happens to be in rotation. But with the sustained relevance of System and the sharp ambition behind its latest expansion, Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Wingfield offers a clear answer: yes—fashion can still trade on itself.

It is a business, unquestionably—but a beautifully complex one, in constant dialogue with culture. And in that dialogue, the currency of creativity proves more stable than gold. Unlike so many aspects of contemporary life, its role is inimitable, its value evergreen.

In this conversation, Wingfield traces his own route—from suburban teenage boredom and record sleeves to the visual literacy that would come to define his work. We talk about System’s origins, the logic behind System Collections, and what gets lost when coverage is dictated by algorithms rather than curiosity.

“The most interesting commentary on a film often came from the costume designer, not the star. That logic applies to fashion too.” - Jonathan Wingfield

Episode Highlights:

From suburban boredom to fashion curiosity - Wingfield traces his creative awakening to the disconnect between small-town life and the cultural energy of nearby London—music, record sleeves, and magazines were his early portals.

The record sleeve as first editorial influence - A Peter Saville–designed cover for New Order’s True Faith becomes an entry point into the world of typography, photography, and image-making.

A formative mentorship on the road - A months-long carpool with UK publishing legend Alan Lewis becomes a crash course in magazine craft—headline writing, storytelling, and editorial voice.

Why editing is about the final decisions - For Wingfield, the joy of putting a magazine together isn’t in the interviews—it’s in the final details: captions, pull quotes, and headlines that shape meaning.

System’s founding as a response to access fatigue - Frustrated by increasingly hollow interviews with celebrities, Wingfield wanted a space for deeper, more sustained conversations—System was his answer.

Virgil Abloh as a cultural inflection point - A cover story featuring Virgil becomes a turning point for System, bridging industry credibility and outsider influence, and reframing who the magazine is for.

The slow reveal: System’s relationship to time - Wingfield shares why the magazine resists real-time commentary and favors longer arcs—interviewing designers after the noise has died down.

The launch of System Collections - He introduces System’s newest project: a seasonal, time-capsule-style publication that offers deep visual and editorial takes on fashion month.

On interviewing well—and waiting for silence - One of his top tips: don’t rush to fill silences. Real answers often follow the pause.

What’s contemporary now? Swerve the algorithm - Wingfield’s closing reflection: avoid being trapped in feedback loops. Discovery, intuition, and counterintuitive creativity are what truly move culture forward.

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It’s easy to repeat oneself in fashion. Certain truths return again and again, not because we lack imagination, but because they remain unresolved. One of them is this—authenticity isn’t rare because people are unwilling to be real, but because many still don’t know who they are. Carlos Nazario does. And more than that, he shows up as himself, without spectacle and without self-mythologizing.

What makes this conversation compelling isn’t only his perspective on fashion or culture. It’s the way he holds space for complexity—the exhaustion and the joy, the disenchantment and the deep love for the work. There’s a calm clarity in how he speaks about image-making, identity, and the creative life. Not as fixed roles, but as evolving practices.

For anyone feeling unmoored by the state of the industry or uncertain about how to keep creating in a time that feels increasingly TBD, this episode offers something more valuable than certainty. It offers perspective, and the steady presence of someone who has figured out how to move forward without losing himself along the way.

“I love fashion. I don’t always love the fashion industry.” - Carlos Nazario 

Episode Highlights:

Redefining Exhaustion in Creative Work - Carlos discusses the mental and emotional toll of fashion’s nonstop pace—and why he refuses to glorify burnout, emphasizing presence, boundaries, and creative sustainability.

Loving Fashion vs. Loving the Industry - He unpacks the tension between a deep love for fashion itself and disillusionment with the political performance of the industry.

The Power and Limits of the Internet in Fashion - Carlos reflects on the democratization of commentary online, and how the resulting noise makes it harder to sift out meaningful, resonant work.

Image as a Tool for Transformation - A powerful meditation on imagemaking as a vehicle for cultural change, generational thought, and emotional resonance.

Resisting Small Talk, Embracing Realness - He shares his discomfort with surface-level conversations in industry spaces, and his craving for meaningful, emotionally honest exchanges.

Retreat, Identity & Reclaiming the Self - A story about a therapeutic retreat—where he wasn’t allowed to share his profession or last name—leads to a conversation about selfhood outside of industry labels.

Critique vs. Cruelty - Carlos addresses the rise of snarky, anonymous fashion criticism, drawing a distinction between valuable critique and performative cruelty.

The Weight of Representation - He speaks candidly about his experience as a Black, Afro-Latino stylist—and how resilience, optimism, and responsibility continue to shape his point of view.

Time, Mortality & Legacy - A moving reflection on life’s brevity, what it means to step away, and how true impact often comes from stillness and intentionality.

What’s Contemporary Now - Looking within. Carlos defines contemporaneity as self-awareness, intention, and resisting herd mentality in favor of independent thought.

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 It is Monday, but not just any Monday. It's the first Monday in May queue. The flash bulbs, the group chats, the live tweets, the MET Gala is here, and with it, the annual flood of speculation.

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Describing Lyas as a "fashion narrator" rather than a critic or commentator feels curiously apt in a moment when fashion could use a little more imagination and a little less judgment. Storytelling, after all, is what he does best — with a kind of honesty that carries weight without ever feeling heavy. Unlike many of his peers, Lyas is as much a creator as he is a commentator, sculpting himself into a living performance while quietly building a world behind the scenes with two films already in the works. His energy moves through the industry like a weather system — sometimes wild, but never without purpose — electrifying the air it passes through. He learned early that the worst thing anyone could do was ask him to tame himself, and it is precisely this refusal that has shaped his path. Fired from every traditional job he attempted, Lyas carved out a future that runs on instinct, imagination, and just the right measure of delusion. In an industry that often rewards conformity, he is a reminder that sometimes it is the unruliest forces that end up remaking the landscape.

"I couldn’t be normal. My normal is crazy." - Lyas 

Episode Highlights:

Growing up in Rouen - Lyas reflects on his early years in a city steeped in history but devoid of contemporary culture — and how moving to Paris unlocked his sense of identity and creative belonging.

The Power of Performance - How 11 years of drama school shaped Lyas’s relationship to fashion, storytelling, and self-expression — and why performance is an essential part of his daily life.

Feeling the Most Tamed — and the Most Lost - A candid look at how being "tamed" or asked to tone down his personality deeply affected Lyas’s sense of self-worth — and why authenticity became non-negotiable.

Building a Career Without a Blueprint: - Lyas shares how unconventional paths, personal resilience, and creative hunger shaped a career that defies traditional expectations — and why doing things his own way became the only option.

Living Rent-Free in Paris (and Building a Dream) - The surreal stretch of living rent-free during COVID — and how it gave Lyas the time and space to develop the projects that would launch his digital career.

Making Fashion Critique Accessible - Why Lyas believes fashion commentary should be democratized — speaking to real people, not just insiders — and how he uses humor and storytelling to break down barriers.

Choosing Integrity Over Industry Pressure - The moment Lyas chose honesty over maintaining industry relationships, after attending a disappointing show and refusing to stay silent.

The Future of Fashion (and the Role of Excitement) - How Lyas manages to stay genuinely excited about fashion, especially by championing young designers, despite the industry's increasingly commercial pressures.

Writing Stories, Not Just Reviews - Lyas shares his passion for screenwriting, the difference between writing scripts versus essays, and the films he hopes will challenge and change culture.

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In fashion, there are stylists—and then there are image-makers. As the “C” in KCD and one of the first male editors to define women’s fashion editorial, Paul Cavaco helped shape the modern visual vocabulary of the 1990s, styling everything from Harper’s Bazaar under Liz Tilberis to Madonna’s era-defining Sex book with Steven Meisel and Fabien Baron. Tonne Goodman, whose early days included modeling for Richard Avedon and assisting Diana Vreeland, brought that same instinct for clarity and cultural intuition to her longstanding role as the American fashion editor of Vogue. In a moment when the function—and future—of the fashion editor is being reexamined, hearing from two of its originals felt not only timely, but essential. Their conversation is a reminder that while fashion constantly reinvents itself, the value of vision and integrity never goes out of style.

"I grew up in the Bronx. There was no fashion in my house. What we had was music, grit, and individuality." - Paul Cavaco 

"Everything really does happen for a reason. Even the catastrophic moments usually lead to something better." - Tonne Goodman 

Episode Highlights:

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While it’s nearly impossible to open your eyes without encountering some news item signaling uncertainty or disruption, we couldn’t help but find excitement in the inevitability of change—even when that change isn’t exactly what we might have chosen ourselves. With the season’s remaining episodes ahead, it felt like the right moment to invite audience participation by opening the mic to your questions—ones you’d like answered by the creatives who make up our incredible cast.

DM us on Instagram or email us at [email protected]. If you've enjoyed the show, leave us a review and we'll be back soon with more episodes answering the insatiable question, what is contemporary now?

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Once upon a time—not so long ago—it was fashionable to declare that print would only endure if it became a luxury object. That forecast now feels less like speculation and more like prophecy. Today, conversation tends to orbit a different anxiety—the ceaseless deluge of content, the flattening effect of algorithmic consumption, and a hunger not just for beauty but for discernment. In that context, Beyond Noise feels less like a magazine and more like an antidote. Conceived by Sarah Richardson as a biannual publication with the weight of a collectible and the spirit of a cultural artefact, it resists the pace of now in favor of something slower, deeper, and yes, more exacting. During the release of the third issue, Richardson joins us to unpack the why, the how, and the why now of her quietly radical vision.

“Even if you don’t agree with me, I’d rather build something that reflects a clear point of view. I think people are craving that right now.” - Sarah Richardson

Episode Highlights:

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Some may have balked at the news that a Brit would take the helm of Vogue France, but anyone familiar with Claire Thomson-Jonville knows she has long been fluent in the visual and cultural codes that define the brand. Her Instagram alone reads like a prelude to her appointment—an archive of nuanced Parisian style, shaped by years of aesthetic consistency and editorial clarity. No surprise, then, that Anna Wintour has called her the embodiment of French chic. In this episode, we speak with Claire about her longstanding creative partnership—and rare level of trust—with Alastair McKimm, the growing relevance of wellness both within the pages of the magazine and through Vogue France's first-ever wellness retreat launching this summer, and the references she’s honoring while bringing her own perspective to a title that now operates in a cultural climate markedly different from that of her predecessors.

“I’ve always had this instinct to follow the work, not the title. If something felt aligned creatively, I went toward it—even if it didn’t make perfect sense on paper.” - Claire Thomson-Jonville

Episode Highlights:

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Sarah Harrelson, founder and editor-in-chief of CULTURED magazine, joins us to discuss what it means to engage the culture rather than simply cover it. From her early training as a competitive equestrian to her unexpected pivot from politics to publishing, Harrelson shares how discipline, curiosity, and an eye for the underdog have informed her editorial approach.

We talk about the magazine’s evolution—from its roots in print to its growing influence across art, fashion, and design—and why events were always central to the brand’s DNA. She reflects on building access without elitism, maintaining integrity in a metrics-driven world, and what feels truly contemporary now.

“People think I’m very social, but I’m actually most comfortable standing quietly in a room, observing. That’s how I learned—watching how people move, how power shifts, how conversations unfold. I think that shaped my sense of how to tell stories.” - Sarah Harrelson 

Episode Highlights:

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