Photographer Sasha Samsonova is generating quite a buzz with her striking images of women who are comfortable in their own skin and unabashedly sexy. A female Helmut Newton, Sasha is all about celebrating the beauty and strength of the women who stand before her lens. 
 
Born and raised in Ukraine, Sasha is an autodidact photographer who was already shooting for Harper’s Bazaar by the time she was 17 years old, having picked up a camera after her plans to become a professional ballroom dancer fell by the wayside. But her innate understanding of how the body can express emotion in the way it moves has had a direct impact on both her photography and the films and videos she is now directing in Hollywood.
 
Sasha has worked with celebrities like Kylie Jenner, Lili Reinhart, Khloe Kardashian, Emma Roberts, and Kate Bosworth, her images have been featured in the pages of Vogue, L’Officiel, Elle, and Playboy and she has collaborated with brands such as Google, Fear of God, and Revlon. 
 
When you see Sasha’s work it’s all about sensual strength. And when you listen to her speak, you know that her goal in life is to make women feel as powerful as possible. And she has the photos to prove that she is doing exactly that.

071 Sasha Samsonova: Photographing Female Power

Guillaume Delacroix is a luxury brand whisperer. His entire career, from his early days working at Karla Otto and KCD to his time at Giorgio Armani and Balenciaga, to his current role as the founder and CEO of DLX, he has been helping leading prestige companies craft their narratives in ways that spark conversations, engage the public and create lasting impressions. 

Guillaume launched DLX nine years ago and since then he has built up a reputation in the industry for both spotting and supporting budding design talents but also for helping more established companies create bold new chapters in their brand strategy. A born storyteller, Guillaume doesn’t limit his clientele to just fashion labels but instead uses his skills to create memorable moments with a variety of companies. He has worked with everyone from Matches, and the famed Samaritaine department store in Paris to hot niche brands like Sophie Carbonari Skincare, the Zurich-based On athleticwear label and the current must-have swimwear brand Hunza G. 

The common denominator across all these companies is they are cool. And if they weren’t cool, by the time Guillaume works his magic on their brand strategy, communication rollout and event activations…well they damn sure will be.

I have known Guillaume for years and considering his impressive track record in the luxury space what still strikes me the most is how humble and self-effacing he is. I mean just Google the guy. For someone who can weave a brand narrative like nobody’s business, there is very little about Guillaume himself online. I hope this podcast will help change that. As he is one man worth knowing. 

This interview took place in June 2021

083 Guillaume Delacroix: Fashion's Badass Brand Strategist

Olivier Rousteing, the creative director of Balmain, talks about his new collaboration designing costumes for the Paris Opera house, the debut of his make-up line with L'Oreal, his childhood, his friendship with Kim Kardashian and where he wants to take the Balmain brand.

001   Olivier Rousteing - The Creative Director of Balmain

Dana Thomas is a dyed in the wool, true blue journalist. She lives it, breaths it and consumes it every day. She is the Woodward and Bernstein or the Ronan Farrow, if you will, of the fashion industry. Her deep dive, investigative books into the inner workings of the fashion world have earned her the respect of her peers and I am sure, when she comes knocking, a few shivers of fear down the spine of at least a couple of CEOs during her career. 

In 2007 she published the New York Times bestseller, "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster" which explored the dark side of the multi-billion-dollar business and exposed the hidden secrets that luxury brands didn’t want to have see the light of day. Then in 2015 she published “Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano”. In that book, Thomas explored how two of the most creative and influential designers of the past 30 years cracked under the pressure of the 24/7 incessant demands of a business built on always coming up with the next big thing, must-have accessory and the designer as superstar approach to creating a global fashion powerhouse.  

And now Thomas is back with another timely and on-point book called “Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes”. This time she examines the damage wrought by the global clothing industry and the role that sustainably, accountability, fair trade and transparency must take if the world of fashion wants to stay viable in the coming decades as the needs of the consumers and the climate both change. 

After a year in Paris working as a model, Thomas moved back to the United States to start her award-winning career by cutting her teeth in journalism writing for the Style section of The Washington Post. She then returned to Paris and was, for fifteen years, a cultural and fashion correspondent for Newsweek in the city of light. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and Architectural Digest, just to name a few.  And in 2016, the French Minister of Culture named her a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. 

I met up with Thomas in her home in the 7th arrondissement in Paris. There, surrounded by her collection of rare and out of print fashion books, with her dog Daisy at her feet and her daughter Lucie studying in the next room, we talked about her new book, her life long love of fashion and her ability to spot a seminal story before anyone else.

044 Dana Thomas - Fashion's Leading Investigative Journalist

The Fashion Your Seatbelt podcast gives its listeners the rare opportunity to hear from some of the leading voices working in the fashion industry today. Each podcast is an exclusive one-to-one conversation with a creative who is crafting the future of fashion. Hosted by the renowned and award-winning fashion journalist Jessica Michault, this podcast is designed to take its audience directly to the heart of fashion and discover what makes it tick.

044 Dana Thomas - Fashion's Leading Investigative Journalist

Fashion Your Seatbelt

Related tracks