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

I have been following the career of Belgian fashion designer Olivier Theyskens pretty much from the beginning. I have seen him grow from a wunderkind, whose dark goth-like gowns were being worn by the likes of Madonna to the Oscars when he was just 21 years old, into the established and well-respected artist he is today. A designer who has come up with a signature style of dark romantic ensembles that are formed from rigorous attention to construction, precise tailoring, and meticulous fabric choices.  

Olivier has never been one to bend to the ebb and flow of fashion. Instead, his work stands like beautiful sartorial rocks, which the world of fashion crashes up against but never erodes away. His singular vision could be felt in each professional chapter of his career.  During his years as the artistic director at Rochas, he single-handedly came up with intriguing new silhouettes for the house. Shapes that instantly put the brand back on the fashion map and garnered him the title of Best International Designer by the CFDA in 2006. Then as the artistic director of Nina Ricci, he developed even further his feminine yet sensual aesthetic creating sculptural dresses and statement suiting. 

Next up was a stint in America where the designer’s couture talents were put to great use in the world of contemporary fashion as Olivier teamed up with the brand Theory to become its artistic director. Elevating the label’s global profile and also injecting its offering with sartorial sophistication. But the call of his inner voice to relaunch his own label eventually became too strong for Olivier to ignore any longer, and in 2016 he returned to Paris to relaunch his fashion house. 

Over the past four years, Olivier has methodically and systematically grown his company. Taking his time to be strategic about his choices and focusing on once again giving voice to his unique and uncompromising vision. A vision that is so singular that he is one of the youngest designers in the industry to have already had not one- but two- retrospectives of his work put on display.

With all of the groundwork laid out for his own brand’s success, this past February Olivier also took on the role of artistic director at Azzaro. A fashion house with over 50 years of archives for the designer to wade through before presenting his first collection of couture and ready-to-wear pieces during the Paris haute couture presentations in June.
 
I spoke with Olivier via Zoom video about his impressive career, how he will balance the workload between the two brands he now oversees, and how he plans on presenting his debut work for Azzaro now that the haute couture shows had been canceled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

What is clear is that this is one designer who is looking to the future with a cool head and an open heart.

049 Olivier Theyskens - Fashion's Dark Romantic Designer

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.

049 Olivier Theyskens - Fashion's Dark Romantic Designer

Fashion Your Seatbelt

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