Chelsea Hirschhorn: Frida Founder and CEO

This week on the podcast, editor Anna LaPlaca interviews actress, model, and breakout Euphoria star Barbie Ferreira. Barbie tells us what it’s like to return to the show after more than two years between seasons and lets us in Kat Hernandez's inner world. She also takes us inside her February Who What Wear cover shoot (inspired by Virginia Woolf's Orlando), chats about her favorite brands at the moment, and shares how she embodies characters through fashion on and off set.

2 Feb 202232min

Sunny Hostin is a force to be reckoned with—she is a television host, a multi-platform journalist, a New York Times best-selling author, and an attorney, after all. In 2016, Hostin joined the Emmy Award–winning daytime talk show The View, for which she’s won three Emmys as a co-host. Hostin is also a best-selling author of two books: her memoir I am These Truths and her fiction novel, Summer on the Bluffs, which is now evolving into a trilogy and television series. She is also at the helm of a new production company in partnership with ABC, committed to uplifting diverse story-telling. Hostin’s career is nothing short of monumental as she continues to accomplish major milestones within the media industry, but before she was a key change-maker in the space, she was known as an attorney who worked her way up from the Maryland Court of Appeals to becoming a federal prosecutor.

31 Jan 202257min

Kate and Laura Mulleavy are the brilliant minds behind the fashion label Rodarte. Since 2005, the sisters have been creating some of fashion’s most coveted looks, and their work has been seen on stylish women such as Kirsten Dunst and Lady Gaga and in museums around the world, including in the permanent collection at the Met. On this episode, they bring us inside their spring/summer 2022 collection, discuss how their showstopping Mushroom Dress came together, speak to the influence film has had on their work— including costume designing for Black Swan—and reveal just how those epic photo campaigns come together.

26 Jan 202242min

Dana Ward, the founder and president of Barefoot Scientist, has brought premium footcare products to the mainstream. After years of extensive research and product development, Ward created a brand nourishing the feet with the same level of luxury we give our face, hair, and body, with best-selling products such as PreHeels+ Blister Prevention Spray and Reboot Exfoliating Foot Peel. But before she was building a brand carried everywhere from Ulta to Rite Aid to podiatry offices around the nation, Ward was experiencing the need for footcare solutions firsthand. In her first life, Ward hosted, produced, and wrote over 7500 segments for outlets including E! Entertainment, NBC, Sony, and Clevver Media—the latter was where she was responsible for content strategy and production at the single most-viewed entertainment news network on YouTube. Who would have thought working those long hours on the red carpet in Hollywood would lead Ward to a footcare empire?

24 Jan 202252min

Best known for her work with Beyoncé as both her personal stylist and the costume designer for Emmy Award–winning Black Is King, Zerina Akers is showing no sign of slowing down. Recently, her work with Megan Thee Stallion has been nothing short of superb; the collections she designed for Macy’s have almost completely sold out; and she’s continually building her e-commerce marketplace called Black Owned Everything, which seeks to incubate, amplify, and empower a community of brands to reach diverse and engaged audiences. On this episode, get a peek inside her brilliant mind—including the behind-the-scenes stories you don’t want to miss.

19 Jan 202239min

In 2011, a new brand launched that would soon rewrite the minimalist’s playbook: Cuyana. Co-Founders Karla Gallardo and Shilpa Shah built a brand centered on intentional design and buying, establishing Cuyana’s ethos as “fewer, better.” Today, Cuyana has grown to eight stores nationwide and is known for timeless collections of premium leather accessories and luxe wardrobe essentials, from alpaca and cashmere. Yet before Gallardo and Shah began setting a new standard in the industry, their early career lives were shockingly different. Gallardo worked at Goldman Sachs as an investment banking analyst, and Shah began her career in interaction design, where she gained over 15 years of experience designing web and mobile interfaces for companies such as Disney, AT&T, and Sun Microsystems. On this episode of Second Life, find out how Gallardo and Shah came together to create a dynamic, strategic brand without losing sight of their mission.

17 Jan 202255min

If you’ve downloaded the app The Pattern, you already know that founder and astrologer Lisa Donovan’s knowledge of the stars runs deep. On this episode, we take a break from our regularly scheduled fashion programming to hear what the stars have in store for 2022. Hear about the intense energies you might have been feeling in December, a breakdown of what eclipses and retrogrades really mean, and the massive astrological event in the birth chart of the U.S. happening on January 22.

12 Jan 202230min

Pastry chef, entrepreneur, and author Amirah Kassem is the genius behind the Instagram-famous Explosion Cakes and her vibrant pastry brand Flour Shop. Since the brand’s founding in 2012, her one-of-a-kind creations have gained the attention of millions globally, including celebrities such as Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian, and Sarah Jessica Parker. Kassem has also written multiple books—The Power of Sprinkles: A Cake Book and two children’s books—and has product collections with everyone from Williams-Sonoma to Pottery Barn and an apparel collaboration with Vans. Most recently, she joined the Disney+ food-art series Foodtastic as a judge. But before she began paving her own pastry path, she worked in quite a different creative industry: fashion. She held a plethora of positions in the NY fashion scene, including at Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine and Johan Lindeberg’s beloved denim and leather label Blk Dnm. On this episode of Second Life, hear how Kassem turned her passion for pastries into a celebrated multi-vertical brand.

10 Jan 202254min