What's Contemporary Now? Podcast Por What's Contemporary arte de portada

What's Contemporary Now?

What's Contemporary Now?

De: What's Contemporary
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Designed for curious minds, "What's Contemporary Now?" engages various thought leaders across cultural industries taking in their broad, compelling perspectives and unveiling their common threads. Hosted by Christopher Michael Produced by Shayan AsadiWhat's Contemporary Arte Diseño y Artes Decorativas
Episodios
  • Happy Holidays!

    Happy Holidays!
    Dec 23 2025
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    1 m
  • Angelo Flaccavento on Taste, Doubt, and the Beauty of Uncertainty

    Angelo Flaccavento on Taste, Doubt, and the Beauty of Uncertainty
    Dec 15 2025
    Angelo Flaccavento has long been one of fashion’s most distinctive critical voices — sharp yet empathetic, rigorous yet imaginative, always willing to question his own certainties. In this conversation, he traces his path from a Sicilian childhood spent absorbing magazines in boutique backrooms to becoming a writer whose clarity and candor designers both fear and admire. We discuss the formative power of self-doubt, the responsibility of the critic in an era shaped by branding and algorithms, and why genuine surprise has become fashion’s rarest commodity. Angelo reflects on taste as a lifelong education, the tension between fantasy and reality, and the importance of staying fluid rather than defined in a moment obsessed with categorization. “I’m a dreamer, but not an escapist. Fantasy has to somehow crash to the ground in order to become reality.” - Angelo Flaccavento Episode Highlights: A Sicilian childhood shaped by boutiques and early fashion literacy Angelo grew up in Ragusa surrounded by family-run boutiques at the height of Italy’s fashion boom. Magazines, Versace dresses, Guy Bourdin images, and the glamour of the early ’80s became his first education in style and visual culture. Discovering i-D and turning Ragusa into his personal London Getting a subscription to i-D as a teenager becomes a defining moment. He reads each issue obsessively, treating it as a window into a world he hasn’t yet reached — the foundation of his sharp, culturally attuned eye. From aspiring designer to critic: finding the right medium Though he once dreamed of being a designer, he realized he was more drawn to ideas, imagery, and interpretation. Writing became his path, encouraged by teachers who sensed his voice before he did. A voice that evolves rather than settles Angelo talks about tone and style as living entities — shaped by constraints, sharpened by editors, and never fixed in place. He values clarity, concision, and atmosphere, always pushing himself toward more precision. Doubt as a creative engine He sees doubt not as insecurity but as momentum, calling it “the essence of progress.” Self-questioning keeps him open, curious, and resistant to stagnation. Criticism as decoding, not destruction For Angelo, the critic’s role is to cut through PR storytelling and help readers understand what they’re actually seeing. He believes in honesty delivered with generosity — critique as illumination, not cruelty. Maintaining integrity in a political, PR-driven industry He speaks openly about the emotional and professional navigation required each season, from access issues to difficult conversations, and why seeing shows live is essential to telling the truth. Fashion’s power to surprise Angelo celebrates the rare, electric moments when a show shifts the mood of the entire industry — reminders of why fashion still matters and how a collection can rewire the cultural conversation. Taste as instinct refined over a lifetime For him, taste is a mix of instinct and education — shaped by art history, architecture, vertical lines, trial and error, and everything one has ever seen. Taste is biography turned into perspective. What is contemporary now: resisting definition Angelo concludes that the most contemporary stance is fluidity — refusing to let algorithms, labels, or nostalgia define us, and staying open enough to see the world anew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    49 m
  • Camille Miceli on Pucci, Play, and Joie de Vivre

    Camille Miceli on Pucci, Play, and Joie de Vivre
    Dec 8 2025
    Camille Miceli brings a vivid, almost incandescent joie de vivre to Pucci, treating color, movement, and intuition as both vocabulary and philosophy. Her worldview is shaped by an upbringing steeped in art and fashion, and by formative chapters with Alaïa, Lagerfeld, Jacobs, and Raf Simons — each adding a layer to her finely tuned sense of glamour and discipline. She reflects on the value of frivolity in an anxious age, the necessity of surrounding oneself with challengers rather than cheerleaders, and the quiet radicalism of returning Pucci’s prints to hand-drawn imperfection. The picture that emerges is of a creative director who treats joy not as escapism, but as a practiced, precise way of making a brand — and a life — feel vividly alive. “We didn’t come to this planet to suffer. I’m here to enjoy, even if there are stressed days. You have to laugh sometimes.” - Camille Miceli Episode Highlights: An upbringing steeped in art and fashionCamille grows up between an art-world father and a fashion-world mother, surrounded by New Realists, Guy Bourdin shoots, and Azzedine Alaïa at the dinner table — early immersion in glamour, image, and attitude. Alaïa as her first tough teacherAt sixteen she interns for Azzedine Alaïa, who is lovingly ruthless about precision. The “traumatic” rigor of placing rocks every ten centimeters becomes the root of her perfectionism and obsession with detail. Chanel and Karl as excess and foresight schoolAt Chanel with Karl Lagerfeld, she encounters fashion as total universe — decor, invitations, product, marketing — and learns to think several moves ahead, like the “Chanel forever” bag response to a critical article. Marc Jacobs and the power of generosity and teamsAt Louis Vuitton, Marc pulls her fully into the creative side, asks her to design earrings, and kick-starts her jewelry career. She absorbs his generosity, his habit of crediting collaborators, and his refusal to work with “yes people” — a model she now applies as a creative director. Dior, Raf, and the dialogue with art and designAt Dior under John Galliano and then Raf Simons, she deepens her passion for art, design, and couture, finding common ground with Raf through shared references and visual obsessions. How all those experiences prepare her for PucciYears in fittings, communication, and collaborations give her a 360-degree approach: she thinks about clothes, image, stores, and storytelling as a single ecosystem, which she now applies to Pucci’s collections and retail spaces. Pucci as art, joy, and imperfectionShe sees Pucci prints as psychedelic artworks and immediately brings hand-drawing back to restore “imperfection as perfection.” The wobbly lines and pressure marks make the prints human, charming, and alive. Using print as logo and rethinking heritage codesRather than drowning everything in pattern, she treats the print as a signature — a button, a jacquard, a matte-and-shine texture — so a black jacket can still read Pucci. She evolves the codes instead of changing them seasonally. A modern stance on fashion systems and wasteShe pushes see-now-buy-now because she hates the lag between image and product, especially in an age of instant gratification. Pucci runs only two collections a year, staggered like intelligent “drops,” which lets her reduce waste and think deeply instead of chasing volume. Collaborations, culture, and what’s contemporary nowShe favors collaborations that bring true know-how (technical skiwear, for example) over hype, and considers the Art Basel entrance carpet a proud moment of print as art rather than logo spam. When asked what is contemporary now, she lands on sharing, respect for others, and radical care for the planet — especially water — and dreams of self-sufficiency as the ultimate luxury. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    43 m
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