The Best Performances issue of W Magazine is here, marking the unofficial start of awards season with its iconic event this past weekend. To kick off our own season, we’re sitting down with the woman behind it all: editor-in-chief Sara Moonves.Born into a world of celebrity and culture in Los Angeles, Sara’s path to leadership was anything but handed to her. From high school internships to assisting legends like Sally Singer and Phyllis Posnick, she built her career with determination and a deep passion for the arts.As W's first female editor-in-chief in its 53-year history, Sara has revitalized the brand, expanding its print cycle to meet the demands of its thriving digital audience. Today, W Magazine remains a collectible beacon of creativity, bridging the worlds of art, cinema, music, fashion, and celebrity.Episode Highlights: Moonves grew up in Los Angeles, voraciously consuming arts and culture from a young age. While still in high school, Sara interned at Vogue and later assisted legends like Sally Singer and Phyllis Posnick before becoming a fashion editor herself. Upon inheriting a nearly defunct W Magazine as its new Editor-in-Chief, Sara had to convince reluctant advertisers that the brand was still a worthy investment. In March 2024, W debuted its first digital cover featuring Beyoncé, timed to the release of her album Renaissance. The most awarded artist in Grammys history generated over 3.5 billion press impressions and 348 million social impressions, sparking overwhelming demand for a print edition. While other print publications scaled back their number of print editions due to industry-wide reductions in readership and ad spend, W's print issues were so successful that the brand added another to its lineup in 2024. Overall, W Magazine saw double-digit revenue growth year-over-year in the first half of 2024, encompassing all three platforms: print, digital, and experiential. By bringing cultural icons like Steven Spielberg into the fashion fold for the first time, W’s brand world and content offerings are often more varied than many of its contemporaries. Sara became the first female Editor-in-Chief in the brand's 53-year history. Published by Rizzoli in 2022, W Magazine: 50 Years/50 Stories was the first of what Sara envisions as many brand extensions that leverage the magazine's storied history. For Sara, being contemporary means pushing boundaries, tuning out the noise, and always moving forward rather than backward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the curtain falls on one year and rises on the next, we find ourselves poised at the edge of a new season—one brimming with conversations that illuminate the creatives shaping, and at times challenging, the culture of today. These are the architects of their own narratives, and as we wander the corridors of their storied lives, we uncover the alchemy of realized dreams, the art of navigating uncertainty, and the wisdom to know when to push forward and when to step back.This season’s roster of editors-in-chief, designers, journalists, CEOs, creators, and talents invites us to ponder not just the answers they offer but the questions they compel us to ask ourselves. Join us as we embark on this journey—new episodes every Monday, starting January 6th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's that time again where we end the season and take pause to review where we've been, where we are, and of course where it is that we'd like to go with this conversation. As always, we want to hear from you, our listeners. What type of topics you'd like us to tackle. Who are your dream guests? DM us on Instagram or email us at info@whatscontemporary.com. If you've enjoyed the show, leave us a review and we'll be back soon with more episodes answering the insatiable question, whats is contemporary now? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Suzanne Koller, a Paris-based fashion stylist and art director, is renowned for her impactful contributions to the fashion industry. Cofounding Petronio Associates in 1993 and Self Service Magazine in 1994, she worked with prestigious clients and curated a unique creative vision. Transitioning to become the fashion director of Vogue Paris and later M le Magazine du Monde, Koller continues to shape the industry with her collaborations and editorial work. More interested in holistic artistry than anything else, Koller keeps herself out of her comfort zone to stay curious and true to herself—which is what’s contemporary now. Episode Highlights: Koller, who was born and raised in Vienna, feels “very Austrian.” She moved to Germany, and then to Switzerland, where she studied graphic design. She’s lived in France for over 30 years.  Knowing from her teen years that she wanted to be an art director, Koller saw the glamour of working for a magazine. She became an intern at Elle magazine in Paris before interning in graphic design at Glamour—where she was first introduced to the idea of working in fashion. As a consultant, stylist, and art director, Koller found it exciting to make her own way with Self Service and to change hats, working with smaller magazines to avoid creative constraints. Koller focuses less on fashion and more on individual subjects, orienting herself toward documenting women through time in collaborative projects.  Driven by long-standing obsessions, her current interest is finding emerging talent and working with a new generation of creatives. Keeping herself out of her comfort zone helps maintain her energy and curiosity even as she considers herself a workaholic.  Koller is not driven by nostalgia but more inspired by the now, whether in the supermarket perusing ingredients, going to a museum, people-watching, or taking a flight. She believes in the significance of “emptying [her] brain” periodically. In an age of over-engagement with social media, what’s contemporary to her now is staying true to oneself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Melitta Baumeister and Henry Zankov, the 2023 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner and runner-up, are two trailblazing designers working at the intersection of quality and artistry, exploring the tension between fantasy and commercial viability one thoughtful design at a time. Baumeister, a celebrated designer known for her sustainable and ethical approach, launched her eponymous brand in 2011. Her innovative designs merge modern aesthetics with a commitment to environmental consciousness, setting a high standard for sustainable fashion. Henry Zankov, who debuted his label in 2019, combines avant-garde design with exceptional craftsmanship. His background—from his Russian roots to his American influences—shapes his unique, trend-defying vision. Both designers present a singular take on the importance of intention, curiosity, and sculpture—and how to run a label as a business. For Zankov, fashion’s ability to express intention is what’s contemporary now, while Baumeister sees “being concerned about the future” as the zeitgeist.Episode Highlights: Born into a family of tailors in Germany, Baumeister studied tailoring and fashion from an early age.  Zankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and arrived in the US at the age of nine. Growing very close to New York City in the ’90s, his first interactions with English and the West were mediated through MTV. Launching his own label in 2019, Zankov was interested in creating a recognizable visual language unique to his perspective after working as a consultant for years. To Baumeister, production difficulties are “finding the right people to work with; being so many positions in one, from the production manager to the pattern maker to handling sales; understanding even how wholesale and fashion is working.” Zankov speaks about the need to “reset” how we consume, living slower and more intentionally curated lifestyles. Regarding the tension between fantasy and commercial viability, Baumeister says her solution—at the intersection of artistry and sales—is “all in the fabric.” Zankov starts with a concept every season, aiming toward a curious customer with inner soulfulness and wisdom. Both designers cite the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund as an incredible support for their creative practice. Baumeister notes that wholesale gives more reach and territory, while direct-to-customer sales offer more constructive feedback and relationship-building opportunities. Zankov highlights the importance of using both, though DTC allows him to make more accessible garments. Zankov sees fashion’s ability to express intention as what’s contemporary now, while Baumeister sees “being concerned about the future” as the zeitgeist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Set and Production designer Shona Heath creates enchanting, dense, and detailed worlds. Dreams within themselves, her visions have been manifested across the pages of top publications, and in collaborative partnerships with the likes of Tim Walker, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Prada, Miu Miu, and SHOWstudio. Her style seamlessly blends contemporary and vintage elements, showcasing a unique, fantastical aesthetic—brought to life through paper sculpting, painting, photography, and prop-building. Most recently, her work on Yorgos Lanthimos’s 2023 film Poor Things won an Academy Award for Best Production Design. In an age of worldbuilding, Heath shares a journey from the countryside to imagining entire realms, underlining that creativity plays a role in designing our everyday lives.Episode Highlights: Growing up in the British countryside in a modern sixties home, Heath remembers an upbringing spent outdoors, where she became intrigued with visions of scale; her mother’s crafts were also a deep influence.  She started her career in costume design and was moved to create a set from paper for Dazed, which turned into requests for shop windows and later collaborations with Tim Walker.  Heath’s creative process begins with words or an image, but usually, the former encourages original image-making and visualizing. She sees tools like AI as potentially good research tools but detrimental to her own particular craft; its use depends on the artist and their authenticity. She recommends working independently rather than starting as an assistant to an established artist, as then you know how to forge your own path first.  Though she used to feel that she experienced “excessive input” when doing a project, she now feels she can better communicate her vision and appease clients and collaborators up front.  She prefers the immediacy and direct access of working in photography to working on film sets; Heath remarks she wouldn’t be interested in doing a period piece that didn’t have an added element of creativity like Poor Things—a film she worked on with James Price, whose decades of film expertise Heath leaned on.  Fashion’s tendency for retro revisits and zeitgeist trends plays well into her work (as opposed to interior design, which she says has more of a lag time between trends and the trend’s appearance in the culture).  Her work on Poor Things won her an Academy Award for Best Production Design. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dara is a model, stylist, and fashion director at Interview magazine. From her beginnings in San Diego to the iconic runways of New York, Dara speaks of a journey that is a testament to creativity and conviction. Recognized for her bold, visionary style, she views fashion as an art of crafting desire and glamour, where the method of persuasion is as crucial as the message itself. Her styling for Hunter Schafer and Troye Sivan highlights a unique blend of raw talent, intuitive expertise, and hard work. She’s walked the runways for Marc Jacobs, Kenzo, and Moschino; posed across the pages of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar; and styled for an impressive array of brands like Calvin Klein, Tom Ford, and Miu Miu. What she sees as contemporary now is everyday optimism—and fluidity in interpretation, just like images.Episode Highlights: Growing up in San Diego with a creative mother and a pop-culture-obsessed father, Allen recalls watching Disney movies, writing in cursive, immersing in arts and crafts, and wanting to be an animator.   She describes herself as a child being in her own “little world,” a feeling that contributed to her strong sense of self as an adult. With a level of conviction required for creative pursuits and an early interest in image-making, Allen cherishes the performative aspects of both modeling and styling. Her career in New York took off quickly, through connections to Candy magazine, the VAQUERA label, and stylist Ian Bradley.  Allen says the unique thing about her generation’s access to information—and noise—is “this real emphasis on understanding your history and the context and everything that kind of surrounds what we’re doing.”  Allen became fashion director at Interview magazine, thinking of the role as writing with clothes and writing with photos.  She recognizes a sense of absurdity in the fashion world and emphasizes the performative aspects of everyday life.  When asked what’s contemporary now, Allen says, “optimism; levity,” and speaks to enjoying even the challenging parts of the work, and fluidity.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zoe Ghertner is a photographer renowned for captivating work blending art, fashion, and documentary storytelling. With a keen eye for detail and an innate sense of composition, Ghertner’s imagery transcends conventional boundaries. A New York native based in Los Angeles, her work often reflects the vibrant energy and diverse landscapes of Southern California. Ghertner’s portfolio includes collaborations with leading fashion brands, such as Miu Miu, Chloe, Wales Bonner, and Hermès, as well as publications, such as American and British Vogues, i-D, Self Service, and W. Through her lens, she invites viewers into a world where reality and imagination converge.Episode Highlights: Ghertner had a very imaginative childhood, where she learned the importance of positive, clear messaging.  Ghertner has partnered with Fee Steinvorth to create neoNutritions, a new vision of wellness rooted in spirituality and connection, with more of an interconnected focus on education compared to other health and beauty regimes. She sees what’s contemporary now as a sense of connectedness that resonates despite a modern overabundance of images.  Saying that photography and consumerism go hand in hand, Ghertner speaks to the struggle to achieve and sustain commercial success while also holding to the values deeply rooted in her work, such as unwavering attention to her subjects. Despite working with digital imagery and print media across personal projects and commercial collaborations, Ghertner says each effort informs another and that she’s a natural multihyphenate creator. Her first shooting of model Małgosia Bela was a breakthrough in “being able to work with someone with skills and ability.” She went through a phase of digging deeply into her subjects before garnering enough experience to represent that research and those conversations in the final imagery.  The support of women in the industry—such as Phoebe Philo, Miuccia Prada, Grace Wales Bonner, and Gabriella Hearst—has “allow[ed] me to grow and step into their worlds, which expands what my picture is about as well.”  Speaking to how images can traumatize or trigger elements of culture as a whole, Ghertner says her reaction to the male gaze and mental health advocacy are “a big part of the what and the why of how I’m making the pictures I make.” Having moved to warm and sunny California to experience a better quality of life, Ghertner experienced a shift in perspective akin to experiencing motherhood for the first time and creating a new body of work—and a new book.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Editor-in-chief of all la Repubblica magazines, Emanuele Farneti, is an influential figure in the fashion and design industries. Born in Italy, Farneti’s career trajectory skyrocketed as he took the helm of esteemed publications like Vogue Italia and L’Uomo Vogue. His keen eye for style, commitment to innovation, and passion for storytelling have propelled these magazines to new heights, earning him global accolades. A fusion of tradition and modernity characterizes Farneti’s leadership, analyzing the DNA of magazines to establish and evolve a language and direction better suited for contemporary society.Episode Highlights: He comes from a family of journalists who worked for Italian weekly “Panorama,” so he was “literally born within a newsroom” and has “childhood memories of the good old days of print media, where this group of talented journalists in their 30s, in the middle of the 70s were having a lot of fun playing poker and doing beautiful newspapers.”  Informed by a classical education, he studied law while training as a television and print media journalist, starting with sports before moving on to fashion. Known as “a true magazine maker,” Farneti knows the importance of working with a brand’s DNA, which he says can evolve but should remain true to itself.  Remembering Vogue Italia’s pandemic coverage, Farneti remarks that the ability to use fashion to address largerquestions and have a voice about what’s important is crucial.  As the director of D-la Repubblica, he’s adept at addressing a general audience with various and surprising topics united under the banner of good writing.  Focusing on making the most beautiful monthly-style, weekly-produced magazine possible, D sets itself apart for the quality and depth of its reporting in beauty, fashion, society, art, and lifestyle sections. The three limits of D as a print magazine: 1) it takes a long time to come together and is in circulation so briefly. 2) print quality and paper are low when working on a weekly basis. 3) there’s no international distribution.  One of the issues he’s more proud of came out last year and was completely dedicated to Afro-Italian or second-generation Italians, conceived, styled, and photographed by second-generation Italians themselves. The magazine is launching a men’s monthly on June 24. With D, Farneti oversees three different titles plus a newspaper covering the broader spectrum of fashion and beauty. When asked what’s contemporary, he says teamwork, and that his coworkers “are all bringing so many ideas, so many opportunities and such a good energy to the magazine.”  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Italian fashion designer Francesco Risso is renowned for his offbeat, innovative approach to contemporary clothing. He learned how to cut and sew from the age of eight with any fabric he could find, going on to study fashion at Florence’s Polimoda, New York’s FIT, and London’s Central Saint Martins. As creative director at Marni since 2016, Risso gained prominence by infusing the brand with vibrant colors, eclectic patterns, and playful aesthetics. His charming exuberance and unique ability to blend craft with modernity sets him apart and captivates audiences worldwide. What he sees as contemporary now is simple and uncontrolled by trends and a fast-paced industry: food and sex.Episode Highlights: Risso’s early years were spent not talking in a hectic and blended family home in Genoa, where he communicated by making things with his hands. At 8 or 9 years old, he began making clothes, scavenging clothes from his grandmother’s closet to cut and sew. Studying the classics and art, Risso “escaped” from his loud family by moving to Florence, knowing he would make clothes.  He found in the dance, clubbing, and rave scenes a way to escape from the constrictive traditional forces in Italy at the time when he considered himself goth and an outsider. “Provocative, and visceral, and obsessive.”: Risso talks about how he accepts a darker side of his outlook as a complement to his lighter and romantic side. He notes one of his mentors, Louise Wilson at Central Saint Martins, taught him to base a world around a garment without using typical fashion references.  Risso read a Virginia Woolf piece in which she invites her friends to the countryside and tells them not to bring clothes, as to leave behind a kind of social structure, and this inspired him to lose reference points.  On the secret of merging creative freedom with commercial success, Risso champions trust, pleasure, and courage,and living in the moment rather than for the final product. Marni Jam is one example of interdisciplinary creativity that Risso works into the brand, expanding music into fashion. To Risso, what’s contemporary now is “sex and food”—two exchanges he finds beautiful in that they build community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices