What's Contemporary Now?

Beginning his career at the age of twelve, Sam Visser has become one of the most renowned makeup artists today, lauded for his sense of style, understanding of the camera, and the ability to find a unique beauty in any face. Sam boasts an impressive list of esteemed clients and creative collaborators, including the likes of Kendall Jenner, Amber Valletta, and Bella Hadid amongst many others. In this episode, he joins host Christopher Michael to shine a spotlight on the evolution of fashion and makeup, his definition of modern standards, and the muses that fueled his success in the beauty industry. Highlights: Sam reflects on the moment he realized beauty was his passion and speaks of the time he took over his school’s art class when the teacher was absent. One photo you take and post to social media can change your life. Sam talks about why he dropped out of high school, how he started working for Kris Jenner, and the importance of mentorship for an artist. Makeup artistry enables  self-expression, creativity, self-discovery, and the ability to inspire others throughout the process. If you don’t label something or someone, you can see the  unique beauty in everything. Looking back on his school years, Sam reflects on the power of finding someone beautiful for who they are and how that translated into his beauty career. How do you differentiate fashion and editorial beauty from. commercial beauty? Beauty is ever-evolving, yet we continue to draw inspiration from past looks. Sam shares his candid thoughts on his inspiration from past fashion aesthetics, like the 80s. He also shares some of his greatest muses. Sam’s perspective on beauty, fashion, and glamor is shaped  by cinema, fantasy, and unrealism. Is makeup for the everyday the same as makeup for the camera? Listen in to hear Sam’s opinion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The creative duo Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Işık is behind such brands as GmbH—the label they started out of Berlin—and the century-old Milanese fashion house Trussardi. Bringing diverse backgrounds in fashion photography and design, they discovered in each other the perfect collaborator. Today, they break down the social codes of different cities, explore the importance of creating communities, and learn how to lean into the cultural wealth, which at times left them marginalized, sees them sought out by a world where luxury constantly seeks a renewed and contemporary iteration. Generously sharing their personal journeys, we can glimpse the many ways that the past has ultimately informed their work today. Episode Highlights Exploring and figuring out a brand’s ethos, is a natural kind of reaction to being appointed to a position of taking over another brand, per Serhat. Benjamin says that they are in many ways discovering Milan and also trying to kind of unpack the cultural significance of the brand, what it means to them and also what it could mean for the future. Especially to the younger generation. Revitalizing the brand and giving it a new sense of creativity is the main thing, and we are still kind of working out the language, says Benjamin. Italy as a market in general has historically been slower than most others in terms of New York, Paris or even London to become more diverse. The topic of inclusion and diversity has been dealt with very differently from country to country and very much based on the local history. During the first GmbH show in Paris, people wrote that their casting was severe or aggressive, but so much has changed in a very short time. It's impossible to have a conversation just purely about aesthetics and design until we can get to a point where it's normal to have brown and black designers everywhere, says Serhat. Benjamin moved from London to Berlin to sort of escape fashion a little bit, only to end up starting a fashion line together with Serhat. There are times when we both get really exhausted by identity politics on a personal level, like always having to talk about everything that shaped you as a person, says Benjamin. There are some structural issues within Germany. You don't inherit the citizenship or the school system which separates and segregates people of different communities, says Serhat. While working with GmbH and Serhat, Benjamin really discovered an appreciation for his own heritage in a way that he didn't really have before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You might know her as a supermodel, actress, and an activist. She's worn many different hats both on and off camera, but she also plays the role of sustainability ambassador to a diverse roster of  partners, such as Karl Lagerfeld, British Vogue, and New York City’s FIT. In this episode, we talk about the joys of creativity, Amber’s love for the fashion industry, her passion for continued education—an effort to make a greater impact along the way—and the challenging task of reconciling the disparity between a traditional growth model and a sustainable one. Episode Highlights Amber talks about her journey in fashion and at what point in her career she realized the impact that fashion has on the environment and more. When Amber was in her 20s she felt disconnected and started looking for things outside of modeling that fulfilled her as a person, such as education and the environment. When she first moved to Los Angeles, she became more aware of and better understood  pressing climate change issues, and started working with various NGOs. One, in particular, The NRDC, was working inside the fashion industry and it was doing something called “clean by design.” When Amber decided to come back to fashion a few years ago, she had launched a platform for responsibly made fashion, Master & Muse. Once she started that, she found that she needed to match her values to what she was doing in her career, whether it was acting or modeling—anything that she was doing. The lens through which Amber looks is directed by environmental and social justice. For Amber, it all started with an insular group of people who are still at the table talking about environmental and social justice today;some belong to charities,  organizations, NGOs, B2B conferences, or sustainability panels. The climate crisis is here. It's not something far off in the distant future. It's already happening, and we've seen and experienced all of the changes in conversations around diversity and equitable living wages for people, but there needs to be more. According to Amber, the biggest conversation that we are having right now is about these issues, and if you are not talking about them and you are not thinking about them, then you are doing something wrong. “You can't support a brand or a company if you don't know what it is doing,” says Amber. “Our perfectionist mentality is causing paralysis. It doesn't actually create solutions. We don't create solutions from being in this sort of negative mentality.” “Optimism is such a fundamental driver behind creating any real change because if you can't see beyond, to what can be, then you don't really have a great deal of fuel behind whatever it is you're trying to achieve and you will just continue to repeat the same thing day in and day out.” says Christopher. “Growth is possible, but it doesn't necessarily need to be in the way we are thinking. If we become a circular industry, we start using all of our waste as a new source for materials.” says Amber. “If we go back to what's been, the source of life for billions of years, it's way more intelligent than we are.” “When we think back to a period of time, we think about the clothing and the hair and makeup. It defines a moment, and if fashion could harness that power and move it through the supply chain to make it fair and equitable and sustainable, then the sky's the limit.” “If you get stuff in your mail that's like signing this petition for XYZ that's for the environment or human rights. If you believe in it, sign it. Don't just delete it.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Christopher Michael speaks to Glen Luchford, legendary fashion photographer and filmmaker whose images are often referred to as iconic and cinematic. The conversation flows from discussing the future role of a photographer and the emerging marketplace of the metaverse to new technologies, how Glen has adapted to them, and broaching his failures, and what he has learned from them along the way.Episode Highlights “We are only just out of the pandemic, but obviously it's expedited a great deal of change that otherwise seemed as though would have taken years.”—Christopher “Post-Covid the industry definitely has changed.” says Glen. His personal central focus is essentially metaverse and how that's going to change all of our lives in a dramatic way. He actually spends most of his time educating himself in Web 3.0, anticipating all of the changes that are coming. Glen was working with film in the late 90s and 2000s, then he abandoned it. He was going to be a photographer and focus on doing it as well as he possibly could, rather than trying to do three things at once. Exploring the different ways he found to keep himself on his toes and not become complacent. Glen’s belief is that the metaverse will be a revolutionary thing, changing the way we see and think about everything. We have had several years of exploring the idea of digital versus print, but we are now in a time where culture is driving so much in terms of fashion and trends. With that fragmentation or democratization, Christopher wonders what the role of a magazine cover is today. “Does a Vogue cover have the same power as five seconds of footage of a supermodel falling about laughing with her friend on Instagram? Probably not.” says Glen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“What's Contemporary”, the galvanizing platform, has returned in a new podcast format, which felt more fitting for our ever-consuming and insatiable query. This season’s conversations feature returning contributors like Glen Luchford, Ezra Petronio, and Emma Summerton alongside newcomers including Amber Valletta, Ferdinando Verderi, Lucien Pagès, Jaime Perlman, Hung Vanngo, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, Kevin McIntosh Jr, Sam Visser, Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Isik, Jonni Pollard, and Zinnia Kumar. Tackling the threads that weave the contemporary patterns of today’s culture, “What’s Contemporary Now?” brings forth compelling discourse from leading thinkers who share their thoughts around intriguing topics like the metaverse’s emerging marketplace, what beauty means today, the likelihood of building a present-day heritage brand, as well as discussing a myriad of other perspectives and ideals. Subscribe now to listen to a new episode each week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices