Onassis Discussions: Bella Freud in conversation with Afroditi Panagiotakou

“Can you tell me what you are wearing today?” For Bella Freud, this simple question is a prism through which each conversation can evolve. Bella moves between fashion, interior design, fragrance, film, and publishing, creating a universe of obsessions and personal stories, where feeling and attitudes are revealed through what we wear.

Her iconic sweaters with words and phrases, such as “Ginsberg is God” and “1970,” have now become modern classics, gaining a devoted following around the world that includes Rosamund Pike, Rashida Jones, Alexa Chung, Kate Moss, and Rebecca Ferguson. Her rich body of work, however, does not end with fashion. It extends into unexpected collaborations that broaden her creative language: with Marks & Spencer, where she brought her signature aesthetic to a wider audience through knitwear, sharply tailored suits, and handwritten phrases; with King & McGaw, where her iconic slogans became numbered art prints and collectible screen prints; with Cave Things, Nick Cave’s creative project, where she designed collectible knitwear with its own musical intensity; and also in cinema, through the three short films "Strap Hanging", "Lady Behave" and "Hideous Man", in collaboration with John Malkovich.

With "Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud" reaching No 1 on the UK arts podcast charts and entering the global top ten since its launch in October 2024, she did what she knows best: she put fashion on the couch and opened up conversations with some of the most fascinating voices in contemporary culture, from Kate Moss, Cate Blanchett, Rosalía, Rick Owens, Marina Abramović, and David Cronenberg to Es Devlin, FKA twigs, David Byrne, Nick Knight, Annie Leibovitz, and many others.

Bella Freud comes to the Onassis Stegi to remind us that what we wear speaks before we do.