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Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud

Kristen McMenamy

29 Apr 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

8.57 - 30.883 Bella Freud

Hi, come in. Welcome to Fashion Neurosis, Kristen McManamy. Thank you. Nice to be here. Can you tell me what clothes you're wearing today and why you chose them? Well, today I have a Comme des Garcons dress on.

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32.726 - 64.547 Kristen McMenamy

I don't know why I chose it. I had about seven other outfits I could have chosen all lined up. And I just, I don't know. This one came in the mail yesterday. I bought it secondhand. I put it on. I loved it. And then I thought, oh, it's too black. But I had a lot of colors. But I just, I don't know. I loved it. So that's pretty much it. And what about the shoes?

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65.81 - 71.656 Kristen McMenamy

The shoes at Miu Miu, they used to make the best shoes. They used to.

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Chapter 2: What inspired Kristen McMenamy's unique fashion choices?

71.696 - 74.358 Kristen McMenamy

They don't anymore.

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76.72 - 84.708 Bella Freud

Well, the dress is exquisite, I must say. I was slightly worrying about what to wear myself, knowing you'd appear in something major.

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84.748 - 96.069 Kristen McMenamy

No, no, no, no. I could have gone. I had something that was very major and glam. I decided on being sober. Right.

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96.55 - 108.709 Bella Freud

And very just plain. Well, we're matching in black satin, even though it's kind of different garments. Yes, we are. Same fabrics.

109.381 - 131.824 Unknown

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Chapter 3: How did Kristen McMenamy's career evolve after her hiatus?

912.614 - 923.728 Bella Freud

Did you do a shoot with him and did you work with his team? Was it Garen? Garen. Garen. Garen. Oh, he was incredible, the hairdresser.

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923.748 - 957.523 Kristen McMenamy

He was the most incredible hairdresser. And if you want a haircut, Garen is like the best. Yeah, I had a haircut from Garen. But yeah, so Garen, when I first, I think I just had come back, from having a baby. And I, yeah, I won't go into that, but I just came back and I didn't know if I was going to work again. You know, it was like, okay, is this it? I don't know.

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957.883 - 983.742 Kristen McMenamy

I didn't really care at that time. But Stephen, I worked with Stephen and, you know, the 90s, I have like so little recollection. I'm so drunk all the time. But I'll try. So, yeah, I shaved the back of my head the night before. You did?

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Chapter 4: Who were Kristen McMenamy's influences and pinups growing up?

983.762 - 1020.929 Kristen McMenamy

I did. And I dyed the hair black with some, you know, some pharmacy stuff. And I cut it. really short. And I walked into the studio and I had plucked some of my eyebrows out. I don't know why I did that before a job, but I did. So I got it and Garrett said, what have you done to yourself? I'm like, fuck. What have I done to myself? I fucked my career.

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1021.831 - 1050.889 Kristen McMenamy

But he took his scissors and made it look like that. You know, like a bowl haircut. It was so genius. And Francois plucked out all the rest of my eyebrows. That's Francois Nars, yeah? Francois Nars. And then Stephen took my picture. It was in Italian Vogue. I'm on the cover. And I'm wearing Versace.

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1051.649 - 1051.99 Bella Freud

Wow.

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1053.031 - 1092.283 Kristen McMenamy

And that cover is like, you know... It's just one of those covers that I'm so proud of because it's proud of, proud of, yeah, I'm proud of it. You know, I love it. And I think even if it was a different girl, I would love it because at that time, it's all in the context of the time, the history, you know, the point in history. But before that, it wasn't, we created this kind of freak.

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1092.803 - 1123.942 Kristen McMenamy

I mean, I looked like a freak, which is amazing. I love that. I love the fact that I could look like a freak and still be celebrated. And that was new to the fashion industry because it was like, whoa. And then, you know, I get all this bad press and good press, but mostly good. So, and that launched my career even more.

1124.222 - 1133.241 Kristen McMenamy

I was working a lot before, but even that launched it into the supermodel status.

1133.643 - 1163.329 Bella Freud

Because I remember meeting you for the first time, I think it was 1992 at Sao Schlumberger's house in Paris. And you were hanging out with Sandra Bernhard and you looked a bit like her pretty younger sister. And she was sort of bossing you around. I just remember her noticing you and her. And I wondered, did that happen a lot that people...

1163.967 - 1168.962 Bella Freud

impose their ideas of how they want you to be or how they want you to act?

1171.208 - 1177.065 Kristen McMenamy

Well, I don't remember that.

Chapter 5: What role does insecurity play in a model's success?

1463.608 - 1508.758 Kristen McMenamy

Come again, you hear? It was like, oh, I wore a cowboy hat. And like this faux kind of like cowgirl dress and made of plastic, you know. And I worked at Food Lane taking inventory of men's trousers. Food Lane. That's like they sold clothes. I would make the announcements. Hello. Hello, shoppers. Today we have a sale. On men's relaxed jeans. And then I, well, I first started out as a paper girl.

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1510.54 - 1544.547 Kristen McMenamy

The morning call. The morning call. I was up every morning at five in the morning. Or earlier, because I had to do it before school. And it was dark. I just remember being scared. I was going to say scared my whole life, but I was kind of scared my whole life. But okay, I'm going around the circle. So I didn't have money to buy the clothes. I would window shop, but not just window shop.

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1544.727 - 1578.346 Kristen McMenamy

I would go into these places in the mall, because that's where you hung out, in the mall. And I would go through all the clothes like this. like a hundred times and just look and fantasize about having them because I wanted, I wanted these clothes, like these clothes would make me a good person, like a better, you know, a better person. I don't know. I just wanted them so badly.

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1578.366 - 1607.846 Kristen McMenamy

And the one thing I really wanted was parachute pants. But they were like kind of tight, kind of like rock and roll parachute pants. And they had that slippery surface. And I just thought they were the coolest thing in the world. I never got them. But now, now I'm making up for it. My childhood neglect.

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1608.807 - 1616.681 Bella Freud

Yeah. Yeah. And how did you manage the transition from girl to woman? Was that something you tried to control?

1616.721 - 1625.713 Kristen McMenamy

Well, I never got to sex talk, you know, so I had to find out.

1625.733 - 1626.474 Bella Freud

No.

1626.494 - 1660.012 Kristen McMenamy

But I did get the guilt about sex. So that was quickly instilled in me. I never felt like a girl. I never felt like a woman. I never felt like, I don't know why that is. Because it's not like I want to be a man, but I just didn't feel good enough, I suppose. So the whole transition happened without me even kind of acknowledging it. I don't know, you know?

Chapter 6: What challenges did Kristen face in the fashion industry?

1660.532 - 1687.82 Kristen McMenamy

I don't know when I got my period. I forget. I didn't want to look too sexy, you know, because I thought I'm not right for that. I just felt a bit, well, I was a bit of an outcast, but I just, I don't know. I never gave it that much thought, but I never felt feminine, you know?

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1687.88 - 1695.378 Bella Freud

Did your mother... acknowledge you or say you look pretty or... No. Yeah.

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1695.398 - 1714.72 Kristen McMenamy

Never. Never. And when I said I want to be a model, she said, oh, Chrissy, there's so many more beautiful girls out there. You know, just get a good job. Go to university, get a good job, forget about that. That's what I got.

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Chapter 7: How does Kristen McMenamy define her identity as a model?

1714.861 - 1746.269 Kristen McMenamy

And I never... I never was told... I was beautiful or pretty or anything, you know? By anyone in your family? No, but I don't think I really was. I was gangly and insecure and I stooped and my hair was always in my face. Yeah, I don't think I really was that pretty.

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1747.623 - 1787.237 Kristen McMenamy

And to this day, I don't feel pretty. I don't feel pretty. I never felt pretty the whole time of the 90s, since I started modeling, never. But behind the camera, I feel beautiful. I feel powerful. I feel like... Maybe because... Maybe because I don't feel it's me behind the camera. It's I'm like, I'm not a character, but I'm like me, but superhero me, you know?

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1787.277 - 1830.72 Kristen McMenamy

And I just love the whole feeling of creating a picture and trying to make it a... an amazing picture, like a masterpiece. I want everyone to be a masterpiece. So me on the street is not me in front of a camera. It's really weird that I ended up in a job, or I even wanted to be, you know, I was obsessed with being this person. a model, like Janice Dickinson. I was obsessed, but I wasn't pretty.

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1830.74 - 1847.222 Kristen McMenamy

I didn't think I was pretty. I wasn't told I was pretty. It was just this fantasy in my head. But behind the camera, I knew I had something.

1848.788 - 1868.164 Bella Freud

Because, I mean, you know, I've looked at all your photographs going back and you were so pretty and you still are. But there's something in not being told it by someone, well, especially not being told it by your mother that...

1868.144 - 1894.926 Bella Freud

makes it seem like it can't possibly be true even though you had the evidence again and again being booked and booked and being on the covers of magazines and yeah being you know an enduring figure in the fashion world and i think it's real hard it's hard to um believe in it when that person doesn't say it to you.

1894.946 - 1907.042 Bella Freud

You know, the sort of relaxed confidence of that kind of love between a mother and a daughter doesn't sort of... Are you going to make me cry?

1919.057 - 1962.378 Kristen McMenamy

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I was never told that by my mom. In fact, my mom, she had seven kids, and that's a lot. That's too many, because it's like having a lot of cats. You can't give them individual attention. And she couldn't, and she didn't, and she was often frustrated. with life, with all her responsibilities. And it was a different time, too. You know, it was a different time.

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