STYLE AS IDENTITY

Meet the brands using style to preserve culture, serve community, honor identity – and evolve our understanding of the style-status-quo. Hosted by Lola Catero and Frankie Ikwuazom.

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49 clip(s) in playlist

Custom | Aziza: Turning Teeth into a Canvas
Aziza-Abdullah Nicole approaches jewelry as art, investment, memory, and inheritance. Through her namesake brand, Aziza, she creates fine jewelry, engagement rings and grillz (or what she calls oral sculptures). Her practice brings together gemology, CAD, lost wax, and metalsmithing through a pers…
52:09
Custom | Filippo Sorcinelli: Vestments of the Vatican
Filippo Sorcinelli's work spans sacred vestments, fragrance, music, photography, and art. Yet across every practice, a common thread emerges: creating beauty in service of another person. Through Atelier Lavs, Filippo has designed sacred vestments for Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV,…
56:59
Custom | Studio Maçon: Heirlooms with Emotional Functionality
"This thing doesn't exist yet, but I already know it matters." That's what the custom clientele of Studio Maçon are saying when they commission Hannah Woodard to create one of her brass totems. Each object is shaped by both Hannah and the customer's desire for it to come into being, giving it a st…
31:10
CUSTOM | Watson Ellis: Who Gets to Wear the Suit?
Melissa Watson Ellis wants women to stop making headlines simply because they wore a suit. Through Watson Ellis, her custom and bespoke suiting atelier, Melissa is changing who gets access to tailored clothing, and what tradition looks like when it expands instead of excludes. In this episode of S…
27:45
ANCESTRY | Reflections with Lola and Frankie
Who are we? Some of us look to our past as well as our present to answer that question. We spoke to four brands (UnoEth, Nazzal Studios, House of Aama, and Dendezeiro) who are adding to the public archives with creations rooted in history, heritage, identity, and most of all, power. If fashion is a…
26:50
ANCESTRY | Dendezeiro: Bahia-born brand shows brega is beautiful
Brazilian born-and-blessed brand Dendezeiro represents the lesser acknowledged narratives of Bahia. Through the lens of Hisan Silva and Pedro Batalha exploring their family roots, they use fashion to redefine the narrative of sertão the dry backlands of Brazil. Where some say local fashion is co…
38:37
ANCESTRY | House of Aama: Ancestral memory as a public experience
Akua Shabaka, along with her mother, Rebecca Henry, established House of Aama in 2015. Akua and her mother are world builders and weavers of visual stories. They create stunning, often ethereal collections like Salt Water, that introduced a fictional Black resort called Camp Aama, and like Sun Reco…
34:33
ANCESTRY | Nazzal Studio: “What Should Have Been Home” reflects on the future
Although Sylwia Nazzal dreamt of one day launching her own brand, her first goal after graduating from Parsons Paris in 2023 was to gain in-house experience. However, no one would hire the Palestinian Jordanian, Arab designer, citing her as talented but too political. When they said no, she said…
31:34
ANCESTRY | UnoEth: Father-daughter duo build business in community
If you’ve ever had a truckload of product catch fire just before it reaches its destination…then you can relate to UnoEth. If you haven’t experienced this feeling, tune into this episode to hear how Xiomara Rosa-Tedla and her dad Dagne Tedla made it through, with help from the strength of their par…
34:01
PATENTS | Reflections with Lola and Frankie
Innovative products can change our lives. We spoke to four brands (Evelyn & Bobbie, Crave, For Them and CuteCircuit) whose patented products grant us permission to choose ourselves - and not settle for products that don’t. But applying for a patent takes time and money - precious resources for emer…
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