Gucci’s Renaissance Man, Alessandro Michele, Talks Magic and Muses Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s creative director since 2015, once told us he’s not interested in mainstream art: “I love the people who are a little bit outsiders, who try to live in a different way.” We’re looking forward to his signature and strange combinations of fabrics and styles, an approach that he compares, in our recent interview, to the arrangement of notes in a musical score.

Virgil Abloh and Takashi Murakami Are Changing the Conversation One Collaboration at a Time When we interviewed Virgil Abloh, he mirrored his collaborator, Takashi Murakami, in his sentiments about the relationship between art and fashion: “There’s been a boundary between art and fashion you couldn’t cross. In my own work, I’m interested in showing how those lines can be crossed and how new bridges can be built.” Abloh has always been brilliant at melding genres, then creating entirely new ones. (Click here for our 2016 Q&A, too.)

Telfar Clemens Puts Self-Expression in Front of Style When we spoke to Clemens last summer, he told us he started his line because he had no other choice: “How I dressed was the only choice I had.” The unisex line has since become synonymous with the necessary (and too-slow) end of convention, and the beginning of clothing that, like the brand says, is for everyone. Telfar is a trailblazer.

Esther Gauntlett and Jenny Cheng Make Art Worth Wearing Esther Gauntlett and Jenny Cheng’s line is still “chaotically joyful,” both in its aesthetic and attitude—the two women crossed paths serendipitously and started the line organically.

Raffaella Hanley Pushes Back Against Fast Fashion With Fantasy Lou Dallas deals in fantasy, world-building, and the delicate line between irreverence and wearable reality: the name of Raffaella Hanley’s fashion line is drawn from Leeloo and Korben Dallas of Luc Besson’s 1997 film The Fifth Element.

Fashion Designer Brandon Maxwell Works for and With Women Like many artists, Maxwell manages a balance between “building a business and staying true to yourself,” he says in our interview from 2017. The women who inspire his line are bold and courageous, not unlike the women he had around him growing up and with whom he connects today.