Publishing is full of rankings, from power lists to best-dressed lists to under-40 lists. The CULT100 is different. There is just one criterion for inclusion—but it’s a high bar.

To qualify, a candidate must be actively shaping and changing our culture in real time. The people on this list represent five generations and hail from the worlds of food, publishing, art, fashion, activism, and entertainment. To put this group together, CULTURED‘s editors leveraged the full strength of our network, tapping artists, writers, and cultural leaders to tell us who they look to when they want to feel challenged, hopeful, and inspired.

Some members of the CULT100 are household names; others have been working behind the scenes to make possible the cultural encounters that stop us in our tracks. In a time of binary thinking, the creators featured in this year’s list are embracing contradiction, bouncing willfully between disciplines, and refusing to take no for an answer. They have guts, vision, and a potent cocktail of realism and optimism. None of them is shying away from the anxiety of our moment. Instead, they are thinking big, sharing generously, and embodying courage. The good news is, their work makes us all a little bit braver, too.

Prev
ROSE BYRNE
 Next
JULIANNE MOORE
Pierre Debusschere
Photography by Pierre Debusschere

Pieter Mulier

CREATIVE DIRECTOR, ALAÏA

WHAT’S ONE BOOK, WORK OF ART, ALBUM, OR FILM THAT GOT YOU THROUGH AN IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE?

Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, my favorite book of all time. I’ve read it every summer for 27 years now.

WHAT’S SOMETHING PEOPLE GET WRONG ABOUT YOU?

That I am cold and distant.

WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE, WHAT WERE YOU KNOWN FOR?

Whistling in the street.

“One of my favorite things to do wherever I am is to sit outside a bar and look at people passing by.”

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SURPRISED YOURSELF IN YOUR WORK?

The last show I did for Alaïa. I was surprised by how much one can do with so little, how one can go maximal by staying minimal. The idea of restraint and limits can push one’s creativity.

NAME AN INFLUENCE OF YOURS THAT MIGHT SURPRISE PEOPLE.

I am very much influenced by the street. One of my favorite things to do wherever I am is to sit outside a bar and look at people passing by. That’s also one of the reasons I love taking the train and the subway—real life, real people.

WHAT IS YOUR CALLING CARD?

Simplicity. Authenticity. Honesty.

DESCRIBE A RECENT CROSSROADS AT WHICH YOU FOUND YOURSELF.

Before taking on the beautiful House of Alaïa, I was thinking of changing careers—leaving fashion. But I realized that one can’t just decide to quit a passion, because it is too deeply rooted in oneself.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF IN YOUR INDUSTRY? LESS OF?

I would like to see more humanity, authenticity, and originality. More and more I am attracted to the spirit of “less is more”—by only doing what makes one’s heart beat and not giving in.

Next
ROSE BYRNE
 Next
JULIANNE MOORE