MIISTA SAYS: Recent Episodes
Miista
Miista launches a culture series across podcast and e-zine celebrating cultural movements and people that inspire collections each season. Giving its platform to the voices and micro cultures that make fashion what it is. Miista Says is a culture series podcast hosted by writer and author Grace Banks. Dedicated to Praising the underground subcultures of the world over the greedy corporate consumerism of the macro, the podcast will delve into everything from the medicinal use of MDMA as an alternative to prescription meds, an intimate conversation with Emily Segal who coined the term ‘normcore’, and a chat with viral comedian Lauren Servideo, who has used Instagram to create a counterculture comedy community. Tune in for guests including Chris Kraus, Emily Segal, Lauren Servideo, Natasha Stagg, Yrsa Daley-Ward and Bay Garnett, as we explore the counterculture that has inspired some of the most incredible and memorable art, fashion and music in the world. Episodes go live weekly from 15th October. www.miista.com
In this episode we speak with Ukrainian photographer Julie Poly. We’re so grateful we were able to work with Julie Poly on this podcast, and it’s hard to speak about her and not to acknowledge the current political situation in Ukraine at this time, and how this is deeply affecting women and women's involvement in times of conflict.
We are donating to Razom For Ukraine who support humanitarian aid. Copy the link to donate
https://razomforukraine.org/razom-emergency-response/
We were honoured to speak with Julie earlier this year. She is an incredible photographer, known for her fusion between documentary and fashion photography, meshing humanity into her gaze of the glamour and power of women in Ukraine.
You may know Julie from the images in her book Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukrainian Railways - where she captured the drama of the Ukrainian train lines, where Julie used to work herself as a conductor. Join our host Grace Banks as we learn the significance and relatability of the train journeys in Ukraine, and how Julie was constantly inspired by the characters and settings she was immersed in.
Julie’s book and zine are available on her website: www.juliepoly.co
Edited by Sarah Myles
Music by Covco & Bon Music Vision
For our next conversation we are joined with the queen of viral comedy, Lauren Servideo. Known for her hilariously relatable characters she creates and records with her boyfriend on Instagram. Lauren is inspired by the people and subcultures she observes around her in New York. Join our host Grace Banks as she delves into the mind behind the persona of a 400 year old vampire ‘Anubis’ that only Lauren could make a household name.
Join Lauren and Grace as they chat about the accessibility of comedy in a social media age, the process behind the characters she continually presents in her videos and her love for second hand New York thrifted ‘80s realness’ fashion.
Lauren’s instagram is a real must follow @servideo
Edited by Sarah Myles
Music by Covco & Bon Music Vision
In this segment we sit down with New York based virtual figurative painter, Emma Stern. Emma is known for her software built avatar characters, inspired by the erotic female figures built by the gaming world, that she often paints in an unnatural pallet of pinks and purples. Pull up a chair as our host Grace Banks chats with Emma about how she created her style and her manipulation of the metaverse and gaming software to build her muses which she often names: ‘I'm not limited by realism or biology … it gives me freedom.’
Emma discusses Lara Croft as a drag character and how altering body shapes and mixing genres allows an extended self portrait of all her fantasies. She also talks about borrowing vocabulary from online 3D erotica in the dark corners of the internet and the work in her recent solo show in Stockholm, ‘Home Body’.
www.emmatstern.com
Edited by Sarah Myles
Music by Covco & Bon Music Vision
In this episode we speak with the extraordinary Spanish photographer on everyone's lips, Carlota Guerrero. Best known for her artwork published alongside Solange Knowles’s ‘ A seat at the Table’ album, her signature raw style and her ability to capture the many facets of being a woman today outside of the mainstream. Join our podcast host Grace Banks as she sits down with Carlota talking everything from: how she developed her unique gaze of portraying women in the wild, how she chooses her subjects like working with the artist Arca, and how LSD trips inspired the patterns, structures and the way she connects people in her work.
Carlota also discusses the work in her new book with Prestel, Tengo un Dragon Dentro del Corazon: The Photographs of Carlota Guerrero. She shares the images closest to heart that include the strength of the women she captured in the transgender communities of Havana, Cuba. Grace and Carlota also talk about transformations of the female body, the power we hold in our hair, and how there has never been a better time than now for the industry to make more space for female photographers to let women tell our stories.
Edited by Sarah Myles
Music by Covco & Bon Music Vision
For our fourth episode Grace Banks sits down THE counterculture writer of our time, Chris Kraus. American writer Chris Kraus, wrote the insanely popular seminal text ‘I Love Dick’ which has become an international bestseller. Join Grace as she discusses Chris’s publishing imprint Semiotext(e). A cult publishing house dedicated to bringing authors who represent a wide range of subcultures to readers.
Chris discusses her experience and the influences of living in 1970s East village NYC and hanging out with other iconic punk subculture writers like Kathy Acker - whose biography she later wrote in 2017 ‘After Kathy Acker’.
Chris speaks about her admiration for writer and actress Cookie Mueller’s natural writing ability, describing her work as ‘every story is like a gem’, and Guillaume Dustan’s ability to capture an era. Both of which she published with Semiotext(e). She also gives us an insight into her upcoming true crime novel and how she submerges herself in communities as part of her research.
Edited by Sarah Myles
Music by Covco & Bon Music Vision
For our third episode join Grace Banks in conversation with the painter Jamilla Okubo. Based in Washington, D.C, Jamilla explores her American and Kenyan heritage through figurative painting, storytelling, kanga print design and fashion history. Jamilla discusses how she uses classical art formats from The Renaissance (in particular painter Artemisia Gentileschi) and recontextualizes them for issues facing young women today. Join Grace and Jamilla discussing how Jamilla subverts the culturally created ‘strong black woman’ stereotype in her work, the importance of the kanga cloth in her heritage, adding a fashion narrative to her work, and why Grace Jones is her ultimate counter culture figure.
www.jamillaokubo.co
Edited by Sarah Myles
Music by Covco & Bon Music Vision
For our second episode Grace Banks speaks with the iconic stylist and photographer Bay Garnett. Famous for being the first person to include thrift and charity pieces in luxury fashion shoots for Vogue Magazine and her creative collaborations with Chloë Sevigny. Join Bay and Grace talking anti-fashion, why Kate Moss has an unbeatable eye for style, the subcultures to look to for great style, shooting with Debbie Harry and the fun and independence of dressing in thrift fashion.
www.baygarnett.com
Edited by Sarah Myles
Music by Covco & Bon Music Vision
Kicking off our podcast is the iconic New York writer and editor Natasha Stagg ― author of the super cool era-defining novel Surveys and the collection of fashion essays Sleeveless. Join Grace and Natasha as they talk counterculture, Y2K fashion trends, 1970s punks, Paris Hilton and the dicey new Instagram-age of subcultures.
Edited by Sarah Myles
Music by Covco & Bon Music Vision
Work by Natasha Stagg
- Sleeveless by Natasha Stagg - https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/sleeveless
- Surveys: A Novel by Natasha Stagg - https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/surveys
- Spike Art: Natasha Stagg on Subcultures - https://www.spikeartmagazine.com/articles/out-state-29