Making Old New: Read an Interview of Sustainable Designer Anna Molinari →

April 2, 2025

interview by Maisie McDermid

New York-based designer Anna Molinari, 27, is the definition of thrifty. For Molinari, plastic forks, when melted and reconfigured, double as voguish rings. Gold and silver beer tabs, when hooked together, become a one-of-a-kind bikini. She sees the potential in everything—her motto: Why not extend its life?

Three years into running her fashion business, Instinct Brand, Molinari has accomplished what many find un-accomplishable: maintaining a sustainable business model with significant growth. Instinct Brand's buying demographic has expanded from friends and family to 130,000 followers (between @annamo.1 and @instinct.brand) who come across Molinari's bubble-wrap corsets or trash bag high heels online. While her talent emerges from her iconic upcycled pieces, she has recently prioritized making custom pieces for public figures like Julia Fox and Pattie Gonia. This paradox — being a successful and sustainable business owner — won Molinari a position on this year's Forbes’ 30 under 30 list. Read more.

CATEGORIES: ART / FASHION/ CULTURE / MUSIC / FILM

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Instagram: @AUTREMAGAZINE

Trans Day of Visibility 🏳️&zwj;⚧️ Our platform has and will always and forever be inclusive 🏳️&zwj;⚧️ AUTRE means OTHER in French. A simple, ubiquitous word that encompasses the millions of people who represent the ‘other.’ Currently, t

Trans Day of Visibility 🏳️‍⚧️ Our platform has and will always and forever be inclusive 🏳️‍⚧️ AUTRE means OTHER in French. A simple, ubiquitous word that encompasses the millions of people who represent the ‘other.’ Currently, the ‘other’ is under attack. Every voice can be a form of resistance. Visibility is a form of resistance. #transdayofvisibility

Just announced Barry Jenkins teams up with @a24 for “Be My Baby” on the life of Ronnie Spector to star @zendaya . In 2017, @mrpharmacist72 interviewed Ronnie for the pages of AUTRE. They talked about EVERYTHING, including their iconic hairdos: “We were healthy and had all this thick hair, we didn’t know what to do with it. I love Bridget Bardot, so I would try to put it up and tease it. Some things were you wanted to look like certain people, at least I did. All three of the Ronettes, whatever I would do they would do. It’s like the Cleopatra eyes. Everybody went nuts when we started wearing the eyeliner. We slowly got into our own groove.” #zendaya #ronniespector #bemybaby #a24

We are very saddened and shocked to learn of the passing of @laeyeworks founder and designer Gai Gherardi. She was a transformative creative force among the sprawling fabric of Los Angeles, but her influence spanned the world. She was an unwavering champion of LA artists and queer rights. Her office was an incubator—not only of eyewear, but also turtle eggs, proving her love for the more than human world. Her bright simile and enthusiasm for life made everyone feel loved and welcome. Her bold and playful designs made her eyewear instantly recognizable without the need for a forward facing logo. Her frames were worn by the impaired who wanted to be seen with crystal clear vision. She and l.a.Eyeworks have been major supporters since issue one. We wouldn’t exist without Gai’s support and influence. Their legendary ad campaigns, many of which were featured in interview magazine and later Autre, featured burgeoning icons like Peewee Herman, Sharon Stone, Andy Warhol, and more. For the 40th anniversary of LAEyeworks we devoted 40 pages to exploring the history of this seminal brand. In a conversation with @greggormanphoto , who photographed most of their most iconic ad campaigns, Gherardi told us, “We were seeing this huge array of faces. And, you know, it was goodbye ‘70s! And off came the hair, and out came the face. All kinds of things were happening.” She also told us that the campaign, which later focused on LA artists with an inventive sense of worldbuilding, wasn’t about celebrity, but “interrogating celebrity.” Everything was an intellectual exercise in rebellion and resistance. She will be deeply missed. #laeyeworks #gaigherardi

DOOM (and hope) on PARK AVENUE. @anne_imhof ‘s largest performance to date on view at @parkavearmory the until March 12th. “For me, there are no boundaries between life and work. The biggest dream is to be together in a space and have the most exciting time you can—that’s the universe. This is why I am doing the live work.” @anne_imhof in conversation with @nadya for AUTRE FW24 Citizen Issue #anneimhof #doom

Last week, friends and collaborators from the global creative worlds gathered at Sunset, the subterranean nightclub beneath The West Hollywood EDITION for Autre Magazine and Jeffrey Deitch’s annual Frieze Week kickoff. DJs Mr Pharmacist and Saturn Risin9 got guests dancing beneath hundreds of glittering disco balls while rising Franco-American duo Faux Real played a brief but energetic set. Special thanks to @omgregory Photos Oliver Kupper #friezeweek2025 #friezela #losangeles #artweek #dance #nightlife

Autre Magazine and Jeffrey Deitch Gallery kicked off Frieze Week in Los Angeles with an intimate dinner at Ardor in The West Hollywood EDITION, followed by an afterparty at the hotel’s subterranean nightclub, Sunset. Guests enjoyed luxury sipping mezcal Perro Verde paired with a vegetable-forward menu. 🔗 in bio Special thanks to @omgregory and @purplepr #autremagazine #jeffreydeitch #sharonstone #honeydijon

Today is the day. The legendary @bjork releases her powerful and immersive concert film Cornucopia on @appletv 7PM PT “From the jagged, volcanic, icy fjords of Iceland, Björk Guðmundsdóttir—known simply by her stage name Björk—has descended on the world of popular music over the past five decades with a sensual, otherworldly presence. Her music is constantly of the moment but also seemingly years ahead of its time with a starkly alarming prescience, especially regarding the human impact on nature and the climate. Today, she presents Cornucopia, streaming on Apple TV, a cinematic encapsulation of a “digital theater” tour extravaganza that is the culmination of dozens of shows across multiple continents.” #bjork #cornucopia

“Two weeks before my home was destroyed by the Eaton Fire, I created a video of a man racing through fire. At the time of its creation, I was not concerned about fire, and yet only days later, I would be racing through a fiery landscape of my community. Fire has since defined my life. I believe art comes outside of time, from the place of dreams, where experiences occur outside the tedious march of causality. It can be divinatory, but I do not care to burden it with this kind of heavy meaning. I prefer to make and enjoy art without the technology of meaning, remaining in a liminal state as I work. Living in this state, however, has been one of the greatest challenges of my life.” @rosssimonini on autre.love #eatonfire #losangeles #wildfire

For David Lynch, cinema was a magic lantern with which to project all our darkest dreams and desires. His ambition wasn’t fear, but transcendence using the endless possibilities of sight and sound provided by the celluloid medium. Only a few auteurs have tapped into this psychological live wire. Each scene was a high voltage testament to his cinematic vision: violent, desirous, mysterious hallucinations come to life on the silver screen. The audience becomes a ghost watching down or up or into the characters who haunted us as much as we haunted them. His films were mirrors facing mirrors facing infinity in a tunnel of dreams. We were the shore and he was the ocean bringing us relics of our subconscious; artifacts from our id jutting up from the sand dunes of our memories. We loved David Lynch because we could peer over the precipice without falling. And if we did fall, we fell in love, lust, heartache. The pangs of death were palpable. We were lost in the smoke. Lost in the revery. There was no way out but through. #davidlynch

“Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.” David Lynch enters the ethereal realm to join Angelo Badalamenti. Photographed together in 2016 #davidlynch

We are alive and safe from what will likely be one of the most destructive fire events in modern history. Vesuvian in its enormity and historicity, but also in its lessons on living close to the proverbial volcano, these fires have impacted everyone we know. Our psychic wounds will last forever. Beyond the misinformation and politics, it is important to understand that the era of the pyrocene is at our doorstep. There is no more pontificating, no more waiting, no more what ifs, no more when. The megafires are here. It is only: what now and why? Yesterday, we experienced the devastation firsthand. We broke through multiple barriers to reach the Pacific Palisades only to find the neighborhood entirely in ruins. A family home gone forever. We sifted through the ashen remains of books still smoldering, the ghosts of hundreds of homes glowing toward an orange horizon, burned to the studs. Most everything was unrecognizable. A few flames were burning what was left. In 2019, we spoke to fire ecologist and world authority on chaparral brushfire, Richard Minnich, who spoke to us in depth about how and why these fires have become so massive and so destructive. Rapid changes in climate are part of the equation, but so is one hundred years of fire suppression policies and our collective delusions of ecological grandeur. This fire event was decades in the making. Ecologists, scientists, climate predictors all saw it coming. To live in paradise is to know all things eventually come to an end; to enjoy the memories. Now is the time to heal, to be with family, to help those in need. “Everything goes, everything comes back; eternally rolls the wheel of being” #lafires #palisadesfire #eatonfire

Starting off 2025 with LOVE. 🔗 in bio. Over the last few months, @stefswoods and @ryanmolnar visited five couples in and outside of Berlin, each “each living their own unique love story” to explore what love means to them. Here are Roman and Norman at their home in Brieselang. Their romance started nearly two decades ago when Norman, a spiritual guide and healer, had a last minute cancellation and Roman filled the slot. When their eyes first met, they both experienced what they describe as a “loud silence” accompanied by an “intense flow of intimacy.” Direction & Styling by @stefswoods Photography by @ryanmolnar Words by @cameronworsley Producer by Austin Huq Casting by @camerondavid__ Hair by Noriko @norinorinorikohair Make up by @anri_omori @erika_leadbeater

In our latest culture war, Pippa Garner was already a decorated veteran, fighting both church and state with biting wit and whiplash ingenuity. Discussing her gender reassignment surgery in Brussels in 1993 with @hansulrichobrist in AUTRE SS23 Utopia Issue: “For me, the sex change thing was a material act. I never had a sense of being born in the wrong body. I had what they call a vaginoplasty. Now, part of me is European [laughs].” Philippa Venus Garner (May 22, 1942-December 30, 2024) #pippagarner

PIPPA VENUS GARNER (May 22, 1942-December 30, 2024). Appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson demonstrating the Half-Suit. 1977. #pippagarner

PIPPA VENUS GARNER (May 22, 1942-December 30, 2024) Revolutionary, ahead of her time, and beyond prescient—she saw the world before it happened. We were lucky enough to feature her in our SS23 Utopia Issue. An interview with @hansulrichobrist : “You know, I’m just at an appliance, like that radio over there, or the car sitting outside. The body that I was assigned to, I didn’t pick it. I didn’t say I want to be white, middle class, and heterosexual. So, if I am nothing more than another appliance, why not have some fun with it?” Photographs by @jesperdlund at her home in Long Beach, California #pippagarner #utopia #rip