the courage to rethink the system

This fine gentleman named T-Michael recently asked me for something no one had ever trusted me with before: to roast him ON STAGE of Metamorphosis. The topic was "the courage to rethink the system". Fitting perfectly, because courage is exactly what it takes to ask someone to roast you in public.

Metamorphosis – dialogues about change is the talk format of the Fashion Council Germany, held during Berlin Fashion Week in partnership with eBay Deutschland. Rather than focusing on collections, it turns its attention to the bigger questions facing the industry: attitude, transformation, and the strategic path forward for a sector in flux. It is a format built on discourse.

T-Michael is born in Accra, raised between London and the Norwegian city of Bergen, known for his label Norwegian Rain, his celebrated T-Kimono, and his heart project T-Wabisato, a non-profit cultural foundation in Noto, Japan, that brings together artists, chefs, and makers through residencies and curated stays. Roasting a man with that much substance turned out to be harder than it sounds.

Whether I succeeded in roasting him on stage, per his request, is entirely up to you to decide — you can find the full interview here:

Click here for YouTube and here for Spotify.

Dear T-Michael, it was a pleasure to meet you, and a real challenge to roast you for your remarkable work on Norwegian Rain and T-Wabisato. Thank you to Metamorphosis, to the agency Masjien and its co-founder Ann Claes, and to eBay Deutschland for having me.

A note: This photo was taken right after our interview. So either T-Michael still likes me, or he simply knows how to fake a great smile for the camera.