Leïla Slimani on Anna Karenina, Revenge, and Dressing Like an Intellectual | Fashion Neurosis

About this video

Leïla Slimani is a French-Moroccan writer. Born in Rabat, Morocco, she moved to Paris aged seventeen to study media and journalism at Sciences Po. She is the author of seven books published in the English language. Her debut Adèle was published in 2014, followed by Lullaby, which made Slimani the first Moroccan woman to win France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt. Her non-fiction work Sex and Lies compiles accounts of sex and sexuality from Moroccan women she had interviewed while on a book tour, while The Scent of Flowers at Night is a meditation on art, life and the craft of writing. Since 2020, Slimani has published a trilogy of semi-autobiographical works, beginning with The Country of Others, followed by 2022’s Watch Us Dance and I’ll Take The Fire, released in 2025. A journalist and frequent commentator on women’s and human rights, she is French president Emmanuel Macron’s personal representative for the promotion of the French language and culture. She has served as a jury member at Cannes and as a judge for the International Booker Prize. In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Leïla Slimani discuss the attraction of Russian novels, how grief can lead to creativity, and phobias. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Chapters: 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:25 What are you wearing today? 00:07:47 Recognition as a writer 00:10:30 Russian novels 00:14:49 Showing love 00:19:30 Childhood clothing 00:27:37 Leïla’s Father 00:34:30 Being freed by her father’s death 00:38:07 Phobias 00:41:35 Loneliness 00:46:03 Meeting her husband 00:49:05 Ties 00:52:04 Dress code 00:58:11 Revenge 01:01:00 Monsters 01:04:08 Dressing as a writer 01:10:00 If you fancy someone… 01:11:55 I’ll Take The Fire 01:13:34 Outro