Leading lights: Roxanne Varza

Updating tradition: Feng Chen Wang

Feng Chen Wang is a Chinese, London-based fashion designer who embodies what it means to update tradition. Her eponymous brand creates pieces that are deeply personal yet globally resonant, merging traditional Chinese references with modern tailoring, sportswear influences and futuristic silhouettes. As her brand marks a decade of boundary-pushing design, Wang reflects on her upbringing in Fujian, collaborations with major brands such as Converse and why straddling cultures is her superpower in both design and business. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Crossing the divide: Ole Scheeren

Ole Scheeren is the award-winning German architect behind some of the world’s most ambitious and unconventional buildings. From tech campuses in Asian megacities to residential apartment blocks in Vancouver, Scheeren’s designs seamlessly bridge opposing aesthetics and functionalities. In this episode he tells us about the power of cross-cultural collaboration and how this can enrich the lives of those who live, work and gather in his spaces. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Leading lights: Roxanne Varza

What does it take to grow ambitious start-ups into impactful businesses and foster diverse, inclusive leadership from the start? Roxanne Varza is director of Paris’s Station F, the world’s largest start-up campus. Previously head of Microsoft’s French start-up activity and named by Business Insider as one of tech’s 30 most influential women under 30, she tells Monocle’s Tom Edwards what it takes to be a Station F company and how to champion progressive change in the workplace. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Full circle: Shalini Goyal Bhalla

Could the circular economy be the answer to climate change? Monocle’s correspondent in New Delhi, Lyndee Prickitt, meets India’s foremost expert on the circular economy, Shalini Goyal Bhalla. She is the managing director of think-tank International Council for Circular Economy and has written books on the subject. She tells us about the opportunities that moving towards a circular model would provide for business and innovation, as well as the planet. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Productive disruption: Amelia Christie-Miller

Former chef Amelia Christie-Miller has long been obsessed with brands that have the power to shape consumer behaviour. In 2021 she created Bold Bean Co to change the perception of beans, encouraging people to see them as more than a mere pantry ingredient. In this conversation with Monocle’s Tom Edwards, Christie-Miller discusses how she disrupted the food industry by shifting age-old narratives – through everything from her product and marketing strategy to workplace culture – and converted fatigued consumers into loyal customers. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.