The Muse Diaries: #2 Alix Brown
For our latest Muse Diaries we speak to the queen of cool, Alix Brown. From DJing for Gucci to soundtracking sun-drenched scenes in vintage dresses, she weaves fashion and music into a seamless, ever-shifting story of instinct, emotion, and glamour.
Queens of Archive celebrates trailblazing women who evolve with instinct and soul. Your path through scenes and cities plays like a dream mixtape, full of shifting tempos and unexpected turns. How has your personal style evolved alongside your journey?
My style moves like my sets; instinctive, cinematic and always shifting. It mirrors the places I’ve lived and played: New York grit, LA glow, Milanese rooftops. Like my vinyl collection, it’s eclectic but intentional. I’m drawn to 60's French Yé-yé, Brazilian Tropicália, and the pulse of Italo disco. I think that shows in my style. Whether I’m DJing for Gucci in Italy or soundtracking a film in the desert, I dress for the mood. Always with a bit of mystery.
Our Palais des Rêves collection draws on golden hours, vintage treasures and 70s bohemia. As someone who curates music with such a strong sense of mood and place, how would you soundtrack it? What kind of sounds or artists come to mind?
The Palais des Rêves collection feels like it was made for golden hour in a coastal dreamscape, with all the vintage-inspired prints and the sound of waves just out of reach.
II’ll be drifting between LA, Italy, and Biarritz, and the soundtrack I’ve been building reflects those places and the musicians I’m lucky to be surrounded by. To thread the journey together, I’ve been mixing in instrumentals from vintage library music and film soundtracks, mostly from 60s and 70s France and Italy. These pieces act like portals, connecting decades and landscapes, adding a dreamy continuity to the playlist.
You recently wore the Philly dress beneath LA’s falling jacaranda blossoms. The series felt like stills from a lost 60s film, sun soaked and daisy trimmed. How does fashion help you express the mood of a moment or soundtrack the scenes of your own life?
Wearing the Philly dress beneath the jacarandas felt like stepping into a lost frame from a '60s film. Fashion, for me, is a kind of self-casting, it sets the scene, defines the mood, and colors the emotion of the moment. Lately, I’ve been deep in a summer film spiral, drawing inspiration for my travels from the screen.
Fernando di Leo’s Caliber 9, with Barbara Bouchet in razor-sharp silhouettes, Ursula Andress in Loaded Guns, and the wild, saturated world of Jesús Franco’s Two Undercover Angels and Kiss Me Monster... they're full of playful, psychedelic looks that feel perfect for poolside afternoons or after-dark wanderings. I’ve also been rewatching Peter Sellers in After the Fox and The Bobo, both co-starring Britt Ekland in her luminous prime.
Each film blurs the line between costume and character, style and story... and that’s how I love to dress too, cinematically, like the soundtrack’s already playing.
You’ve curated soundtracks and DJed beneath mirrored ceilings. When you’re creating a mood, where does it begin - image, emotion or sound?
It usually begins with a feeling, something intuitive that ties image, emotion, and sound together. When I did the music supervision for Birdsong, directed by Renso Amariz, I wanted the soundtrack to feel dreamy and timeless, so I turned to the Gregmark catalogue. The Paris Sisters, produced and written by Phil Spector, along with artists like Suzy Dickerson, had that delicate girl group energy that perfectly matched the film’s emotional tone. I use the same instinct when I DJ, like at the Gucci afterparties I played last year for Sabato De Sarno. His vision is refined but playful, and I loved getting people to dance in that world he created... where glamour meets freedom, and the mood hangs in the air like a melody.
Your work as a Music Supervisor feels deeply intuitive, blending sound and story with mood and meaning. What draws you to the dreamlike, the unexpected and that beautifully strange edge?
I’m always drawn to the strangely beautiful, like a Lynchian dream set to a Velvet Underground track. There’s magic in the unexpected. As a music supervisor, I love stitching together a sonic world that reveals something just below the surface.
You split your time between New York, California and Italy. How does place influence your style, sound and spirit?
Place is everything and I get some much inspiration from the surroundings. New York is my pulse. California is my dreamscape. Italy feeds my soul.
The spirit of each sneaks into what I wear, how I feel and what music I'm listening to.
Our collection is inspired by the perfect vintage find. Do you have a piece in your wardrobe that holds a memory or tells a story?
One of my favorite vintage pieces is a pair of original Loris Azzaro tops. They have this incredible chainmail sparkle and energy, like they were made to move with music.That's probably why Tina Turner wore them. I styled one for myself and one for another girl when we were go-go dancers in a music video I produced for Curtis Harding. Pieces like that carry a kind of electricity. You feel their history the moment you slip them on.
You’ve played sets for fashion houses like Chanel and Gucci. How does what you wear influence the energy of a night? Do you dress for the sound, the mood or the moment?
When I play for houses like Chanel or Gucci, they usually dress me in pieces from the current collection, which is always such a fun part of the experience. It instantly sets the tone for the night and helps me tap into the mood they’ve created, visually and sonically. What I wear definitely influences the energy of the set. If I’m in something bold or glamorous, the music follows suit. I like to think of it as a full sensory story: the look, the sound, the room... it all flows together.
Packing for a summer set or weekend escape takes balance. What are your travel essentials, and which Queens of Archive piece would make the cut?
My travel essentials are always a couple pairs of sunglasses, silk scarves, a few books and always a great dress that moves. The Queens of Archive pieces are perfect for that... romantic but cool. I’d pack the Cassie and Philly dress, barefoot by day, platforms by night.
What’s a track you return to when you need to feel grounded, and one that shifts the world slightly on its axis?
‘Mary’s Theme’ by Stelvio Cipriani from the film Femina Ridens always puts me in a good mood. It’s dreamy and slightly surreal. It helps set the tone for the day ahead with good intention.
Finally, describe your perfect day, from the outfit you’d wear to the music playing in the background.
My perfect day starts slow, somewhere by the sea, maybe in Biarritz or on the Tuscan Coast. I’d be wearing the Queens of Archive Philly dress, with a bikini underneath of course, paired with a silk scarf, a sun hat, and a soft white cardigan for when the breeze picks up in the evening. No shoes.
The soundtrack drifts between French and Italian library instrumentals and songs from friends—Curtis Harding, Natalie Bergman, and La Femme... blending effortlessly into the day. Ideally, the day melts into night with a little wine, dancing and then a good film to fall asleep to.
Listen to Alix's muse diaries playlist
Listen to Alix's Playlist on shopify.