Daphne Guinness has been many things throughout her life: muse, film producer, actor, curator, designer, and philanthropist. She’s worked with many visionary creative minds, from the late Alexander McQueen and Karl Lagerfeld, to artists and photographers such as David LaChappelle and Nick Knight. She has designed collections with Comme des Garçons, consulted for Gucci, and ventured in the world of film, co-producing the Oscar-nominated short film Cashback and also starring in the art film The Murder of Jean Seberg. Daphne’s television appearances have included two seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race as a guest judge, and as special guest on Joanna Lumley's Great Cities Of The World. She has lectured twice at the V&A Museum, including their ‘In Conversation’ series. Along the way she has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok with her disarming humour and willingness to poke fun at herself. It may be an over-used term, but Daphne Guinness is a true cultural icon.

Music, however, was always her destiny. She sang as a child and once planned to study at Guildhall before life diverted her path. After the loss of her brother and close friends Isabella Blow and Alexander McQueen, she began writing her own songs. Encouraged by David Bowie, who became a mentor, she entered the studio with producer Tony Visconti and long-time collaborator Malcolm Doherty, with Visconti producing Optimist In Black (2016), Daphne & the Golden Chord (2018) and Revelations (2020), and later providing string arrangements for Sleep (2024).

Optimist In Black was described by Interview magazine as “a complex 14-song exploration of everything from identity and alienation to peace and love.” Daphne & the Golden Chord followed, a glam-rock spectacular that The Times called “fuelled by wit, character and a clear and abiding love of rock’n’roll.” Her third album, Revelations, was awash with fabulous, apocalyptic disco stompers, accompanied by a three-part video series with David LaChapelle.

Sleep marked her most contemplative, self-reflective and sonically expansive work to date, recorded at British Grove and Abbey Road with a 34-piece orchestra. Its singles were brought vividly to life through collaborations with Nick Knight and LaChapelle, while Hercules & Love Affair remixed seven of the tracks for the dancefloor. The Evening Standard wrote that “music may be just the thing that makes Guinness an icon for the ages.”

Her latest single, “2B Or Not 2B,” is the first taste of her forthcoming album and the beginning of a new electronic chapter for the multidisciplinary artist. Written by Guinness and recorded at ATLAS Studio in Paris, the creative home of AIR, it sees her working with ATLAS’s in-house engineer Michel Tainturier (who also engineered her third album, Revelations) and long-time collaborator Malcolm Doherty. The single is accompanied by a striking video in Daphne’s signature palette of black, white and red, featuring mannequin imagery and masks, including a 3D rendering of her face created by Nick Knight. Wardrobe is drawn from Guinness’s personal archive, including one-off couture pieces by Alexander McQueen and Gareth Pugh.

Released through her own Agent Anonyme Recordings, the single also marks the label’s continued evolution. Long home to Daphne’s own music, the label expanded in 2025 to release work from other artists. Its first signings reflect a vision for daring, idiosyncratic voices, further cementing its role as a launchpad for artists at the vanguard of pop, art and performance.

That spirit of collaboration and cultural memory extends to the screen. Daphne’s enduring connection to her late friend Isabella Blow will be immortalised in the forthcoming biopic The Queen of Fashion, directed by Alex Marx and starring Andrea Riseborough as Blow, with actor Stacy Martin portraying Daphne, and Guinness contributing pieces from her couture archive to the production.

Today, Daphne Guinness stands not only as an artist in her own right but as a curator, collaborator and mentor, restlessly creative, never content to be just one thing. Across music, film, fashion, and her label, she continues to pursue the same instinct: to create work that is bold, beautiful, and unmistakably her own.