I do believe there's a heaven. I do believe that God has given me the resilience and the survival skills to withstand the chiffon trenches.

One my favorite things is to go to the provinces of Russia and see the 18th century wood churches with the onion dome architecture. These humble wonders of incredible imagination of architects that were obviously not living in places like Paris or London, but they've created these amazing churches.

I don't tear down. I prefer to build up.

I only take risks in couture, but I don't take risks in athleticism.

Fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez was a major part of my early career.

You come to Paris, you get true originality, and it's wonderful.

Russia is a place of great culture. If you've read Tolstoy's "War and Peace", Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Chekhov...the culture of the great Russian literature is amazing. The human narrative you get out of "War and Peace" is universal.