When I was a young boy, growing up in Durham, North Carolina, the women in my family were truly passionate about their clothes; nothing was more beautiful to me than women dressing with the utmost, meticulous attention to accessories, shoes, handbags, hats, coats, dresses and gloves to attend Sunday church services.

Wearing clothes should be a personal narrative of emotion. I always respond to fashion in an emotional way.

People have always been fascinated by people in the public eye and what they wear, what they are doing, but not in a tabloid way. Tabloid celebrities are a turnoff. A lot of celebrities...you wonder why they are celebrities.

In my day you didn't speak until spoken to.

I'm so sick of mermaid dresses, trains, borrowed bling-bling, and a pose.

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.

First Ladies have always been held like specimens under a media microscope.