My birthday is May 10. I'm so Taurus, you would not even believe. All the Tauruses I know have this connection to the earth and the environment. We are very curious people, very loyal, very aware of and respectful of our surroundings. Also we're stubborn, but that's our way. We understand what we want, which is not bad.

Milan, for me, is a city of discovery. You can find some amazing gardens behind some great houses; I also love finding beautiful galleries and incredible shops, but you have to explore. And the food is amazing.

Each season I strive to design a forward-thinking and effortless collection with a very clean minimalist aesthetic.

I like cold. I really like to go to cold towns. I love gray. I love winter.

My mom. She was quite a character. Open-minded. It was a very small town, and she started her own business, manufacturing children's wear. She was very dynamic. Her death was like the umbilical cord being cut. That's when I moved to America.

I didn't know who Calvin Klein was, really. But Brooke Shields, we knew her from those incredible commercials - "There's nothing between me and my Calvins." I knew very little about American fashion then. I had no money, and Charivari was very educational to me. And Parachute. I was fascinated by those stores. I couldn't buy anything; I just went through the clothes.

When a sketch comes into this three-dimensional form and everybody contributes, it's really fantastic.