I need to feel like I'm part of something. I need to feel part of the world when I go to sleep.

I worked 10 years as a toy designer before I started my career as a fashion designer. It's something I just fell into and really liked.

It's nice to be able to be whoever you want to be. I moved to New York for that reason. I think I am a very good example of how you really can do whatever you want to do without having any kind of prerequisite experience of any of kind of connection. None of my family members came from this world.

Designers have always shown outlandish and exuberant clothes, but that hasnt always translated to the streets.

My parents are very comfortable with the way that I am, and I think they've always been. Without that, I don't think that I would have ever have been able to grow into the person that I am today. I never felt like I was hiding anything from them.

My parents loved me, and I think they realized that I was probably not going to have a normal 9-to-5 job. For the longest time, my dad thought that I was just going to be home until I was, like, 35, which, weirdly, is completely normal in Asian families.

As a designer you have to just do whatever you want to do. The second I came to terms with that, it transformed my work.