My inspirations come from everywhere. It's important to look at everything and anything.

I think clothing is transformative. When you put something really beautiful on, you feel something. In so many ways, were always playing a form of dress-up - its just a grown-up, much chicer version of it. Its nice to be able to be whoever you want to be.

My cats are really sassy and sophisticated, but most importantly, they are picky.

For a while, I just thought that I wanted to be an illustrator because that's all I wanted to do. I also did some sculpting. It was always very artsy and very feminine, everything that I did.

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.

In designing for the first lady, I tried to sort of be in her shoes, but I didn't really look at her as an important political figure. I looked at her as a woman who would like to wear a beautiful dress to an important gala.

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