It became very important for me to stand up and design with a conscience for environment, you know? Just because you like clothes doesn't mean that you have to throw your principles out the window.

It would be great if everybody got a conscience. If we started to take more responsibility for the pollution in the world caused by the fashion industry, and to produce less, but better-thought-out goods. Then it becomes worth saving up to buy something beautifully-designed because you can and will keep it, rather than buying a bunch of disposable fashion items you'll probably wear once before throwing away and adding to the waste stockpile. I do think people used to buy clothing with a more thoughtful approach.

There's strength in numbers. One designer isn't going to change everything. Everyone has to demand that their materials are being sustainably sourced. Just like how cosmetic companies won't test on animals, there have to be benchmarks that we can all adopt.

I wanted to start something in New York that focused on making products locally, and because I'd just had my second child didn't want to be traveling halfway across the world anymore. The idea was to have something wearable that fit with my reality, which was being a mom with two young kids and not always wanting to wear jeans. I still wanted to wear interesting clothes, and the options out there I found were either very expensive or very cheap. There was a big gap in the middle.

I always use a really simple analogy: if you're putting organic food on your table because you care about eating well, shouldn't you be trying to do the same with what you're putting on your body? Our skin is our biggest organ. Everyday you are absorbing things through it. The way that a cream without the right ingredients can affect you, everything you put on your skin matters.

Knowledge creates the demand. The more people know about it, the more people will be interested and demand for things to be produced in a careful, conscious way.

When people wear our Bolivian knits and see who knitted them, they are excited because they know they are supporting this women's cause in Bolivia. And it shows you that we are all connected. It's not a machine making your clothes in a black hole somewhere. There is a human being behind it, and a community there.