I was surrounded by talented people. I always remember Mrs. Carmel Snow, saying to me, "You know, Polly, if one person thinks they're a big star, then we're all stars. You just go out there and always do your best. And always have time to see any designer - no matter how big or how small, have time to see them. You don't have to just see the big shots. You never know what's coming around the corner and the talent that is going to be important. That is your job."

You have to want to dare being a model. You have to dare or you don't go that step further. You have to be willing to stretch - and to not only be willing to stretch, but to want to stretch.

When you think about Balenciaga muse and model Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon - I mean, you look at their mother Jane Birkin, and what they have grown up to be . . . They aren't invaded in fashion, and yet they love it.I mean, who is going to schlep these big skirts and trains and all these things? How wonderful it is to see the young in miniskirts!

I think that some people have wonderful spots. I think that Karl Lagerfeld has a wonderful spot designing for Chanel. They really just let him go. I think John Galliano is a huge talent. Marc Jacobs is also a huge talent - and a very interesting one to me.

When I graduated from school, World War II was still going on. At the time, my eldest sister, Nancy, was working in New York City at Lord & Taylor, and she had a great friend named Sally Kirkland who she worked with there and who later went to work as an editor at Vogue. I always told them, "I want to work in fashion like you do," and finally, in the late '40s, I got a job at Lord & Taylor, too.

Helmut Lang is an amazing man - always striving, always moving forward.

If you've taken the job to be the stylist for a collection, then I think it's important for you to really listen to the designer and look at the board. Look at the wall, look at what the designer is interested in, and then move on to that. But the designer also must not lose sight of the reason for their point of view. Otherwise it won't come across.