I decided if it was going to be a mistake to come to New York and try and make a career in fashion, then it was going to be my mistake... But the American dream is real. I'm living it.

I'm constantly thinking about design, shapes, patterns and colors, so I just want to be more of a blank canvas. But there is a comfort in knowing what you're going to wear, and that probably comes from Catholic school, where I wore a uniform for 10 years.

There's such a feeling of satisfaction when something you imagined turned into something real.

I want to make clothes that make women feel beautiful.

There is one universal truth: All women, all over the world, want to look beautiful. That is always the theme of my designs.

I tweet myself and do all the Facebook updates. It started off with me wondering whether I was showing off and I was very careful about what I wrote.

I have a 6-year-old niece who doesn't look like the majority of girls on the covers of magazines. I hope that by the time she's 16, the world will have changed.