Calvin Klein and Donna Karan were the big American names at that point in time, Helmut [Lung] was the cool kid on the block and you had Marc Jacobs and John Galliano who starting the revival of the old fashion houses.

I was pretty much a minimalist. I liked a lot of black at the time, which is very different from my wardrobe now, because I live in color.

What we considered to be so much part of our everyday fashion vocabulary today, where we see all these designers restarting with these big houses, was just beginning then [in the 90th].

I had a very different vibe then, I was very into minimalism. I was kind of obsessed with Helmut Lang and [Martin] Margiela.

There weren't paparazzi standing outside. There weren't all these photographers. People really didn't know what fashion was and what was happening in the tents.

I really loved when Prada Sport came into fashion, which kind of created all the nylon which she had for quite some time. You also wanted a Prada bag, you wanted a Prada shoe, not that you don't today, but that craze for Prada accessories was really big. It was a really big deal.

I went to Bergdorf Goodman as an assistant in the fashion office and that was really my first exposure into the world of retail. Dawn Mello was president at the time and she had just left Gucci where she found Tom Ford.