You have no control over other people's taste, so focus on staying true to your own.

I'm constantly correcting young people and fashion students in this nation when they say "Well, I do couture." By definition, you don't. You have to be licensed by the government of France to do couture. So don't use that term. You can say that you do one-of-a-kind, you can say it's custom, but you can't say it's couture - because it's inaccurate.

I've never mentioned this, but when I was at Parsons teaching, the other design disciplines, they don't like fashion design. They see it as very nineteenth-century.

I love shopping on a budget. I believe that more fashion mistakes are made by people with deep pockets than by those who shop on a budget.

Life is a big collaboration. And we can't navigate it alone.

If you don't have experience sewing, start with that, because that will inform what you are able to design.

I learned early on in teaching how easy it is to hurt a young person and that's never my intention.