I learned from teaching. If you are perceived by the student to be belittling them or purely criticizing them without offering up words of encouragement and support, they shut down and discredit you.

You can be too rich and too thin, but you can never be too well read or too curious about the world.

The fashion industry at large has been the worst public relations vehicle for larger women and petite women, they are both maligned and neglected. And I honestly do believe it's getting better.

I'm doing all that I can to prod the industry and get them to pay more attention [to larger women and petite women]. Because I find it to be reprehensible and repugnant that two populations that are so pervasive in this nation should be so badly neglected.

I would certainly rather the industry not go broke, but if that's what it takes for everyone to acquire some values and lose that sense of entitlement, maybe a little belt-tightening wouldn't be so tragic.

At all costs, avoid clothes that are too big. The more volume your clothes have, the more volume you appear to have.

My advice to the 10 year old daughter is: fashion happens in a context. It's societal, it's cultural, it's historic, it's economic, and it's political. So all of her studies, everything that is happening in the world, all needs to be channeled through her in order to be a good designer.