When it comes to my vocabulary, I felt a responsibility when I was teaching to raise the bar of conversation in my classroom. And with my own students, I refused to let them use the phrase "I like" or "I don't like" when we were engaged in a critique.

A couple of things for the not-so-diminutive man: avoid any prints that are large scale, because you will look like the print is wearing you, as opposed to you wearing the print.

I have a very Socratic approach - I pummel the designers with questions, so when I get them to step back from the work and look at it with me, they'll eventually see what I see, coming to it fresh and unencumbered. That's always very gratifying because they feel a responsibility and an ownership of a solution.

We shop out of boredom, for release, for excitement, for a sense of achievement, for a sense of control over our unruly existences. And every so often, we shop because we need something to wear.

Men: don't wear the untucked shirttail. It cuts you in half, which is a very bad proportion. Think of yourself as a series of thirds. So when the shirt is tucked in, you're 1/3 on top, 2/3 on the bottom.

I'm very budget-minded myself, and it serves me well.

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