Being a student in an art & design school, that was the moment for me, that was when I began to develop a lot of self-confidence and really come into my own.

Life is a big collaboration - and when you're tackling something that is painful and troubling and is causing you such desperate grief that you think life's not worth living - you need to reach out. To people who will reach back.

What's important to a fashion designer? It's much more than learning how to make clothes. In fact, that merely makes you a dressmaker. It doesn't make you into a fashion designer.

Whenever people tell me they don't know how to get inspired, I say "What's the matter with you?! I could stay in my apartment and be inspired!"

If you are going to be catty, you have to be careful with whom you do it, and in what manner! It's the kind of behavior that is best kept behind closed doors.

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

It's not an area where designers want to focus or pay attention - women who are larger than a size 12.