In terms of bridal dress, I've tried everything. I've tried short, long, deconstructed, constructed, bustiers, working in fabrics, working in color. I've been working in color in bridal for probably 15 years. Who else would do an entire collection dipped in tea? I did that one year. My design team dipped every single dress in tea in a bathtub. I did that just because I wanted to work out of the vocabulary of white.

I was stigmatized by being a bridal designer for a long time. I am amazed I have been able to move beyond it. I had really all but given up trying, but I did it because it was my lifelong dream.

I do speak Mandarin, and I also relate to the hunger that China has for culture and architecture and style.

I was an art history major, but never specifically contemporary. I would say where I really stopped were the abstract expressionists in the New York school.

I make things of my own that aren't that glam, but I'm not known for that, which has always been a bit of a frustration for me.

As the mother of two daughters, I have great respect for women. And I don't ever want to lose that.

Success isn't about the end result; it's about what you learn along the way.