I create with my heart, so life and work inevitably intersect all too often.

I made two rings for myself and when I was in Los Angeles, I walked into a store called Maxfields and they essentially bought them off my hands. Those were originally made in New York. There wasn't craftsmanship, there was just manufacturing, and I wasn't interested in doing that. My first workshop was in Rome, and that was the start of House of Waris. In a little magical atelier, a goldsmith, his apprentice, his stone setter - and that was where it began.

Design and the urgency to preserve it - not as a museum relic, as a living experience. And for me, something that lives alongside mass-produced goods. I'm not saying get away from it. My battle is there is a marketplace for what people wear and what they eat and care about how things are made and not just that they were made, and that's the core focus. I know where things come from, I know their families. I do that throughout my life - I know who makes my suits, and I know where my eggs come from. Everyone and everything is accounted for and has accountability.

I like the pause that tea allows

I wouldn't know how to think inside the box because I don't even know where it is. I wouldn't know how to do it any other way.

My friends are a huge part of my inspiration.

I'm driven by history and our past. That's why I work in gold. It's in your veins. We've been lusting after gold since the beginning of time. God, glory, and gold.