The thing about fashion - it's like ducks going quack, quack quack. It's being dictated from above, and it just makes me want to rebel against it.
I really think that creating clothes and fashion has to be a statement about how we live and where we live and what's happening in the world.
This is why fashion is such a magical part of our lives, for it inspires our decisions without dictating them; it sets the theme but not the limits of our aesthetic.
I was a feminist in the Sixties, and can you imagine? The worst thing I could have done was to be in fashion. It was the most uncomfortable position.
What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today when human contacts go so fast. Fashion is instant language.
It's fashionable in some circles to be pessimistic about America, about conservative solutions, about the Republican Party. I utterly reject that pessimism.
Fans don't lie. They just tell you what they really think, and they see details that even people in fashion don't.
I think New York is the center of fashion, even though L.A. has a lot of heritage and the glamour of Hollywood.
I sing about UFOs and extraterrestrials, and so I designed a UFO fashion. It includes science-fiction bikinis and Bermuda Triangle shorts.
Who needs to graduate from Central Saint Martins in London or New York's Fashion Institute of Technology when a homemade outfit can go viral on YouTube with millions of hits?
The turnover of fashion is just so quick and so throwaway, and I think that is a big part of the problem. There is no longevity.
We come out of Jewish-refugee, Holocaust stock, which means that our predecessors fled and we learned that systems of power are vulnerable to corruption and can treat the defenseless in a destructive fashion.
Cooking is like fashion. Always, I like to try to change. If I'm traveling in a different country - to Australia, the Bahamas, Budapest, Moscow - and I see a new ingredient, I like to try it in a new dish.
When I fell into modeling, because I wanted to work in fashion. I wanted to do styling or make-up. I ended getting picked up to be a model instead during my work experience.
If you like good ol' fashion Southern soul food then, yes, I am a good cook! My specialty is chicken dumplings and poke salad.
I think like a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Failure is a great teacher. At the same time, you must remember, success will never last... Whether it's tech or fashion, it must be for the customer.
I've been a fashion model for 15 years and designing is just an extension of my career. I still plan on modeling lingerie, but at the same time this is a business transition that I plan to have around for a long time.
I don't like the fashion world. It's too nasty, too rip-off, too hard. And now it's all Gucci and Prada; it's very difficult to make your own business.
One of my business partners would remind me that no fashion line lasts forever, that we would hit the down curve eventually, and that we needed to look for new brands that complement the first one.
My mother was very fashion-oriented, and she started a little children's wear business that became large in this little town. She used to be able to look at a picture of an outfit and just start cutting the fabric right there.
Right now I'm reading every fashion magazine I can find. As a shoe designer, I feel it's my responsibility to learn as much as I can about the business, past and present.
