I’m used to always deciding everything myself. It’s a blessing, but also a terrible defect. I never look at other people’s work. My mind has to be completely focused on my own illusions. I design from instinct. It’s the only way I know how to live. What feels good. What feels right. What is needed. Give me a problem and I will approach it creatively, from my gut. Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them. I love to design things that people can actually buy. I’m staggered by what a boot costs today.
I remember walking the dog one day, I saw a car full of teenage girls, and one of them rolled down the window and yelled, ‘Marc Jacobs!’ in a French accent. A woman has the age she deserves. Never in my wildest dreams did I entertain the idea that I would become a fashion designer. I love the 2000s because everyone started to love haute couture. Men have got more of a discerning eye. They appreciate cut and details, things that aren’t so obvious. They like things that have cachet and gentlemanliness.
Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening. Grunge is a hippied romantic version of punk. Don’t dress to kill, dress to survive. Awkwardness gives me great comfort. I’ve never been cool, but I’ve felt cool. I’ve been in the cool place, but I wasn’t really cool – I was trying to pass for hip or cool. It’s the awkwardness that’s nice. Design is a series of creative choices – it’s a collaborative effort, an evolutionary process. You choose your fabrics depending upon what you want to say, then you work with mills to get those fabrics. Through the process, you realize what you want it to be.
