Leather meets Denim

What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today when human contacts go so fast. Fashion is instant language. My dresses are very reasonably priced, for dresses that are cut on the body. You have to be luxurious nude. It’s difficult to move in the nude in front of a mirror. It’s much easier to move when you’re dressed. But if you can walk around in the nude easily in front of your man, if you can be luxurious in the nude, then you’ve really got it. I try to contrast; life today is full of contrast… We have to change. You have to stay true to your heritage; that’s what your brand is about.

Money is the most corrosive aspect of life today because it means that all attention to detail is forgotten. It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic, by fashion. Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it. Fashion is to please your eye. Shapes and proportions are for your intellect. I think I’d go mad if I didn’t have a place to escape to.

Women are more sure of themselves today. They don’t have to emulate the way men dress. Insecurity is a waste of time. Go to a place where you’re not going to be stressed, because a honeymoon itself can be a stressful thing. You have to always work against what you did before, and even against your taste. I don’t try to be in fashion; I don’t try to follow trends. You just end up out of fashion that way.

Fashion to me has become very disposable; I wanted to get back to craft, to clothes that could last. 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. It’s really easy to get colors right. It’s really hard to get black – and neutrals – right. Black is certainly a color but it’s also an illusion. I love women’s fashion, but women don’t need me as much as men do. It’s the men who have nothing to wear. I’m an accomplice to helping women get what they want.

It’s really easy to get colors right. It’s really hard to get black – and neutrals – right. Black is certainly a color but it’s also an illusion. I still appreciate individuality. Style is much more interesting than fashion, really. I love the 2000s because everyone started to love haute couture. You’re only as good as your last collection, which is an enormous pressure. An evening dress that reveals a woman’s ankles while walking is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.

I never look at other people’s work. My mind has to be completely focused on my own illusions. I am never satisfied with myself and that is what keeps me going – I have no post-satisfaction. I don’t like trends. They tend to make everybody look the same. I always thought what you wore underneath was as important as what you wear on top. 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.

Every day I’m thinking about change. There are always protests, whether you do something good or bad. Even if you do something beneficial, people say you do it because it’s advertising. You have to be luxurious nude. It’s difficult to move in the nude in front of a mirror. It’s much easier to move when you’re dressed. But if you can walk around in the nude easily in front of your man, if you can be luxurious in the nude, then you’ve really got it. I never like to think that I design for a particular person. I design for the woman I wanted to be, the woman I used to be, and – to some degree – the woman I’m still a little piece of. We live in an era of globalization and the era of the woman. Never in the history of the world have women been more in control of their destiny.

Attitude is everything. I think I’d go mad if I didn’t have a place to escape to. We must never confuse elegance with snobbery. Fashion is about dressing according to what’s fashionable. Style is more about being yourself. For me, the summer will be pure gray – mother-of-pearl gray, very pale gray. To me, this is the big statement for summer. Then we have light blue, light turquoise, lots of pink.

The difference between style and fashion is quality. Everything I do is a matter of heart, body and soul. There are only three things I can do – make a dress, decorate a house, and entertain people. Grunge is a hippied romantic version of punk. My customers are successful workingwomen.

I like things simple. I think the idea of mixing luxury and mass-market fashion is very modern, very now – no one wears head-to-toe designer anymore. If I had the power, I would ban leggings. Fashion never stops. There is always the new project, the new opportunity. I have my permanent muses and my muses of the moment.