(continued)
You've mentioned that your design idol is Yohji Yamamoto. You posted on Facebook that you’re excited that he might get to see the show. If you got a chance to work with him…
Oh my god!
What would your dream project be?
AHHHH. I’m sweating right now thinking about it. [Laughs] My face is red and I’m sweating just thinking of that prospect. I can’t even, oh god, to be honest with you, even before doing a project I would give anything just to be able to sit down with him and have a cup of coffee or tea and just listen to his sage advice. More than anything, I would love to hear how he balances design and a personal life and his collaboration with Adidas. He creates so much season after season after season and I would just love to sit and hear how he maintains that inspired spirit and how he gets through seasons where maybe the buyers don’t buy what it is he’s offering. How he maintains his very unique point of view, regardless of all outside influences. I feel like that might be a great challenge moving forward, and I feel like he is a man who has done that since the early 80s. It’s something I admire so much in what he does.
Where does your personal style come from?
Gosh. My personal style comes from a combination of many things. I’m influenced by anything that combines the feminine and the masculine because I feel like I have those two different sides to myself. There are times where I feel like putting on a girly dress, but then there are other times where I love a power suit or something that is very masculine inspired. I feel like that just naturally comes through in my design. I don’t think there’s any way to stop it. Its just kind of who I am as a person and it comes through in my style.
You have sold your Collar, Stand + Tie collar-ties and your hoodie-scarves down at the market on Saturdays. Was there something specific that gave you the ideas for your collars and tie products?
I guess what it is… I love a man’s white shirt. I love it on a man, like a dress shirt. I love it on a woman. In order to create my little collars and ties I took apart just a regular, men’s white dress shirt, unpicked it, unstitched it, and I laid all of the different pattern pieces out on the floor. I just thought, “OK. I want to make sure that this is always the basis of anything that I create. This kind of collared shirt feel.” I chose the two pattern pieces that I loved the most, the collar and the stand, which is the part that attaches the collar to the actual shirt. Then I thought, I’ve always loved ties as well and I love when women wear ties. I wanted to make sure it buttoned around the neck like a traditional collar so it wasn’t too far off for anybody to grasp. It could feel like a necklace for the girl who wants to wear it with a strapless dress or feel like a tie for the girl who likes to wear it unbuttoned with a t-shirt, jeans and converse.
So, I developed the ties that would fit with the collar and the stand and thought, “Gosh, guys would look great in this as well. Yes. It’s definitely a go. It fits all of my criteria.” I have my sweet boyfriends who come over and try things on for me and they liked it as well. That’s kind of my witness test, if a girly-girl can throw it on and then a more butch girl can throw it on and then boys can throw it on. If it passes, then it’s like, “Yes. I’ve got a really, really great signature piece.”
Since we aren’t in NY, where can we buy them?
Fortunately one of those sweet boyfriends of mine is a photographer. He was able to take a bunch of great product shots of them. So they are for sale online. (From the Collar, Stand + Tie shop)
Aside from all the design stuff, it’s really exciting that we have a team member, so-to-speak, on the show.
Yay!
Can you tell us a bit about meeting your girlfriend?
Well, my sweet Melissa. We have been together for six years and we met back in San Francisco when we were both living there and I was going to school. We were both in relationships the first time that we met and then when those relationships ended, which just kind of ended at the same time, by coincidence, a mutual friend of ours said, “You know, you guys should really hang out. You guys would be great single lesbian friends. You could go out together and all of that.” So we planned to go out together as lesbian friends and we remained friends for all of three hours. And then the rest is kind of history.
That’s exciting – definitely classic.
She’s been my ultimate number one fan, my ultimate supporter. She’s lugged a suitcase full of my ties and scarves up and down three flights of stairs and back and forth to a market for all the time I’ve been doing it. She stands there patiently while I try things on her and I measure lengths and I pin her. I owe so much of this whole experience to her. She’s incredible. She’s very quiet and kind of behind-the-scenes type and all of that. I don’t know. Have you seen those sweet videos on Ellen, the Sophia Grace and Rosie, those two little girls?
Yes. [Laughs]
She is my Rosie. She’s my side girl. [Laughs] She’s always there, you know, just ready to step up, just whatever I need. She’s my sweet Rosie.
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