In those early years in New York when I was a stranger in a big city, it was the companionship and later friendship which I was offered in the Linnean Society that was the most important thing in my life.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
A lot of people that I've had around me have been my closest friends since junior high, back when we were exchanging each other's clothes, staying at each other's houses. That was before I had anything.
When I was a kid - 10, 11, 12, 13 - the thing I wanted most in the world was a best friend. I wanted to be important to people; to have people that understood me. I wanted to just be close to somebody.
Everything that went on in my life... it was super important for me to have Camden first. And by that I mean my son and to have that relationship with my son to give me that quiet confidence that I needed as a mother and as a woman. Now with Brooklyn, I am just so at ease; I am so comfortable.
Having great friends in New York is like having great friends on an expedition into Darkest Africa in the early 19th century. You need them. And you need sponsorship on a daily basis. I have a painter friend here who says, 'I need two compliments a day just to break even.' And we gave them to each other, and we got them - and honestly got them.
Some of the most lasting contacts and friendships that I have developed began by just grabbing a drink or breaking bread with a stranger at an industry event.
Friendship! Mysterious cement of the soul, Sweet'ner of life, and solder of society.
I was friends with all different people and all different groups. And that led me to being friends with a few people who didn't even go to my school. Now I have the most amazing collection of friends of all ethnic backgrounds and upbringing and financial backgrounds.
The moment I moved to New York City to study fashion, I met and became friends with people not only involved in fashion but in all the arts. It's quite fluid with so many types of artists, designers, and musicians who know each other through collaborations or friends of friends.
When I was a teenager, if you'd asked me, I would have said I was in a relationship with New York City. It was my first real love.
The place of my birth, and residence for nearly sixteen years, in the early part of my life, became endeared to my feelings and affections; and more especially so after I had quitted it for an unknown place, and to associate with strangers.