I wasn't a major in political science for nothing, so I understood the politics of beauty and the politics of race when it comes to the fashion industry.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
One cabbie chastened me by saying that the fashion industry was doing harm to young people, who are trying to live up to an unrealistic ideal. It prompted me to make body image and diversity key issues on 'The Business of Fashion.'
Fashion is an industry to make money. It plays into human psychology. We want to belong, we want to be loved. I'm not trying to demonize the fashion industry - I love the fashion industry - but style is about taking the control out of the industry's hand and having you decide what works for you.
Fashion has a political role insofar as following it can give you the impression to belonging to a certain social group or a private club.
Fashion hasn't changed enough yet. There's too much a stereotype of beauty.
In the mid-nineties, diversity in the fashion/beauty business was hard to come by.
I wanted to be involved with fashion, though I didn't know what being a designer meant.
Fashion is a very particular world, as you know.
The most fascinating part is how fashion just attracts all these social rejects, if you will, from around the world, encourages individuality. They're the people who make the industry tick.
I have a lot to say about fashion - not just about fashion, but beauty, art.
I just don't know anything about fashion.