I learned quickly that if the student's perception is that you're not listening to them, and not understanding them, they discredit you.
— Tim Gunn
If you told me when I was a teen that I would end up being a teacher, I would have said you're out of your mind, because quite frankly I hated school.
Men's wear is all about tailoring.
People put on certain clothes for certain reasons, I assume, when their closet is filled with clothes.
Life is not a solo act. It's a huge collaboration, and we all need to assemble around us the people who care about us and support us in times of strife.
I haven't had a date in 26 years.
Whoever's designing for plus-size doesn't get it. The entire garment needs to be reconceived. You can't just take a size 8 and make it larger.
I have my flaws and my issues, past and present and who knows what will happen in the future. I want people to know I'm vulnerable too and each one of us is.
There's nothing I like better than going to my apartment, closing the door, cooking my little dinner for one and just tuning out. My apartment really is my haven. It's a nest where I go to heal.
I have my mantra about silhouette, proportion, and fit. I believe that when they are in harmony and balance, you'll look great in anything.
But my manners also came from when I was in college and began participating in critiques. You have to speak with someone respectfully about their work and be honest and open, without hurting them.
I just don't like conspicuous consumption. I find it distasteful.
Take the high road. No matter how much strife, and consternation, frustration and anger you might be confronted with - don't go to that level.
But I will add, there's one thing I will not do, ever: I will never talk to you about things you cannot change. It plants a negativity in the head of a designer or the student, and it's a distraction.
With fashion, you really need to understand the aspects of construction. Not just design on an iPad.
Does a man need to know what a peplum is? Probably not.
I found early on in teaching, if you're too blunt an instrument, the students discredit you and think you're just being mean. They're not interested in what you have to say.
If you want to write an angry e-mail, write it but don't send it. It's based on my experience that whenever I have acted out in some manner, I have always regretted it.
I wouldn't know what to do on a date. I don't have the time. To make a relationship work, I'd have to give something up, and I'm not so sure I'm willing to do that.
Everyone has a best feature, so find clothes and accessories to accentuate those, whether it's your shoulders or your long legs!
I do things like hem a pair of pants, I do my own tailoring but I wouldn't attempt a jacket.
But if I had to choose a single destination where I'd be held captive for the rest of my time in New York, I'd choose the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
On my first day teaching my own classroom, I threw up before I entered the building.
And Brooke Elliott is a great actress.
Part of what was in the ether all around me growing up, until I was between 19 and 20, was a terrible, debilitating stutter. It was part of what made me very reclusive as a kid.
I'm one of the biggest introverts you could ever meet.
I always say I have a Socratic approach to most things that I do. I pummel people with questions, because I need to know what they're thinking, what they're trying to achieve, what they believe the final outcome is going to be.
I've never mentioned this, but when I was at Parsons teaching, the other design disciplines, they don't like fashion design. They see it as very nineteenth-century.
In a manner of speaking. I certainly never want to lose my voice as an educator.
I'm honest about expressing my opinions. At the same time, I'm diplomatic in how I do critique things if I have a negative response.
I had this wonderful career and thought I would retire as a teacher.
But if fashion were easy, wouldn't everybody look great?
I love helping people.
I have to have my coffee. I probably have three cups a day, but only before noon.
Fashion was in a crisis up until the mid-'90s and, when it came out of the crisis, it was a very different place. It was a place that nurtured and cultivated young entrepreneurial designers.
I learned early on in teaching how easy it is to hurt a young person and that's never my intention.
I love HGTV. I love the Food Network.
I don't know why I've always been so captivated by architecture.
