All I did my first year at Vogue was Xerox.

[Then she moved into the eveningwear, fragrance and tabletop categories. This is only her second year doing ready-to-wear.] Ready-to-wear is what I've wanted to do since the beginning. . . . I'm not a girl who spends my life in a ballgown, ... Clothing is as much about lifestyle as art.

I was a total fashion insider who became an outsider when I did bridal.

It is horrible to say, but I was stigmatized by being a bridal designer for a long time. I am amazed I have been able to move beyond it. I had really all but given up trying, but I did it because it was my lifelong dream.

Although in skating you compete with other people, anyone who achieves a certain level of success is first and foremost competing against themselves. And for me the idea that I could always do better, learn more, learn faster, is something that came from skating. But I carried that with me for the rest of my life.

I started at the very highest level so the upper end is something I know very well. I know it instinctively. But all the years I was designing, it frustrated me that I could reach so few women.