Eleven Minutes does show all the setbacks and frustrations of putting your collection together. Were there any highlights?
I learned it. The positive thing was just knowing how it works now. I had done collections before but never on that level. Now I know how to kind of do it. Meeting my jewelry designer, Lola, and having a good friendship with her, all my little assistants who I still keep in touch with who are great people. They were 23, 24 at the time and now they’re interested in starting their own labels and asking me for advice. So now I’m kind of mentoring them a little bit. It’s on a much different level. It was more people-oriented.
And [I also learned] what kind of heinous people to avoid from now on. Awful, scammy, scam artists/businesspeople who suck dick.
Do you still like your collection?
Um... [pauses], yeah. I guess, yeah. I mean, it plays a different role now. I don’t know, I still like it. What I hate about fashion is that the creative process gets completely mushed into a six-month development period and there’s only so much you can do in six months so that’s kind of one of the things I really, really hate about fashion is the cyclical nature of it. But you have to do that. You have to think creatively in four- to six-month increments. I really feel like [the collection] was maybe just a brushstroke of what I wanted it to be in my head.
Would you change anything about the collection?
Coulda, woulda, shoulda. I can’t.
Moving on, one of your current projects has been working with QVC.
QVC is good. It’s real clothes for real women, which I really like. It’s perfect for me because it’s kind of this middle-American demographic that I really love. It’s sizes small through 3X, which I think is amazing because I hate the exclusivity of fashion and how it makes people feel bad about who they are, and “You’re not thin, you’re not beautiful, you’re nobody.” I hate that, so QVC has been really good. It’s been a really positive experience just internally dealing with them. They’re very professional. It’s the science of business and I think that’s really interesting. So that’s been a good experience. So we’re working on [my second line with them]. It should be out next spring or something.
Do you have to change your aesthetic to fit their audience?
I guess ever so slightly. Like, I can’t make a clear pant or anything. I don’t really feel compromised, I just feel it’s a different gig where you have to become more – what is the word? - malleable, I guess. You have to be a shape-shifter and change per project you do.
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