Designer

I always treat camo as a solid.

I'm a kid from Kansas, so J.C. Penney was where I got all my clothes from kindergarten to around 7th grade.

A Mac PowerBook is a thing to behold.

I like clothes. When I realized as a child that you had to wear them, and it takes the same amount of effort to look good or not, I figured out long ago that I only wanted stuff that I loved and looked good in.

I still think of myself as a retailer first, but I also know how to make clothes.

The Japanese are the ultimate students: they analyse things in so much detail... until they have pretty much mastered whatever they are studying.

I love London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris - there are a million places I could imagine I like, but N.Y. is home.

Oh God, I am so pro-shorts. I love shorts.

My face doesn't look the same way it did at 39. My body doesn't look the same way it did at 39.

Great product trumps all. You can have the biggest marketing budget, the biggest show, a perfect merchandising plan, but at the end of the day, it doesn't mean anything if the design and quality of the product you are offering is not compelling.

I got fired from Neiman Marcus and Bergdorfs, and JC Penney didn't work out.

Yes, there are probably too many tattoos. But there are too many bad haircuts, too many bad shoe choices, too many bad jeans.

My advice to young people - wait until it's your turn. Just kidding, sorta.

I am probably biased, but I think social media is the great equalizer. It gives everyone a megaphone. Young people who might not have had the platform for exposure can now get their ideas out to a very receptive audience.

I always say that MTV cribs is what brought straight men into the fashion world. Once they sort of saw sports guys and music guys had, like, a billion sneakers, they realized, 'Oh, you mean I can have more than one?'

I think a lot of gay kids in the midwest or in places not in New York have to overachieve in order to sort of get through the fear of what they're going through.

Fashion comes and goes; prints come and go. Proper camo never really goes away.

I did this the hard way. I have worked my entire life in this business, and I've done the work - from being on the selling floor to learning to speak Italian to work with manufacturers with John Bartlett. I've done it all. I've paid my dues.

Outside of white button-down oord cloth shirts, Trickers brogues, 501s, and Ray-Ban Aviators, the single item of clothing that I have had in my closet consistently since 1982 is a pair of black-and-white checked Vans. They are the lazy man's shoe - perfect for dog walking and security lines at the airport.

In the scheme of things, I'm just a guy who gets my picture taken.