This photo was taken while I was fitting Janice Dickinson for a Women’s Wear Daily shoot, before I even had a fashion show. Her photographs from Vogue were all over my dorm room walls in design school—and just a few years later I got to see her model my clothes. It was like a dream come true. She looked like a bronze goddess in this fabulous toga dress, and I looked like a cross between Peter Frampton and Christopher Atkins in The Blue Lagoon.

I’ve always believed in the power of the women who, from the very beginning, wore my clothes. And I was fortunate enough to be able to dress women like Janice Dickinson and Iman and Patti Hansen…because at the end of the day, you’re only as good as who you dress.