After taking a 10-year sabbatical, why return to fashion?
I pretty much dropped off the face of the earth to raise an awesome family, then realized that I still have so much to say about fashion. Clothing, now more than ever, needs to be emotional. What we wear is one thing, but to purchase something is another. People are sick of commodities. I want to go beyond ‘cute.’ You can find that at H&M, Target, and every department store. How did you define a new niche in women’s sportswear? When I created the label Product in 1992, there didn’t exist a significant market in the ‘contemporary’ niche, something that was well priced and well constructed, but with lots of fashion. I introduced precision fit to the category. Every fashion icon of the ’90s wore Product, such as Cameron Diaz, Claudia Schiffer, and Sharon Stone. Cindy Sherman was the first customer at my SoHo store. Kate Moss wore my matte jersey slip dress on a Mario Sorrenti shoot for Harper’s Bazaar and that put me on the map. No one had yet thought to redo the ‘disco’ slip dress of the
