|
I was one
of those fortunate few who never had to figure out what they wanted to
do. “It” picked me. When I was 9 or 10 years old, I knew that I would
become a fashion designer. By this age, I was already designing
complete collections and it seemed like my life was predestined. When I
was 14, I was given special permission to attend the summer program to
study fashion at the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York
City. That summer changed my life. I met other young people who were
thinking just like me. I remember feeling so isolated in Columbia,
South Carolina, which I was, but there is something universal about
youth and talent. We were all on the same wavelength. That summer, I
met a woman who would also change my life. Her name was Marie Essex,
and she taught fashion illustration at the school, and taught everyone
from Donna Karan to Marc Jacobs. She was the only one who really knew
how old I was and took me under her wing like I was her own. I returned
to South Carolina a changed person. I now had the map get me through
high school and back to New York.
A few years later, I only applied to one college, Parsons, and was
accepted. During my senior year in college, Calvin Klein was my critic,
and I would later work for him in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Throughout, Marie Essex continued her mentorship with me until she
passed in the mid-90’s. Marie introduced me to my wife Karen in 1990.
In 1994, I left Calvin Klein to work for Burberry, the British luxury
goods company, where I am currently Design Director of Outerwear for
the brand worldwide. After commuting back and forth from New York to
London for 13 years, Karen and I recently moved to London 7 months ago.
Boxer Profile
|