WHEN DID YOU FIRST BECOME INTERESTED IN FASHION?

There was never really a moment when I discovered fashion or design,
it all sort of evolved. I was always in art classes as a kid and then
theater and dance, where I became interested in costume design.
Everything kind of merged into one and took off. Although, I remember
I started paying attention because I loved the Gucci Fall 2003
campaign.

WHAT IS YOUR DESIGN BACKGROUND?

I attended three colleges, Maryland College of Art, Parsons New York
and Parsons Paris.

WHERE DO YOU SEEK INSPIRATION?

It really depends, sometimes I try to start from a conceptual
standpoint but it can also be just as simple as a book.  I think it’s
important to be personal but keep some humor. For example, some
inspirations have ranged from Oscar Wilde poetry to Disney cartoons.

WHAT ARE YOUR OPINIONS ON ORIGINALITY IN FASHION DESIGN?

It’s a tricky line.  I remember my first year painting class, my
teacher said that if you liked what someone next to you was doing,
steal it! because no matter how you try it will never turn out the
same, and that’s the beauty. Some of the best self taught artists
started by copying the masters, but in fashion crowds are so quick to
jump on a reference or accuse an individual of copying.  I think the
most important thing is that the intention behind the design is
genuine.

DO YOU RELATE YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCES TO YOUR DESIGN WORK?

I think it’s hard not to. I think I’m extremely sensitive to my
surroundings and when looking back I can notice how it shaped the
result. I try to continue to draw and paint because it’s easier to
work out personal things, there needs to be a some kind of line drawn
when designing clothing because the goal is to have someone want to
wear it, even if it’s very small.

WHAT WAS THE LAST ART SHOW YOU WENT TO?

I just went to the contemporary museum in Montreal, but the last
exhibition I saw that I really loved was the Francis Bacon
retrospective

WHAT WAS THE LAST TRACK YOU LISTENED TO?

Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

WHAT WAS THE LAST GIG YOU WENT TO?

Deer Tick at Bowery Ballroom.

WHAT WAS THE LAST FILM YOU WATCHED?

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants…2

For those who (like yours truly) spent their childhoods dressed in Spiderman Underoos watching professional wrestling on television, the spectacle of a fabulous person battling another fabulous person remains strangely alluring. Since the days of Roman gladiators fighting in the Colosseum, highly stylized violence (with an electrifying wardrobe) has provided unparalleled mimetic entertainment to the maddening crowd—a psychic release of one’s own violent tension through projection. Perhaps this is because professional wrestling, as an artistic form, rivals opera in its ability to truly translate the pain and misery of the world through the lenses of artifice, glamour, tragedy, revenge and redemption. On the heels of 2008’s acclaimed filmic ode to the sport of uncelebrated aesthetes (The Wrestler), comes Lucha Loco, a photography book that celebrates Mexico’s own WWF, the Lucha Libre. The luchadores are a well-known group of masked wrestlers whose vibrant costuming takes the idea of the masked superhero and amps it up to a psychedelic meltdown. Featured in Lucha Loco are the contemporary stars of the show, photographed by Malcolm Venville, who also directed the thug-wild film 44” Inch Chest (now playing). The studio portraits represent the warriors only in mask, as their identities—in true Luche Libre fashion—must always be kept a secret.

LUCHA LOCO will release in March at rizzoliusa.com