You're a true California girl. Where'd you grow up?
I grew up in Leucadia, which is a surfer town north of San Diego. Before that, I was on Oahu in Hawaii, and back and forth between there and California. Hawaii was a really good place to be a kid. I took it for granted that you swim with turtles and go to the beach five times a day. But in California, I would still go to the beach twice a day.
So why'd you leave?
I really had an "I'm out of California" mentality when I was a teenager. I just always felt kind of different, so I left as soon as I could. After I graduated high school, I went to Europe, and then went to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was cool, but it was like a total shock. I couldn't really handle the cold, so I left after a year and transferred to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
What did you study in school?
Printmaking and cultural studies. Cultural studies was sort of like modern day philosophy. A lot of it was based on Horkheimer and Adorno, like a group of guys from Germany who came over to Hollywood in the '30s, and started listening to the radio. In those days, the radio was like television, so they would use that to talk about what was going on in society. It would be like if I watched TV all day, and then wrote a thesis about why reality shows are so prominent. For me, I think a lot of studying it was developing good conversation skills. A lot of my work is based on cultural studies-it's like a conversation about me, in this world, and what I observe.
How did you end up working in fashion?
After I graduated, I worked for Judi Rosen for three years, on her line The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. That was really fun and we had lots of crazy times. Then toward the end of my stay in New York I worked for Steven Alan designing his women's line. I wasn't there for very long before I got on a plane and came to L.A. I never really experienced L.A., even though I lived really close. We would sneak away in high school and come up for a night and go to some weird club. So even though I was from California, L.A. was just the most mysterious place. I didn't know what I was getting into. I still don't.
What made you want to pursue a career in fashion?
My headspace is wearable things, and I've been sewing since I was a kid. My grandma got me sewing. When I moved to L.A., I went straight into doing my own line. I do some freelance work, but I made this decision that no matter how hard it is, I have to try now, I can't put it off. I have to remind myself of that each day-some days I forget why I'm doing it.
What's the most fun thing about having your own line?
I really like making things, so I am trying to just keep going, and hopefully people will want what I make. I really like creating a line each season, the whole thing-the theme. And I feel like it's a little bit like 'Fuck you, fashion world!' because I call every collection 'Summer' and I number it and try to point out ridiculous things in fashion. First, it's so fast, and second, it's not usually very relative. I try to keep it on a human basis. Anyone who buys something from me online, I usually email them and say thank you. I also get to work with my friends, and that can be so rewarding. It takes a lot to make a lookbook, and I'll have this idea like 'We're shooting everything in the Ross parking lot because we're doing shopping!' Then my friend Jody will be like, 'Well, I don't really get it, but sure!'