Self-portrait

› Date and place of birth: July 15, 1971, Little Rock, Arkansas

› Fantasy dinner guests: Reinhold Niebuhr [theologian], Mark Twain, Dwight Eisenhower, George Carlin. › Life is like a well-cut suit in that: I don’t know that there is a direct analogy here. Or at least one that I believe. But a well-cut suit for the person that makes it is about craftsmanship. And that is important. For the person who wears it, it is about how they want to be perceived. In our world, perception can be a version of reality. Until it’s not. At the end of the day, if you are a good person who wears a bad-fitting suit, people will still love you and say you are quirky and interesting. If you are a jerk and wear a great-fitting suit, you are still a jerk.

› Another celebrity I’d like to see in Strong Suit:

I’d like to see more regular people in our suits.

› Favorite guilty pleasure: Naps.

› Put me on a deserted island if you must, but let me have: Thor Heyerdahl [Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer].

› Best piece of advice I ever received: It’s never the what. It’s always the who. — Bill Dillard III

› The main thing I’d tell any up-and-coming fashion designer:

Listen to a lot of advice, but don’t take much of it. Advice from people who have done it before can limit innovation. It’s only clear in hindsight who was right and who was wrong anyway.

› If my life were a reality show, I’d call it: Go Read a Book.

› One word to sum me up: Lucky. As hell.