Zac Posen

“People who devote themselves to a life of style are admirable.”

“At the end of the day, you can't compete with Mother Nature. If you've got a great tomato, just a pinch of sea salt is all you need.”

“Creative burnout and physical burnout is real. I mean, there are moments when I get home - after overseeing, you know, almost 16 collections a year - where I can't move.”

“Fashion is killing women's body image of themselves.”

“As a little boy, my mom would bake with me on the weekends - that was our time together.”

“I'm quite a tuxedo junkie, I collect them all year round.”

“Fashion has a dark side - it's not all runways and lipstick and fishtail gowns.”

“I started cooking out of middle school depression.”

“There is no reason for me to show my collection in New York, because it's not about craft and technique there.”

“One of my goals and dreams is to work in film in the future.”

“I think it's really important to try to eat seasonally as much as possible. It helps put people in touch with what's happening locally and with nature.”

“I want to make things of quality. I'm a big believer in handmade, tactile, crafted pieces. I want to keep that tradition alive.”

“I was very interested in theatre, so my first love of fashion comes from costume, and I think that's pretty clear within my work and the level of theatricality.”

“I go online at night and I order flowers, rare flowers, and then they come in the mail. That's my fashion detox.”

“I don't wear flip-flops, so my casual shoe is a Brooks Brothers tuxedo slipper!”

“I'm a pretty controlled and disciplined person, but my real vice is buying plants and food shopping.”

“I went through the workroom at Central Saint Martins in London, which is the most competitive workroom of a design school in the world. Very high creativity, very conceptual, very international, age-diverse and cutthroat - people who have master degrees reapplying into a foundation there is just wild to me to launch their careers.”

“Beyond fashion, I think that culture has a side where they love to shoot you up like a clay pigeon and then take out their rifles. I lived that, and I got to see the perspective from up in the sky.”

“I truly believe that you can't be a successful business unless there are hiccups. That American mentality of picking yourself up, brushing your shoulders off, and then really going for it makes you 100 times stronger and smarter.”

“Food is everything. Food, friends, family: Those are the most important things in life.”