Jeremy Scott

I went to Paris to learn and absorb some of the amazing ambience I was enamored with growing up in Kansas City. I didn't go there to start my own collection. But I never could get an internship, so finally, I was left with just doing my own show.

I really don't see little girls growing up and thinking, 'Oh, I'm going to morph myself so I look like Barbie.'

I have a nostalgia for the years I was growing up and experiencing new things for the first time - so the late '80s and early '90s are always fascinating to me. Those were the times that I was being informed about a lot of my tastes, and so the memories are fused with a lot of emotion.

Designers have a reputation for setting the tone for what people - and especially women - are supposed to wear. How long their skirts should be, things like that. I have a different philosophy: put something out there with humour; let people see that and come around to it on their own.

I'm an introverted extrovert. My job sets me apart, but I'm not hammy and don't need attention.

When I had no place to live and I had no place to sleep - and I did sleep in the Metro - I held steadfast to the fact that I had a dream, a reason why I'm doing this... that it was bigger than this moment.

I started at Moschino Oct. 31 or Nov. 1, 2013, and now I go back and forth between Milan and Los Angeles, where I live.

I was born dirt-poor with barely a stitch on my back, and no name or prestige attached to me, and no real clout or connections.

I feel my role is to push boundaries. I don't like things to be safe and sedentary. So controversy is the cross I have to bear.

A lot of my collections are informed by nostalgia. I think that's because I loved clothes early on. I remember, at maybe age five, being concerned about what I wore, right down to the underwear.

There probably wasn't a day that went by in high school that I wasn't bullied either physically or verbally. It made me stronger, and I knew I had to stay steadfast to what I believed in.

I think when people think of something as basic, they think that it's boring.