I grew up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. At the time I was growing up with my father - before it was gentrified - it was a very rough neighborhood. He felt that if I got into or started embracing the rap culture, I would be one step closer to being on the streets.

If you put the collections together, whether it's Rick Owens, Alexander Wang, or whomever, sometimes they do streetwear, but they're never called that. They're always called 'sportswear' or 'high-end' or 'luxury.' I feel like I'm tossed into that streetwear category so that I don't exist in this space.

Financing is always the hard part, especially if you don't have friends or family to back you, which was my case and the case for most designers.

I was going to college on a full scholarship. I graduated summa cum laude. I was always on the dean's list. I was never a kid that started any kind of trouble.

Live Below the Line raises real money to help the world's poorest people, but it is also a symbolic demonstration aimed at highlighting - not replicating - the plight of the world's poor.

God blessed us with all this money, so why not take the money and put it into my brother's case? Talk about social and racial injustice in our country, and mass incarceration in our country?

Technologies, including cell phones, have the potential to help millions of poor people out of poverty by enabling access to a range of safe, affordable financial services - most importantly, savings accounts - that have long been out of reach.

I hate to say it - it breaks my heart - but we're a tacky, money-obsessed culture.