Speaking of Inspiration... All Hail Cathy Horyn

Just wanted you all to know that "Cut, Sew and Blog" was inspired by and created in homage to Cathy Horyn of The New York Times...

Last season, in the midst of Ms. Horyn's extremely busy schedule, not to mention whilst also being pulled and tugged by famous designers and their p.r. machines, I was honored and humbled to have Ms. Horyn front and center at my Fall 2007 collection "Labor of Love"... I knew for a fact that there were many other more popular names showing in the same time slot, but to know that she felt it so "important" to find out what the emerging designers in the industry were up to, really made a difference in the way that I decided to move forward as a designer and as a conscious voice within our industry.

As you will see from the video below, Cathy was a bit concerned at the onset of the show as I pulled an old bait and switch routine. However, in the end, Ms. Horyn left with a smile and a nod... This simple yet pivotal gesture of Ms. Horyn "showing up" restored my faith in fashion editors. Previously I had only believed in Andre Leon Talley, Polly Mellen and a handful of brave young "market" editors. Polly Mellen once visited me in a five story walk-up in the East Village almost a decade ago - and said to me verbatim - "Young man, your time will one day come and the world will know your name.")... Therefore when I say restored my faith I truly mean it as I had begun to believe that after Polly and Andre, all others had stopped thinking for themselves and simply followed the herd... Cathy has proven to me via her blog "On The Runway" (http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/) that with a bit of well intended wit, extreme intelligence and strategic forward thinking, that you can also get them to follow the "word"... So in homage to Ms. Cathy Horyn the words "Cut, Sew and Blog" were born...