Using a beat-up Singer sewing machine I had found in a Chinatown dumpster, I would meticulously design a new outfit for myself every day starting with the craziest fabrics I could find on 38th Street.

When you are used to seeing Carson Daly introducing ’NSync or 98 Degrees videos and then all of a sudden you see a male Punky Brewster in a Ratt T-shirt and a pair of skinny jeans (which, in 1998, could only be found at Trash and Vaudeville) on your TV screen, you’re gonna take notice. I was 18 years old, barely out of high school, bumming around NYC without a real worry or a plan when I stumbled into the dream job of any kid growing up in the late ’90s: MTV VJ. and all of a sudden I was in this world, and I owe it all to Anna for putting me in that show.Īnna Sui Spring 1999 Photo: Condé Nast Archive I became great friends with Anna, and I shot a DKNY campaign with Peter Lindbergh. and packed a bag and then just turned around and went back to New York and moved there. Afterward, Katie Ford came up to all of us and she was like, ‘I want to sign all of you!’ So me, Sofia, Zoe, and Ione all got signed to Ford on the spot by Katie. The show was great and I had the best time. “At that show Zoe Cassavetes, my sister Ione, and Sofia Coppola, they all came-and Roman Coppola. “I got to New York and I remember showing up backstage and all those girls were there and I was just completely overwhelmed and, ‘OMG, you know this is incredible-I’ve died and gone to heaven.’ Actually, Naomi took me under her arm and was like, ‘Come on with me.’ The show was all this crushed velvet, Edwardian romantic look, a very dandy, gender-bender kind of thing, and I loved it.

The gift by dave donovan