I had a long chat with Lourdes tonight - in part to ask her a bunch more questions for her upcoming feature in uppercase magazine. She explained that when she decided to leave the fashion industry and go out on her own she rented a tiny studio in the East Village and worked steadily for 2 years until she had created her own collection. It brought me right back to my days years ago when I squirreled myself away in the OCAD library many late nights in order to build up my first portfolio. In connection with this... when I asked her what advice she would give an aspiring textile designer she said "You better be ok with solitude-- because you can't do this work if you can't be alone".

I acutely agree.