I need an eclectic mix of multitalented fabrics. It is, after all, my palette. Whether fabrics belong to different styles or are intrinsically compatible is not an issue for me. I practice “pieceful” coexistence. I love fabrics that tickle my imagination: designs with hyperabundant colors and charismatic patterns, prints that play well with both commercial and dyed stuff, textiles that sometimes set the stage and sometimes dance on it. I want it all, I want it now, and I make no excuses for the size of my stash. As I have often said, I feel sorry for the ones who don’t get it.

Over the years, I’ve developed a vocabulary to describe the personality and function of the fabrics I design. This personal lexicon divides fabric into two main categories: prima donnas and allovers.

Prima donnas are powerful design elements. Simultaneously temperamental and charismatic, they are the divas that give a design its distinctive voice. Any fabric that is composed of motifs that are the exact duplicates of one another is a prima donna.

Allovers play a vital supporting role. Compared with the fussy prima donna, they are versatile and forgiving. The nondirectional design of the allover looks the same from any angle because there is no implicit top, bottom, left, or right.