Francisco Costa

I wonder if I would have been less organic of a designer without my background. Maybe I would be more academic about designing, more methodical. I want things to be a certain way, and I'm very precise, but school itself wasn't that relevant for me.

Milan, for me, is a city of discovery. You can find some amazing gardens behind some great houses; I also love finding beautiful galleries and incredible shops, but you have to explore. And the food is amazing.

I do go back to Brazil once a year. I miss my family.

I think the women that we dress, the women who buy our clothes, they have a certain strength. It could be about the clothes, it could be about themselves. It's just attractive.

I cannot live without art: it excites me, it challenges me, and it leads me to the next thing.

The bottom line is that red carpet helps us broaden the appeal of the brand. Calvin Klein used to be about a very specific woman, but we've dressed so many different women at awards.

I came to New York in 1986. My father didn't think it was a good idea. I didn't know how I found it, but I went to Hunter College. I had no money and I couldn't speak English.

I just hate people who are lazy. To be on my team, you have to have energy and a sense of wanting to learn. That really excites me.

I never liked sleeping; I always think I am missing something.

I wanted to be involved with fashion, though I didn't know what being a designer meant.

Right after high school, I moved to Rio and took classes to become a technician for a manufacturing factory where you had to figure out how to produce 3,000 pairs of jeans. But in Rio, I was by myself, which was very liberating, being so young. I got to do my own thing.

I'm so not interested in gossip. It just gives me the creeps. I love the work; I love what I do. If somebody sends me an interview that has any connotation of something that's not interesting or genuine, I'm not interested. I really detach myself from it.