As a little girl, I remember staring into these beautiful glass cabinets my grandmother had. Filled with porcelain miniature dolls and ballgown dresses, hoping that one day I could make beautiful dresses like that. My father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all worked in the lace business, and I was bound by fabrics and lace my entire childhood. I loved to get even the smallest scraps and make them into dresses for my dolls.

I went to the University of Pennsylvania and, while there, my entire world was surrounded by people who were just eager to get into business, finance, law, and medicine. There was a minute where I just thought that that was the path for me too.

It took a little bit of time before I realised that I was going to start designing pants. I designed websites for two years in the interim, but there was always something that I had to create, I had to build and loved making things.

I think that there are challenges at all parts of your career. In the beginning, it’s really the identity, knowing who you are, knowing what you want to make, and really carving out a place for your product, whatever that may be. I think, looking back, I wish I had established more of a brand identity, but I really believed that every brand at the time had to start with a signature product. I still believe this today when I’m talking to young designers and startup brands; you need to know what that one item is that you’re going to be known for. At the time for Alice + Olivia, it was the Olivia pant. We were going to make this pant in different materials, patterns and colors. Every time someone said Alice + Olivia, I wanted people to go, ‘I love their pants’. To this day, I think that’s a signature part of the brand.

My day starts with yoga and a long walk near Central Park. I love being in my office, working with my design teams, and my embellishment and fabric teams. The best nights are when I do my family dinners twice a week. My children bring several of their friends, and we just create these beautiful, special evenings together. If I’m going to go out after dinner, I love to go get drinks somewhere downtown with friends.

When we opened our store on Madison Avenue and realising that I had a store on Madison Avenue. I felt this again when we reopened the expanded Madison Avenue store and realising that we weren’t just a store on Madison, but we were a staple.

I think Covid was one of the hardest times I’ve ever been through in business because no one was wearing work clothes, no one was wearing party dresses, no one was even wearing pants! I’ve learned over the many years of running a business that you take those hard times to make the changes that are harder to make during the good times. So, when things are tough, you can look at every single one of your departments and every single one of your teams, and you can force changes that may be more difficult to push forward during the good times.

When you’re a creative person, your work is your life, and your life is your work. I’d be lying if I said I ever really turned off. I try to take breaks, I try to do yoga, I try to do things that make me less constantly on. At the end of the day, I work a lot and I love what I do, so for me, it doesn’t really always feel like work.

I do a lot of yoga. I like doing lymphatic massages. I do [a lot of] wellness, things like healthy eating, taking long walks, different types of exercise. I love getting facials and doing different things like peptide treatments. I also love a strong margarita!

My daughters are my inspiration. Back in the day, I had mentors, but today my daughters literally inspire me on a day-to-day basis.

Patience. Vision. The ability to inspire those around you.

I think the landscape for women has changed in that there is so much more opportunity. The work landscape really has changed because of the way society has changed in creating more opportunities for women and companies being run by women. For example, at Alice + Olivia, we have created an environment where women can have a balance. They can have children and a career. We’ve worked really hard over the years to create an environment that allows for that, meaning you can make it to school meetings, and you can work from home certain days.

It’s also the world and companies being more understanding of what needs to happen to maintain women, to keep women in the workplace and to allow them to be able to be both parents and executives.

Yes! I think that women want to continue their careers. I think there was a period in fashion where women literally would have children and stop working. I even vividly remember being asked if I was still going to work after I got engaged to my husband. I was so offended. I was like, ‘Wait, I have a big company. What do you mean?’

To take moments to really appreciate what I had built and be a little more nostalgic and proud. I think that my whole life and career, I’ve always felt like I have to do more, to build more and make more. I would tell my younger self to be a little easier on herself and to celebrate what she has created. I think that women are often such perfectionists. We want to be everything to everyone. Sometimes you must give yourself a little leniency.

I give every woman the same advice: find something that you love to do and make it your job and your job will never feel like work.