How did growing up in Louisiana influence your personal style?
"Well, there wasn't much access to fashion in general. We had a mall in the city — because I actually lived in New Orleans and outside of Baton Rouge in Prairieville. Baton Rouge had a mall and I didn't really like to look like everyone else at school so I discovered vintage shops that were called thrift stores and I would just read Vogue or even Seventeen magazine and do my own interpretation with older vintage pieces. So, it was actually really cool and that's how I got into fashion. Plus, I'd have an allowance to go shopping so I'd get bag loads of clothes because everything was like a dollar! And I started tailoring because I was impossibly skinny — like negative 0 — so it was actually really cool. I was kind of like an outsider anyways, so I felt like there was no point of fitting in, so I just kind of did my own thing. That was the good thing about not being popular — I was like I'm just going to be who I want to be."

Photographed by Michael Flores