How did you wind up working for Halston?
I came here when I was 20. I came to go to school, but I ended up working for Halston as an assistant. That happened in a very strange way. My father had a meeting with Halston. And my father said to me, ‘Join me. I want you to meet this amazing American designer.’ And I happened to just tag along, and Halston offered me a job. My whole life changed from that day. Was there a Halston influence in the dress? If you were to go back to 1980s Halston…as an assistant I had created these amazing poppies in sterling silver that Betty Ford and Elizabeth Taylor had worn, and it was well publicized in a lot of places. The inspiration was from there. It was also Grace Kelly, old Hollywood, socialites of that era. So that was the inspiration. It was of course also modern India. The India of today meets America. How did the First Lady select you to design this dress? I’ve been on [Mrs. Obama’s stylist] Ikram Goldman’s radar from the time they wanted to do the inauguration dress. We miscommunicated
