理性至上的时尚新贵：Trina Turk

    现在想想，你当初在开公司之前完全不懂其中的艰辛几乎是件值得庆幸的事。

    真的是这样。这个问题我想了很多次。当初要是做了商业规划，预见了种种的艰辛，我可能就会被吓倒，可能就不会放手去做。事实上我是在什么都不知道的情况下一头扎了进去。我觉得自己的使命之一就是不必为别人打工。如果你单打独斗开创了自己的事业，又要包揽那么多的事情，你会习惯所有的事情都亲力亲为。

    从凡事亲力亲为到自己当经理指挥别人，你对这样的角色转换有什么感受？

    我觉得公司发展壮大以后，我遇到的最大的挑战之一就是学会把某些事情交给别人去做。

    你是怎么在顺其自然和坚持理念之间保持平衡的？

    我觉得公司成立17年依然屹立不倒的原因之一就是，我们会经常审视自己做的事情。干完一天的活，就必须出一个像样的成果；不能盲目追随潮流。必须要有自己的个性，而我觉得个性取决于自己的品味。

    你的品牌创立了17年，上周才在纽约时装周举办发布秀。为什么要选择现在发布？

    我们的品牌销量很好。要让品牌畅销，不一定非得参加那样的活动。但是之所以选择在这个时间举办发布秀，只是因为我们觉得时机已经成熟，应该让更多的人知道我们，应该在更高的层次上、以更受瞩目的方式经营时装。

    你这次发布的时装系列的灵感是什么？

    我们的主题是加利福尼亚现代时装。我对建筑有点痴迷。加利福尼亚南部有很多现代主义建筑在我看来很有启发性——它们真的是表现了建材本身的美，而不是靠浮华的风格或装饰取胜。

    人人都说，要让纯白色的房间看起来漂亮，比让装饰富丽的房间看起来漂亮更难，而且难度大很多，因为你会注意到不完美的地方。我们做的就是这样的事情。我们尽力挑选最好的纺织品，在款式的设计上则相对简约，力图表现出纺织品本身的美。

    It's almost as if, thank goodness you didn't know any better.

    It's true, I've thought about that many times. I think if I had done a business plan, I would have been so intimidated by what I was going to try and do that I maybe wouldn't have done it. I just sort of dove in. I guess part of my mission was to not have to work for somebody else. When you start off, literally by yourself and you're doing so many things, you get used to doing everything.

    What is it like to switch from that mode to being a manager?

    I think one of my biggest challenges as this company has grown is figuring out how to let go of some of these things and let other people do their jobs.

    How do you balance letting things go and maintaining your own aesthetic?

    I think one of the reasons why we're still in business 17 years later is because there has been a consistent look to what we've been doing. At the end of the day, it has to look like something; you can't just jump on any trend bandwagon that comes along. There has to be some sort of identity, which is, I suppose, what my taste is.

    After 17 years, you showed at New York Fashion Week last week. Why now?

    We have a successful business and you can do business without participating in that particular event, but we just thought it was time to make sure that people knew that we were here and doing fashion in a more elevated, visible way.

    What was the inspiration for the line that you showed?

    Our theme was California modern. I'm a bit of an architectural hobbyist, and in southern California, there's a lot of modernist architecture that I find inspiring -- It's really about the materials speaking for themselves as opposed to complicated styling or embellishment.

    Everyone says it's much harder to make a plain white room look good than it is to make a very decorated room look good because you notice the imperfections. In the same way, we try to pick the best textiles that we can and then do a style that's relatively simple and just let the material show.