Early 2011 I moved to Paris and opened a small design studio. The language barrier was quite difficult. I still don’t have a Paris VAT number to this day. I don’t know what a VAT is but every time I asked why we didn’t have fabrics they said it was because of the VAT. In Paris I met many great people in design including the master Azzedine Alaia. Azzedine even came by my studio one day :-). This was the greatest feeling to stand in his presence in my embarrassingly small Paris studio in a courtyard opposite Collate