[MUSIC PLAYING]
FERNANDO: Laura and I just have a sense
of understanding what we both want to see overall
for every collection.
She knows that I want to have some sort of a dream
point of view.
And I know that she is going to ask me, is it wearable?
Can this be sold?
Is it going to make me feel good as a woman?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
WOMAN: Yay!
[LAUGHS]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So beautiful.
Oh my god.
That's pretty.
FERNANDO: The process of dressing
Billie was quite magical.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We are about ready to go to the Met.
FERNANDO: It was amazing to see how fearless she could be.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
LAUREN: Now, when you pick up your phone
and FaceTime your friends about what you're going to wear,
that means she loves it.
And she was doing that the whole time.
FERNANDO: That is always a great sign.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
For Laura and myself, creative collaboration
was happening since the day we met.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Pushing each other to better the product
that we were thinking of doing.
That print, what do you think?
Is that color too sad?
Do you think it should be punched up?
It's just never not been that way.
And I think that what's great is that you just
need to be comfortable to be around somebody
who can challenge you.
When Fernando and I first met, he didn't study fashion.
So there were a lot of things he couldn't
do that I helped him to do.
But he was very good at other things I wasn't trained to do.
So we're very comfortable tossing our work
back and forth, which is kind of hard for a lot
of creative people.
Because it's about control, too.
FERNANDO: Mhm.
Like, your creative control.
You want what you're creating to be perfect, and your vision.
But I feel very comfortable.
And that's how we feel about each other.
We never not want to better each other.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Top three things you have to focus
on when you're collaborating with your business partner.
First is trust.
Having open conversation.
Being open to listening to each other.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
And I think you also have to be, like,
really appreciating the person you're collaborating with.
You have to love what they do.
You have to trust what they're going to deliver.
FERNANDO: It definitely allows you
to have more freedom when you feel the other person trusts
your talent.
If you don't have that complete level of trust,
everything else kind of falls apart.
Number 2, a point of view.
Yeah, that's very important.
I think that if you surround yourself with good people,
that's great.
But they're not going to do anything
for you if your point of view is irrelevant in the marketplace.
Number 3?
To have good financial team for stability financially.
[LAUGHS]
I love that your head went there, and I'm like, fun.
I know.
I'm like, fun, party, celebrities.
Like--
I'm like, pay bills, pay bills.
[LAUGHS]
If you're a Type A personality--
What's Type A, exactly?
I mean, you.
And I'm--
Oh, I'm Type A. OK.
Type A and the me's of the world
find success when they understand
each other's rhythms can have a benefit to each other's lives.
The outcome of my, uh, lack of planning sometimes pays off.
Sometimes it doesn't.
But she sees that the spontaneity
in creating something that, unfortunately, happens
to be last-minute is worth keeping
as a part of the collection.
I think in a way, because we've worked together
for so long, I plan to deal with the last-minute chaos
by planning myself to have that room to deal with.
I guess your chaos is built into my plan.
[LAUGHS]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
What I learned from Oscar as creative collaboration,
working as a team, he was always so open to ideas.
And he was dying to know what you were thinking.
He was always very curious.
And I'm not someone who talks a lot in the creative process.
He would actually get mad at me, like, say something!
[LAUGHS]
Mhm.
Well, that's it.
That's it.
And I usually don't say anything
when I don't like what he's doing.
[LAUGHS]
Well, no.
I mean, you just-- you just nailed it.
When Oscar would have a model walk in,
in his design that he did, fratch to end,
and if he didn't feel the room's reaction to loving it,
it meant that they couldn't connect with it in some way.
So that's why it's important to permeate opinions
through the process.
Not because you don't have a spine and can't figure out what
the idea is from beginning to end.
But it's because you're putting a product for a world
that is meant to be worn by not just you.
Like, Fernando will suggest, like, oh,
in this movie that just came out,
she was wearing this color.
Why don't we do it in this color?
Or I'll show him a swatch someone made,
like, why don't we add this detail?
But you have to be very open to working with your team,
to be able to, like, listen to all your 20-year-old assistants
and make changes to your design.
And that's something he really taught me.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So when I have a vision that Fernando doesn't understand,
or agree on, or doesn't like, I try
to gather images and stories that will paint for him what
I'm thinking.
So it's about, like, explaining myself.
But our work is so visual that I have
to have print-outs, or story, music.
But we're so used to working together
by now that you literally do a chicken scratch sketch
and I'm like, that is fresh.
That's new.
I know exactly what you mean.
Yeah.
[LAUGHS]
So it's-- when you need to pull the convincing cards,
you're sort of already aware that you need to push yourself
further.
I know I feel that way when I need to explain to her an idea.
I'm like, clearly she knows my brain better than anybody.
You and I know, like, in one second when an idea feels
relevant to the collection, or relevant for sales,
or relevant for the runway.
We just know.
When either of us are not fully onboard with an idea,
no matter how much either of us want it,
we don't like to force it upon the other.
We also ask, like, our team member, or our CEO--
FERNANDO: Oh, they're great deciders, too.
LAURA: Yeah.
FERNANDO: And they're people that we respect and love.
And so we listen.
It's when it's, like, pure disgust for an idea that we--
we don't even, like, bother them.
[LAUGHS]
It's when it's like, do I like it?
And if they say yes, then I'm like, OK.
Well, usually they also get involved because we're,
like, getting louder about it.
[LAUGHS] They're like, what's going on in there?
And I just truly wouldn't want to put something on the runway
if she is that clear about it not representing her aesthetic.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
And that's just the level of respect we have for each other.
Laura would never put down the runway something
that I completely hate.
And that's just because you have to respect your partner.
[MUSIC PLAYING]