So you don’t set your sights on something and go after it? Really ambitious people sometimes frighten me. I meet lots of other actresses, and they’re just so hungry for it. It scares me a little. I mean, I have ambition and things that I want to do.

What are the references for the unisex collection? The genesis of the whole line was that I wanted to find a pink flannel. I was searching eBay and every vintage store that I go to, all of my haunts in New York and L.A., and I couldn’t find a pink flannel. So I decided to make a menswear line so I could make a pink flannel. It’s still not the perfect pink flannel, but it’s pretty good. The blouse Dave Gahan wore in Depeche Mode 101 was another inspiration. I wanted to make that silk shirt [laughs]. In 101 he wears this billowy white silk shirt in all the concert footage, and I’m in love with him and the way he looks in that movie.

And the book Skins and Punks by Gavin Watson? Yes. The shapes, the knitwear, the bomber-style jackets and three-quarter overcoats. The silhouette of the way the skins used to dress. My friend in Italy who works for Vice, which published it, gave it to me. But I had seen the original Skins, his first book, when I was 18 or something. Harmony [Korine] and I had it. I actually used a lot of the images when I designed the costumes for Gummo. And then there’s the Fair Isle sweater with matching knit leggings. They’re a little Bernhard Willhelm. They’re really cute. I’m so excited to see someone walking down the street in them! At Sway a couple weeks ago, there was a girl wearing one of our tops. We went over and took my picture with her! It’s just so, so cute. I love it. I love seeing people in the stuff. It gets me off [laughs].

What about the first collection? It’s all about 90s. I guess I was thinking about junior high a lot. For both collections.

You find a lot of references in youth culture. Well, it’s your biggest self-discovery period. And at such a rapid pace.

How did you become involved with X-girl as a teenager? It’s very convoluted, but I can walk you through it if you really care [laughs]. I was spotted on the street by Andrea Linett, fashion editor of Sassy. She asked me to do some shoots. Then she asked me to intern. She was friends with this woman Daisy von Furth, who is the sister of Julia Cafritz, who was in Pussy Galore and friends with Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. So Daisy became friends with Kim and started styling them because she was a stylist—that’s how I got in the Lemonheads video [“Big Gay Heart”], but that’s further down the line. So then she was styling this Sonic Youth video [“Sugar Kane”] and called Andrea, or maybe Kim called Andrea, and said, We’re looking for a girl who’ll be naked in our video and do you have anybody? And Andrea says there’s this cute girl who’s interning for me called Chloë. So then Kim called me at home in Connecticut, while I was still in high school, and asked me to be in the video…

That’s always exciting. Oh, my god, I was beyond anything you can even comprehend. It was so bananas, I was trembling. I’m still so nervous around her. So Daisy was styling that, and then she and Kim did X-girl together.

Do you think one day we might not be so enthralled with youth culture? Never. Do you think? There’s always going to be such a market. Especially because when young girls go through their hormonal changes, it’s such a frenzy. But there was a time when young girls would go through hormonal changes, then stop working at the button factory and have babies. In the polygamist communities, you’re a child and then a mother. There’s no teen period. It’s very sad. I’ve actually been reading Escape by Carolyn Jessop to get back into the Big Love mood. And I also got The Nineteenth Wife to read. All of those books say there’s no teen period for these girls.

So what comes after the 90s as a source of inspiration? God, I don’t know yet. I’m anti the whole 80s craze, because all of those young kids are so into it.