John Rocha Quotes

When someone asks about a career in fashion, I say start at the bottom. If you want to start a business, you have to know it from the ground up.

I'd never met Kate Spade, but I admired her as a designer and a businesswoman.

My father built a small manufacturing business. I worked alongside him and saw firsthand the challenges that business owners face.

You know, the fashion business is this legendary repository of young girls on their way to getting husbands. I really wanted to work.

There are three or four places in the country where people think of fashion: One is L.A., obviously. Another is New York. And I think Atlanta has to be in the top five cities where fashion is very big.

I love how music and fashion are so similar. We need each other.

I am an industry.

Fashion is a very particular world, as you know.

Once you start a business, you have to grow it and grow with it - starting a business is not just for Christmas.

We have our factory, which is called a stage. We make a product, we color it, we title it and we ship it out in cans.

Playing all of these games, getting to know everything about the NBA, you realize that you are your own business. You have business meetings to go to, signings to go to. Like, I'm only 20, but the stuff I'm doing the average 20-year-old isn't doing.

I do love fashion. I certainly wouldn't suffer all the stress that comes with it if I didn't really love it. I always talk about the team of people I work with every day. They share that passion.

For the last five years I've been in the production business.

Designing is so easy - it's the business that is hard. That's why you really have to respect Ralph Lauren - look at what he's done. Anybody who can sustain themselves should be applauded.

I think running a business, doing what I've done for the last - since 1996, has taught me so many things because I started from just an idea and then had to figure out how to make it, market it, every single thing from soup to nuts on how to get a product done and out there.

Business is tough, and the fashion industry is particularly tough.

We came from a family where we ran our own small business. Our dad made his own products. We made our own sausages, our own meatloafs, our own pickles. Dad had to do everything himself. He had to figure out how to finance his business.

People who run a ready-to-wear company are businessmen rather than production or design people.

It's a really interesting and diverse business. You're a farmer first, then a winemaker, then you're onto marketing and distribution. So it's multi-faceted and really engaging. I've learned more in the last couple years than in the ten prior to that, so it's been pretty interesting.

Someday I want to have my own clothing line, perfume and makeup line.

It takes a lot more than just knowing how to put an outfit together to succeed in the fashion industry, so more power to you if this is where you want to be; just don't expect it to be an extended trip to the mall.

Many artists stick to making and hire a manager to focus on their business. Artists that build websites and mobile apps can do that, too.

There's something about the fashion world that I like, which is, I see a lot of the designers really have affection for other designers.

Business is usually a team sport. There isn't one great person sitting there directing things. You can't run an effective business like that.

I've got a good team, got great agents that I know are going to handle the business side, and I trust those guys.