I arrived in New York exactly on the cusp Autumn, the season of change they call it. With Fall as the harbinger of cold wintry days to come, it’s hard to take its arrival with ease. The seasons are changing, and change in general daunts me. Living with a mental health condition where uncertainty cripples you, the idea of change can be petrifying; not only because it plunges you into the unknown and the uncertain, but also because the promise of taking on something new entails the departure from the familiar. And when you’re in a city currently enveloped by the spirit of change, it’s hard not be reminded by the very thing that scares you. As I was doing my morning run in Central Park zooming past trees shedding their dying leaves, and branches almost bare against the wind and the crisp autumnal light, it dawned on me how fascinating it all is…. how a park of dying things can look so beautiful and idyllic. What can be perceived as death and decay, can also be a promise of rebirth and fresh starts; that even if winter will soon be upon us, you know that there will always be the spring, as you know the rivers will eventually unfreeze and the flowers will bloom again after they had wilted. This was my inspiration for this collection: To not only embrace Change but to celebrate it, fully: the good and the ugly. And to remind you that trees still grow after letting dead things go.