sure. you have to think about so many things. truly, it is a big work. you have to be strong. you have to take care also of the physiology of the actor which is, like, oh, my god. you can be depressed. also, you see the depression of everybody. i do not want it. i have enough of my own. >> i hope you will be sharp enough to answer the questions the audience has for you. rather like the academy awards. [applause] these questions have come through on various means. can we have the first question? >> the first question -- i am going to compile a group -- a lot of people are asking what is currently inspiring new?

from different cultures, the internet, textile design -- what exciting things are you seeing in contemporary textile design? and what are you reading? >> definitely, that is very sad, but i have not enough time to read. that is the very sad part. so i'm not enough reading, but i'm getting older and getting closer. now that nobody is doing any more reading, i will read. no, i think honestly, it is a question of time, but reading, to bring inspiration, but that is the problem. i get into a book and say that i can make a collection of that after, like, three lines. one time i did an existentialist

collection years ago, and i was thinking, so i read a book to no more, to get into it, and sometimes, the explanation can teach you. i read about it and i learned and understood. so i did the collection with my interpretation. i tried to understand the base, the concept, so it is good. you have to read, definitely. >> creativity is so difficult to define by creative people because you just do it instinctively. you were telling me that last night, something inspired you, and you went back andrew your

next collection until 4:00 a.m. what inspired you? do you know what set it off? >> i think it is image sometimes. one that you do not expect can be also a surprise. it was not the case here today. yesterday during the night, it was more like an image that i have seen or received little and i did not know how to treat it. something making me think about it yesterday. after it came and i wake up, instinctively it came like yes, i could do it like that, so i wrote that to remember, and after i was into it, it was very exciting. yes, i find it because always, you are looking for something, you did not know what. until it becomes more concrete,

it gives you -- i need to have that direction. it is a real pleasure. sometimes also like some things in fashion that you get a reaction, can be somebody walking, moving in a way where there is no pocket, but it should have been a pocket. you see the desire or what should be good. food is visual for me. >> can you think of one single example of something that you saw -- i do not know, a green leaf or something on the internet or something in a movie -- something that directly inspired you that you

were almost drawing a minute later from it. >> i think it was years ago when i did my constructive collection. my graphic assistant had a book with her. i loved everything, but it is like a physical reaction. like if i want to eat it. but he made me think about food. it was truly like a beautiful color. it was constructivist, you know. it was so beautiful. they were so perfect that i wanted to have it all. so i make a photo of all the book, and i wanted to have all around me to get into it and to see through that, so it was --

that is one thing. another thing -- >> one is enough. >> you know what, there is too much selection on the internet. i like the motion, which i mean like surprise. i go somewhere and find something i did not expect, it is there that i have the real shock. i have my reaction. sometimes it does not happen. sometimes it happens late. what i do in that case, i will not tell you. [laughter] >> that might lead to the next question -- what scares you? and then maybe not to be more in love with my were. fashion.

>> maybe you are scared that there might be one day -- i'm sure it will never happen -- when you do not have the energy anymore? that scared of a piece of blank paper and a collection coming up in six weeks -- that does not scare you? >> yes, but i tried to protect myself. for example, i go to a flea market, and nt place. when i see something that i find interesting, even if i have no interest in anything at the moment, i say that one day i will do something from that. i know that there was work on it. i think i have to burn it, because at the end, i take too much time to look at it. but, yes, i mean, to be honest, i think will realize what time that i have no more of the passion, which will mean i will

stop. i think it is better. honestly, before i was doing that profession, because i was not at peace with the fact that i was rejected, so i was inventing a lot of things. at the moment, i started to work -- i finish. because i do the things that i'd love to do, why should i live now. there's no reason to lie? because i am accepted through my work? why should i lie? because i do not want to live again in my old days. but i will always interested in fashion. >> the next question is for both of you -- how is it in the

fashion world for larger size women? >> i will answer this first. i was so happy when beth ditto appeared in one of jean paul's collections. she is a terrific woman and quite rotund in size. i have not quite caught up with her yet, but i certainly am no little stick. i personally thinks one of the things he should be admired for is not to bring the tyranny of fashion to women. he has, as he has explained, done a lot for diversity in terms of skintight but also diversity of styles and shapes, and i think that was the reason for a round of applause. [applause]

>> there is one diversity also which is important, age. i should explain because you know in fashion, a terrible because there is always racism about age. one of the races and is in fashion which i am absolutely against. how could i be against age when i have a grandmother that let me do anything and what it, gave me optimism and positivity? i think people that are old and have experience, you can learn a lot from them, and there are maybe sometimes more sweet than the grandparents. i think age also is something important. i remember, i wanted to do what a collection one time with only old people, and they told me not to do that because we do not like to see ourselves projected

as old. and i did not do it. sometimes i did not listen, but at the moment, i knew i had to do some testing, and i had to show the beauty through the edge, so i will do it one time. maybe it will be my last collection. i will be part of the show, and i will walk. >> your final question comes from a twitter question. what advice do you have for young artists and designers to be successful in the world with so much competition and talent? >> i do not like to give advice. i know only my passion. what i can say is if you truly love fashion, you want to do a

profession with fashion, you see -- they will find solutions. the things in fashion is to be right of with the moment with the society, with the desire, with what people need, and to understand also economically. of course, now, we have a moment where economically, there are a lot of things. it is reality. so knowing all that, you have to make the decision and find a solution about it and propose the right things. the ones who say that what to do the right thing for now, they will get it. only courage and love what you do.

it is marvelous work. i am lucky because i do the work i love, and doing it, i love it even more. it permits need to be accepted and loved. if you receive love, you can give love. [applause] >> we cannot really have a more beautiful ending than that, but i am going to use my chance just to ask one last question. do you believe that you have marked fashion history? >> it is difficult to say. is it my purpose? i do not know. i think that's everybody is

marking fashion history in a way. as much as journalists because they show the people. what is fashion history? some old clothes that you can find may be in the free-market? books, magazines, newspapers? i think that i am part of that, but to think that me, i'm mark -- i do not think so. it is not exactly my purpose. it really seems very selfish to do what you love. >> i'm glad i managed more or less to silence you with my question. [laughter] i would like to say that i believe you have marked fashion history in the best way by creating clothes, which have been a mirror to society as it changed and as it happened, and you will be known for that as much as for the beauty of the close.

thank you so much for giving us the chance to talk to you. [applause] >> million can hear me. i want to welcome everyone to one of the newest parts of district 5, the famous county fair building. yay. [laughs] [applause] thank you all for coming in participating in this meeting today. i am excited to have all of you

here today in my district to speak about issues that concern you. san francisco is a world-class city because we had citizens like yourselves who are vocal and willing to put in the work in the hours to make the community better. i want to thank you all for being here and giving us your input. i want to thank mayor lee and his staff for helping to put this together with dominica and chris of my staff did not like to introduce a district 1 supervisor and a dear friend of mine. we share a lot of the same values. i am very happy to be sharing this form with him today. that is supervisor eric mar. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor olague. thank you, everyone, for being here. this used to be part of district 1. with the redistricting process, and there is a commissioner in the front row, but it is now district 5. we share the park.

all of us are stewards of it. the general manager acknowledges this as well. carmen chu is here as well from the board of supervisors. [applause] also, many leaders from the richmond district that our office's work closely with over the years, you'll hear from them a little bit later we hope that the budget process will be one that is very sensitive and transparent, especially fair for our communities. district 1, the richmond district, and the other neighborhoods of district 1 feel strongly that seniors and the aging population of our district are critical, part of the critical safety net. we have a number of speakers that will be speaking later. nick and linda from the golden gate senior service center. seniors in our aging population is critical. also, for transportation and

transit needs, we have a leader from the sierra club in the richmond district. sue is on our committee for a transit as well. i want to acknowledge that children and families are critical to the nature of the richmond district. i am happy to be working closely with the richmond district neighborhood center and the staff there. they will make remarks later. the community-based organizations, the schools, the parks, and the many neighborhood clubs and organizations in the richmond feel strongly that our district has a tremendous needs. we hope in this bridges -- we hope in this budget process we will bring those needs out and advocate for them on a citywide level. i want to thank everyone for being here in the former part of district 1, but also for you do think about the immigrant families, not just chinese but also russian-speaking in the diversity of families and seniors and others. now it is my great honor to introduce an activist who i met

in a chinatown 20 years ago. as a civil-rights leader. now i am very proud to say he is the mayor of san francisco, california. this is our major, edwin lee. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor. thank you to supervisor mar and supervisor olague and of course supervisor chu. it is very important that we have this input from all of you tonight. tonight, those of you who have used your precious time to come out, we're here to listen to you. we made a promise that we would be a much more open government, that we would make sure in our decision making that it reflected important input from all of our communities. as you go, i've been trying very hard, and i think we have been relatively successful in making sure that our budget process really is reflective of a

neighborhood priorities. tonight, i am not here alone. i am here not only with members of the board of supervisors, we're also here with a hole that the of representatives and department heads from various city departments and have dedicated their professional lives to improving service for our city. i am so happy to be with them because i know they work very hard. i get to work with all of them for many years, and i know that they have the very heart and they want this city to improve. they want the best level of services. we're one of those very lucky cities to have a number of departments, but rich in our services to our residents. i hope we can continue that improvement even when there are cuts faced in our state level and cuts based in our federal levels. tonight, it is very important that we get your input. while there will be introductions from our various

departments, i want to make sure you know the bulk of the time is going to be listening to you. i want to begin by thanking our office and civic engagement and immigrant affairs. they are here tonight to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak their mind, no matter what language, culture. but they are here from district 5 and district 1. they are very important. clearly, we have been doing these public budget town halls for some time now. this is the fourth of five that we're committed to. on saturday, we conclude with an additional two districts to round out. we have been taking extensive notes to make sure that these ideas and these concerns -- and we're very sensitive to all the concerns. but you also know that we still have years of deficit. but they are not as bad as previous years. we're not willing, and we cannot

use the word surplus yet, but hopefully in our lifetimes and, hopefully in our future there is a strong possibility that our recovery will be ended and we will see even better times. but that takes a lot of discipline in our budgetary process. it takes a strong encouragement that our city's road to recovery has a lot to do with investor confidence. i have been talking a lot about innovation in our city, bringing jobs back, having those jobs be touching everyone in our city, no matter if you are from bayview or ared5 or d1, chinatown, richmond, or sunset. everyone has to feel they are involved in our economic recovery, and only then will we feel we have the satisfaction of having a complete budget. but right now, it is only a partial budget.

because this coming fiscal year, we're still about $170 million in the deficit. we see a way out on that, but it will be sensitive to what we can fund. and then the following year, as you recall, we now have a two- year budget, so budget for fiscal year 2013-2014 is also a legal obligation that we must balance as well. and that year, the budget deficit is about $312 million in deficit, so these are serious in numbers, once we have not figured out yet. but if we listen to you tonight, we take that under consideration along with our legal obligations, we hope to present to the board a budget that is balanced but also sensitive to community needs, sensitive to needs of our seniors, needs of our families, needs of our youth, needs of neighborhoods,

as well as making sure we fund transportation, make sure we have adequate funds to help our school systems that keep getting threatens with the state cuts, and all the other needs that you have identified. i think we are a pretty sensitive city when it comes to fulfilling these needs. i just want to make sure your note that we ask for your involvement -- make sure you know that we ask for your involvement, and we ask that you support innovative ideas and solutions to our budget. and at the end of the day, we want to make sure that our city is investment-friendly. because the way out, ladies and gentlemen, budget deficit years is never to depend upon the state that has no good news for us. they never have good news. it is all about how they can fill the abyss of the state deficit. the federal government has signaled they have some funds,

this presidential year they are not giving away anything. because they cannot have a good dialogue at the federal level with the presidential election going on. everything is politicized. knowing that, we have to depend upon our own economy and our own recovery. that says that i have to pay attention to good levels of tourism in the city, good levels of health care industry, because they are like our number two employment in our city, and then of course, in fighting technology and biotech and life sciences to establish -- inviting technology and biotech and life sciences to our city. we want returning veterans and people in mid-career is to come as much as possible to san francisco. involvement, innovation, and investment. that is what we want to emphasize for the next two years budget whileevery commun'. with that, i will turn the microphone over to our

supervisors and it sure we get everybody introduced that is here on behalf of the city. thank you for coming out and spend your precious time with us. [applause] >> as the mayor mentioned, in addition to me, supervisor mar, the mayor, we have several department heads who are here who are here to listen to your concerns. i will introduce them at this time. i would beg to introduce a car led johnson from the mayor's office of disability. regina from small businessolson lee, mayor's office of housing. henry alvarez, housing

authority. monique at the comptroller's. barbara garcia from the department of public health. cindy from the budget office. naomi kelly, at par city administrator -- our city administrator. philip ginsburg, parks and representative. ed reiskin. maria, department of children, youth, and families. louise herera, the city librarian. mohammad nuru, dpw. phil arnold.

capt. goldberg. you are from the human services agency? chief hayes white, who gone up from the fire department. karen roy from trout support services. please stand up. the rich in capt., eric vantero. so you have a sense of who we all are. if there is time after, please engage some of us. we will be around, if you want more in-depth conversation. certainly, if you would like meetings with any of us, feel free to contact our offices. we are definitely open to that.

thank you. i want to introduce the moderator henry kelly at this time. henne kelly, i'm sorry. >> she is one of the most dynamic richmond activists, a longtime teacher, and acted with the seniors in the district. >> and i work with christine daily at senior action network. >> who knew? >> i am a richmond district resident, i have been for 35 years. this is one of the most beautiful parts of the park. i am so happy to be here. this is a very nicely planned events, and most of the time, they say there will be listening they say there will be listening to you, but let me go over the