OLIVIER ZAHM — In this issue, we want to celebrate New York as a place for style, fashion, creativity…

CAROLINA HERRERA — It used to be.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Okay, let’s stop the interview. [Laughs]

CAROLINA HERRERA — New York used to be very sophisticated and glamorous. When you arrived in New York, you felt that you were plugged into the electricity. You became full of energy. New York was different.

OLIVIER ZAHM — It’s still like that.

CAROLINA HERRERA — You know why that is? Because there are so many things to do in New York and so many things to see. First of all, you have the best museums, and they’re all magic. And there’s Broadway, the plays.

OLIVIER ZAHM — And there’s a special magnetism here. The power of the buildings, the beauty of the sky, the light…

CAROLINA HERRERA — All these buildings, you don’t see them anywhere else. There’s this idea of New York being the city where everybody wanted to be. Because it’s a city of opportunities, first of all.

OLIVIER ZAHM — If it changes in New York, it changes everywhere.

CAROLINA HERRERA — It changes everywhere, but in New York, you notice it more.

OLIVIER ZAHM — What about the New York style now?

CAROLINA HERRERA — I’ll tell you something. Years ago, when we were coming to New York, you used to see the most beautiful people in the streets, and it was really lovely. Now, everybody looks the same to me. Women are all the same. They’re all going to the gym or coming out of the gym. Even if they’re not, that’s what they wear. Shoes disappeared. They’re all sneakers, and they’re all the same to me. And all these jeans with holes everywhere, which I find so old-fashioned. People don’t want to be called “sophisticated” or “elegant” or “glamorous” — they want to be cool. And you know what cool is for me? A glass of water with lots of ice. But New York is amazing, and it has always been. And it’s very difficult to destroy it.

ALEPH MOLINARI — Tell us when you first came to New York. Was it in the ’70s?

CAROLINA HERRERA — I first came to New York when I was a child. And then I came back when I married Reinaldo. New York was a very glamorous place back then. Totally different from now because there were many places to go to. There were many private houses that used to host beautiful dinners and dances.

OLIVIER ZAHM — It was a social scene.

CAROLINA HERRERA — There was a huge social scene in New York. And everybody used to mix. For instance, Studio 54 was a place where you used to find painters, writers, royalty, society, everybody together. It was fascina­ting. And that’s something you don’t have anymore. You don’t have a place to go.

ALEPH MOLINARI — The amount of creative possibilities that came out of that place…

CAROLINA HERRERA — Yes, and New York has always been a place of opportunity. And people come to New York like it’s a magical place.

OLIVIER ZAHM — It was a social melting pot, where people gathered from different parts of the world.

CAROLINA HERRERA — They were all mixed. There was a place that used to be very glamorous, El Morocco. It was a nightclub, a famous one, where everybody came from everywhere in the world. You don’t see that anymore.

OLIVIER ZAHM — And did that scene inspire you to become a designer?

CAROLINA HERRERA — It was by pure chance. I wanted to do something different in my life, and I had the opportunity to do it in New York. So, with the help of the Herrera name — I have to be honest because I took Reinaldo’s name for my designs. They were very well known in New York, and there was a connection with fashion — Diana Vreeland at Vogue, whom I met through Mimi [Maria Herrera-Uslar] and her husband Reinaldo. They were the most glamorous couple. I had the opportunity to do it here. I did my first show at the Metropolitan Club, and everybody came. A mixture: there was Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Diana Vreeland… And it was a real success, I have to say. That show was elegant and glamorous. I wanted women to look beautiful and well-dressed — and all the stores bought from there.

OLIVIER ZAHM — When was that?

CAROLINA HERRERA — ’81 — 42 years ago.

ALEPH MOLINARI — And you also had Iman in the show?

CAROLINA HERRERA — I had all the great models because I had the luck of being helped by Bill Blass, the designer, who was a very good friend and who used to dress me. He helped me with the models. Emanuel Ungaro, too. I mean, all these friends who used to dress me… And so, the fashion papers said at the beginning, “She’s going to do it for one season, and then she’s going to forget about it.” And yet I’m here.

OLIVIER ZAHM — And what was Diana Vreeland like?

CAROLINA HERRERA — She was the most amazing woman because she had a personality that is unusual to find — sophisticated, with great taste, and a lot of imagination. She was really different from everyone. I haven’t found anybody who looks like her. She always wanted to be surrounded by younger people. At the end of her life, she became blind, but she didn’t want anybody to notice. So, when we went to dinner in her house, she used to have everything where she knew she could grab it. She could grab her drink without showing it. So, she was acting. And she helped me a lot. And Carrie Donovan, who was the head of The New York Times Magazine — she was great, too. Everything changes in fashion every 10 years or 20 years. And all the magazines had new editors, as always happens. And I was lucky to get along well with all of them.