Taiwan-born, New York-based fashion designer Jason Wu made clothes for his Barbie dolls as a child, but after talking his way into the fashion industry, ended up dressing none other than Michelle Obama.I was born in Taiwan in 1982. My dad was in agriculture and my mum was in the restaurant industry and, with my older brother, Kevin, we lived outside Taipei. When I was five, Kevin and I went to a toy store with our parents.
Vancouver was a huge culture shock. Although there was a big Asian population, life was very different. At lunchtime people got out their sandwiches and I'd have fried rice or soup, they didn't take off their shoes when they got home and everyone spoke English. I saw a Christian Lacroix spread in a magazine and decided to make a Barbie version of that. I was also doing a lot of drawing. I was always curious about how things were made and that pushed me in the direction that eventually became my calling in fashion.When I was 16, at boarding school in the United States, I was not loving geometry and history lessons, I wanted to work. I cold-called a toy company and told them they needed a designer and they asked me to come in for an interview.
In my early twenties, I thought I had an answer for everything. I was ambitious, cocky and thought the world was my oyster. I had no idea what I didn't know. Aged 23, I started my first business out of my living room and asked Michelle, who had been working at the department store Bergdorf Goodman in retail, to come and work for me.About the time I started my business, I went to a friend's house for New Year's Eve and that's where I met Gustavo Rangel.