People say we're in and out of recession but I think we've been in one-big recession! There's always one or two companies that are doing fantastically well, but for every Facebook there's 5 million people unemployed. One of the things that makes American Apparel successful is the entrepreneurial spirit in California. Some of the labour laws in Europe make it difficult for people to start something, even if they want to. You can start a business tomorrow in the United States and be ready to go. Q: Does fashion have the capacity to influence our mood and emotions? [Robin Givhan] Absolutely! If you ask a woman what she might do if she needed a little pick-me-up? chances are they will say, " a new pair of shoes! " or " a new lipstick! ". It's a manifestation of the fact that people feel better about themselves if they feel they look good. There are all sorts of programmes that support women who are dealing with cancer treatments where the sole purpose is to give them a makeover or- for example- produce wigs. Fashion even in these extreme circumstances has the powerful ability to make people feel better about themselves. I also think about fashion shows in this sense. There are terrible images of some over-wrought fashion editors getting all weepy about fashion show's they've seen... and while I've never wept at a fashion show, there are certainly occasions where a designer has been extraordinarily skilled at presenting their work through