Some families have vagabond genes. I grew up with the Maasai traveling to destinations not indicated on any map to attend ceremonies that happened every 9 months or 9 years, and that may never happen again. My mother was a French social anthropologist who married a Maasai warrior. My sense of color and design was not only shaped by the effortless elegance of Maasai warriors, but also by hanging out with my French father and his friends who included the new wave of artists who emerged in the post second world war Paris. Salvador Dali called my father his psychoanalyst and asked him to write the foreword of some of his books. The first clothes I ever wore were silk couture bought in a chic boutique on the rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris and they set the tone for the rest of my life. My mother called me "Carolyn cherie de soie vetue" -darling Carolyn, all dressed in silk-I have always loved cashmere, silk, linen and any hand-made things.“It was an upbringing that has rooted itself in her heart and her vision” Donna Karan says, “she finds unique individual pieces, and connects all these pieces to make a whole. It is the power and spirit of the individual soul.” As a true nomad, I have transported the Great Rift Valley to the Hudson valley where I have set up base camp in an old barn in which I blew new life. The sun sets behind the Catskills instead of the Ngong Hills, deer have replaced impalas, and when my friends ask me if I miss Africa, my answer is "I carry it with me."