Daily Front Row

2012 February 2

Rachel Roy De-Stresses With Deepak Chopra

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Deepak Chopra and Rachel Roy
Courtesy AHAlife View Gallery

(NEW YORK) Collab alert! Nope, it doesn't involve H&M, you can't fetch it from Target, and it's for your soul in lieu of your sole. Give up? Rachel Roy partnered with her guru and (burgeoning) pal, Deepak Chopra, to scheme up a handy, pocket-sized, totally anxiety-quelling and Zen-inducing Law of Attraction mp3 button available exclusively on AHAlife. (Skeptical? The Daily can attest! T-minus one week before NYFW, a couple snippets here and there of Chopra's supremely chilled-out voice managed to counteract the typically stressful cacophonous music choices and/or endless stream of interview transcriptions in our ears.) After breakfast and a meditation sesh in AHAlife's gorge Bond Street loft digs, Roy got deep with The Daily about her not-so-secret weapon to keeping calm. Your inner Glenda the Good Witch, coming right up! 
BY ALEXANDRA ILYASHOV 

How did you meet Deepak? 
I met him on Twitter less than a year ago. He’s one of those people that you just feel like you know, and have known for a while. Now I consider him to be such a great friend. I hope he feels that way, too! Or that he's starting to think of me as a great friend. I want to get his message out, particularly to my customers of my secondary line, Rachel Rachel Roy, because lots of girls might not know about him. My job gives me access to helping women and girls find a better quality of life. I truly believe that a dress can remind you of what’s really beautiful about life when you put it on you feel really good about yourself. I love that side of our business. Hopefully we’ll work together in the future.

How would you describe Deepak?
He’s not at all patronizing or condescending. He’s actually very self-deprecating! I can only imagine how many people are constantly pulling him in a million directions; the number of deadlines and commitments on his plate! But when I see how calm he stays, he makes me become the women that I aspire to be.

Who is that woman?
Centered, balanced, calm, and present.

How does your mood change around Deepak?
Being around Deepak feels like Glenda the Good Witch has always been inside you. That’s his thing! Everyone wants to get some of that goodness and to have that rub off on them. He's helped me so much, and I feel so peaceful around him. 

How do you access Deepak's teachings?
For the last three years, I’ve literally been waking up to him, usually by reading his tweets. If I have more time, I'll read a bit of his book each morning.

Why did you start incorporating Deepak into your a.m. routine? 
I started that because of the major guilt I was feeling from being a single mom; I was always rushing my kids around in the morning and not liking the person I'd become.

What kind of rules do you apply to designing your collections?
I really don’t subscribe to rules; I don't believe in them! If I did, I wouldn’t be a creative person and I'd end up limiting my design team. Even if I have an idea of what I want the collection to look like, I never know what little jewels my design team will come up with. And I wouldn't know if I had rules and limited them. Deepak has so much to give that has been helpful to me; it makes me want to put more out there. I have a growing business, so we get a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong. But it's my mood that sets the tone for the company. All I ask is that my staff works really, really hard at what they do. 

What's the deal with this Law of Attraction button?
On Twitter, Deepak will field questions from his followers; they’re like 29-second answers. That's what's on this button. It reminds me of who I really want to be in life. Plus, it's great for travel!

What have you been doing with your button? 
I’ve been passing them on to anyone that I think would appreciate it or benefit from it. I just got them in last week, and I've already sent out a batch. I’m waiting for another batch right now! 

How can the Law of Attraction button prove helpful to the fashion industry?
We're in a business of making people feel good about themselves. That’s the business that I’m in, at least! If you have great taste, which people in this industry have, it also means you have intellect and you’re smart; you’re a thinking person. So instead of reaching for the pills, or cigarettes, or whatever lessens your anxiety, we just need to get it from within. Most of us weren’t raised in ashrams, so it's not something everyone was taught.

What's your biggest gripe about fashion folks getting their skivvies in a twist over seasons, shows, sample sizes, seating charts, etc?
Working in fashion should be fun! It should be a pleasure. We are not going to a gas station every morning to work! Recently I had a pretty heated sample meeting. Tempers and passions flared; people’s feelings got hurt. But afterwards, I reminded everyone how lucky we are that we get to even make these decisions! To be able to fight for clothes, silhouettes, and fabrics that we believe in. How lucky are we? We’re not going to a prison every morning, keeping inmates in their cells!

What has Deepak made you realize about the people you surround yourself by, in work and play?
Deepak is personally attracted to people that live and lead their lives from a calm, centered, knowing place, knowing they’re so secure in who they are, their principles, and what they believe in. That’s exactly who Deepak is! When he looks at you, it's like he can see right through you. He can tell if I’m having a bad day or a good day, and how I’m handling it. We’re attracted to people who lessen our anxiety and make us feel good about ourselves, because they feel so good about themselves. Not in a weird, extra-happy, chirpy way, but almost in a calm, quiet way. It's about being around people who look you in the eyes and listen when you’re talking. There are few people in life that  do that; I remember, value, and honor them. I try to remember that when I'm anxious.

What mantra of Deepak's do you recite during stressful situations?
Actually, I don't! During the fashion show and the hours that lead up to it, I’m so happy. I'd rather be happy than have weird, nervous, anxious, dark energy. It's fun at that point because I can’t even change things even if I wanted; you get to a point of letting go. The show is a celebration of the two horrible weeks beforehand. Things do get horrible, anxious, and gross before the show.

What kind of guidance have you sought from Deepak? 
I have so many questions I want to ask him, so many things I want to learn from him...but when I’m around him, I can’t ask him! Because I can’t put myself in a position where I feel that I’m using him. So I just learn through observation. It's like if someone at your dinner table is a doctor and you ask for a bunch of free medical advice. Deepak is a man who just happens to have this information flowing through him from the universe! I was raised by such a nice, sweet, polite woman, and that rubbed off on me. I can’t ask him things directly. I just can’t. I would feel like I’m doing something wrong!