The first time I met Wendell Rodricks was a little over a decade ago, when I was a rookie fashion critic with a then leading broadsheet. And he was THE Wendell Rodricks, a big deal, "sir" to young designers who tapped on his shoulder for a quick crash course in pattern cutting, feedback on their collections, and then for a few laughs.

He indulged all of them with his magnificent mind. I was one of them.