Awkwardness gives me great comfort. I’ve never been cool, but I’ve felt cool. I’ve been in the cool place, but I wasn’t really cool - I was trying to pass for hip or cool. It’s the awkwardness that’s nice. Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it. I can’t get sucked into that celebrity thing, because I think it’s just crass. I design from instinct. It’s the only way I know how to live. What feels good. What feels right. What is needed. Give me a problem and I will approach it creatively, from my gut. You have to be luxurious nude. It’s difficult to move in the nude in front of a mirror. It’s much easier to move when you’re dressed. But if you can walk around in the nude easily in front of your man, if you can be luxurious in the nude, then you’ve really got it.

The key to my collections is sensuality. I would like the people that buy my clothes to understand that for me it’s one small piece of art. I love my beauty. It’s not my fault. Confidence. If you have it, you can make anything look good. Today, I’m very happy about myself, because I realized my dreams. I learned how to understand what people want.

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different. I couldn’t love a woman who inspired me to be totally disinterested. If I fell in love with a woman for an artistic reason, or from the point of view of my work, I think it would rob her of something. For me, the summer will be pure gray - mother-of-pearl gray, very pale gray. To me, this is the big statement for summer. Then we have light blue, light turquoise, lots of pink. You can hide so much behind theatrics, and I don’t need to do that any more. It’s useless to send models out on the runway to cry.

I think it’s the responsibility of a designer to try to break rules and barriers. I can design a collection in a day and I always do, cause I’ve always got a load of Italians on my back, moaning that it’s late. In a meat-eating world, wearing leather for shoes and clothes and even handbags, the discussion of fur is childish. You have a more interesting life if you wear impressive clothes. I didn’t consider myself a fashion designer at all at the time of punk. I was just using fashion as a way to express my resistance and to be rebellious. I came from the country, and by the time I got to London, I considered myself to be very stupid. It was my ambition to understand the world I live in.

I feel that things happen for a reason and open up new opportunities. Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening. Dressing is a way of life. Vanity is the healthiest thing in life. There are only three things I can do - make a dress, decorate a house, and entertain people.

People said making clothes inside out was not proper. I disagreed, because clothes that are inside out are as beautiful as a cathedral. If I had the power, I would ban leggings. If you wear clothes that don’t suit you, you’re a fashion victim. You have to wear clothes that make you look better. If you cut a painter’s hands off, he’d still feel the urge to pick up a brush. Everything I do is a matter of heart, body and soul.

I don’t try to be in fashion; I don’t try to follow trends. You just end up out of fashion that way. It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic, by fashion. It is important to be chic. Dressing is a way of life. You can’t just buy things for the label - it’s ridiculous.

Fashion is about dressing according to what’s fashionable. Style is more about being yourself. It’s really easy to get colors right. It’s really hard to get black - and neutrals - right. Black is certainly a color but it’s also an illusion. Vanity is the healthiest thing in life. I am convinced that there can be luxury in simplicity. I get ideas about what’s essential when packing my suitcase.

I can design a collection in a day and I always do, cause I’ve always got a load of Italians on my back, moaning that it’s late. There is always an emotional element to anything that you make. I design from instinct. It’s the only way I know how to live. What feels good. What feels right. What is needed. Give me a problem and I will approach it creatively, from my gut. My customers are successful workingwomen. Go to a place where you’re not going to be stressed, because a honeymoon itself can be a stressful thing.

Brides today are increasingly sensitive to the tastes, feelings and finances of their attendants. People said making clothes inside out was not proper. I disagreed, because clothes that are inside out are as beautiful as a cathedral. I get ideas about what’s essential when packing my suitcase. Elegance isn’t solely defined by what you wear. It’s how you carry yourself, how you speak, what you read. Fashion fosters cliches of beauty, but I want to tear them apart.