I have a fantastic relationship with money. I use it to buy my freedom. You’re only as good as your last collection, which is an enormous pressure. I don’t care about money. I really don’t care. I just want to do what I do. It’s useless to send models out on the runway to cry. Fashions fade, style is eternal.
I adore the challenge of creating truly modern clothes, where a woman’s personality and sense of self are revealed. I want people to see the dress, but focus on the woman. I don’t like trends. They tend to make everybody look the same. I believe that my clothes can give people a better image of themselves – that it can increase their feelings of confidence and happiness. I think God is the most fantastic designer. I try as much as possible to give you a great basic product and what comes out, I feel, is really amazing.
The difference between style and fashion is quality. Attention to detail is of utmost importance when you want to look good. The great thing about fashion is that it always looks forward. I wanted to dress the woman who lives and works, not the woman in a painting. I am like a freight train. Working on the details, twisting them and playing with them over the years, but always staying on the same track.
Design is a series of creative choices – it’s a collaborative effort, an evolutionary process. You choose your fabrics depending upon what you want to say, then you work with mills to get those fabrics. Through the process, you realize what you want it to be. It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic, by fashion. Comfort is very important to me. I think people live better in big houses and in big clothes. The only way to do something in depth is to work hard. I wanted to dress the woman who lives and works, not the woman in a painting.
There are always protests, whether you do something good or bad. Even if you do something beneficial, people say you do it because it’s advertising. I think there is something about luxury – it’s not something people need, but it’s what they want. It really pulls at their heart. Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity. Grunge is a hippied romantic version of punk. I can’t get sucked into that celebrity thing, because I think it’s just crass.
