I was an art history major, but never specifically contemporary. I would say where I really stopped were the abstract expressionists in the New York school.
If you want to establish an international presence you can't do so from New York. You need the consecration of Paris.
I have this complex that if I walk into a place wearing a colorful shirt someone will stop me and say, 'I'm sorry, but the Latin band comes through the other door.'
I used to make clothes for my sister's dolls. I couldn't care less for the dolls, but I could make the clothes really easily.
The classic hat image was during the Forties and Fifties, and Elizabeth Taylor was the epitome of that; she was the ultimate celebrity of excess and glamour, and she worked major sun hats.
I must point out - Sarah Jessica Parker is not a diva - she's one of these pop culture characters that everybody likes.
I've been accused of being a shell designer - you start with a machine and enclose it. But in many cases, the shell is essential. A locomotive without a shell would be nonfunctional.
I was looking at people like Jim Morrison and David Bowie and Mick Jagger and I thought, Ah! I want to look like them.
If I see someone wearing Hilfiger it makes me proud, but then I wonder what I could do to make the style more relevant for them next year?
My mother was kind and forgiving and would take in all the waifs and strays in our neighbourhood; we always compared her to Mother Teresa. She taught me a lot.
I am not a movie star or a football player, I just do my thing.
The greatest shoemaker in England for many, many decades; he used to be the royal shoe-maker for the Queen Mother. This is where I learnt my trade.
I never thought that I would sell to young people, but now girls who are 14 and 15 buy my shoes.
I can sketch up a storm, and I'm very involved in how clothes are constructed, but I have a short attention span.
People always think that designers hate each other. And we're certainly a competitive lot, but we also enjoy each other's company.
People want to look taller and thinner. No one says, 'Ooh! Let me buy that dress because it makes me feel matronly!'
Then I started to do furniture and interiors for a friend and just to get stuff in a magazine, and then slowly started to build up and started to doing exhibitions.
Fashion is not enough anymore. It's not just about what you wear. I mean, I don't know how many women can afford to take the time to come to Paris for three fittings.
In fashion, the time is so short, and even with pre-collection, there are not only dresses, shoes, bags, and furs but now raincoats and T-shirts. It's just an endless amount of work that we have to produce in no time.
I think the idea of mixing luxury and mass-market fashion is very modern, very now - no one wears head-to-toe designer anymore.
British fashion is self confident and fearless. It refuses to bow to commerce, thus generating a constant flow of new ideas whilst drawing in British heritage.
