People find my things sometimes aggressive. But I don't see it as aggressive. I see it as romantic, dealing with a dark side of personality.

There’s blood beneath every layer of skin.

I am a melancholy type of person.

There is no better designer than nature

You've got to know the rules to break them. That's what I'm here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition.

My friend George and I were walking on the beach in Norfolk, and there were thousands of [razor-clam] shells. They were so beautiful, I thought I had to do something with them. So, we decided to make [a dress] out of them. . . . The shells had outlived their usefulness on the beach, so we put them to another use on a dress. Then Erin [O’Conner] came out and trashed the dress, so their usefulness was over once again. Kind of like fashion, really.

I come from a different era and I design clothes for our era. I think of people I want to dress when I design.