For me, what I do is an artistic expression which is channeled through me. Fashion is just the medium.

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.

I spent a long time learning how to construct clothes, which is important to do before you can deconstruct them.

I was this young boy and I saw this man with his hands round my sister's neck, I was just standing there with her two children beside me... Everything I've done since then was for the purpose of making women look stronger, not naïve. And so, when everyone started saying I was a misogynist, that really freaked me out. They didn't know me. They didn't know what I had seen in my life. That was the first part of fashion that I hated - people labeling me without knowing me.

I was literally 3 years old when I started drawing. I did it all my life, through primary school, secondary school, all my life. I always, always wanted to be a designer. I read books on fashion from the age of twelve. I followed designer's careers. I knew Giorgio Armani was a window-dresser, Emanuel Ungaro was a tailor.

I can't get sucked into that celebrity thing, because I think it's just crass.

I am married to work.