I am still in love with couture because it is just two months from drawing pad to runway so everything on the catwalk is hot from the oven.

For me, I am still very happy to be able to do stage design as it's an opportunity to express the extreme.

I'd experienced the '40s and '50s by looking at my grandparents' old clothes, books, and magazines

Since I was a child I've loved going to the opera, theatre and ballet.

French design hardly exists, except as artificial modernism.

For me, haute couture is a necessity. I never would have done this job were it not for haute couture. It is a comfort, a security. I almost feel it is our duty to continue. Haute couture is France. We have to keep all the skills and craftmanship alive.

That was the idea behind glam clubs like Seven and The New Eve. You could eat and dance to live music. To enter you had to descend a grand staircase.