What's important for me is to find the right kind of girls who express a vision of a woman. We like girls who look smart and intelligent with natural beauty - a certain quality of skin and hair. And she doesn't look exactly like a model.

We have a direct contact with our clothes; they're like a little house. You have to feel good and at home in what you wear and. I think that's elegance. Chanel said something like: "When a woman is badly dressed, one sees the dress, and when she is well dressed, one sees the woman." That's what I'm talking about.

What I like to do is take something from a man's wardrobe and re-proportion it slightly. We've got another jacket in this collection with a smaller shoulder. It's the idea of subtle feminization, to make the clothes more delicate.

It's very difficult to do street casting with girls, because a beautiful girl in real life won't necessarily have the silhouette or the presence needed for a show.

Clothes should be practical. I like the concept of easy wear. I think [86-year-old] actress Emmanuelle Riva was extremely chic. She's super stylish. At the Cesars, she was wearing this beautiful red silk dress. I don't know whose it was.

We are extremely precise about the girls we like; they're not necessarily the "It" girls of the season. Sometimes this "It" girl business gets a bit hysterical. It's all about which girl did which shoot with which photographer.

Fashion has always been nourished by the past. At the end of the day, where the inspiration comes from doesn't matter. It's what you do with it. How you treat it, how you translate it into a contemporary wardrobe. You put it in a shaker.