Through fashion I have shown my interpretation of the competitive spirit by dressing sportsmen and women, choosing to work with both those who are among the world's most renowned athletes and also those who are yet to achieve fame in the arena of sport.

Youth culture adopts Armani and adapts it in its own way, as befits youthful enthusiasm.

When I go on my boat or to my vacation houses, where I still unfortunately spend very little time, I don't go with the celebrities I know but with a close group of friends and people who have worked with me for a long time.

In practice, I've had a presence in China since 1998 with my commercial spaces and shops.

A perfume is more than an extract it is a presence in abstraction. A perfume, for me, is a mystique.

Today we no longer live in a way that is constrained by simple working or leisure environments - we travel, we work on laptops in coffee shops, we go out to dinner straight from work.

Anyone who is passionate about what they do will have a better chance of connecting with future generations than those who simply follow transient trends. At least their work will have a distinctive character, and this is what people respond to, I believe.