I got into hairdressing and moved from Dorset to London, where I got an apprenticeship at Vidal Sassoon. This was around '83 or '84. I was working on South Molton Street, which was then the epicenter of all the shops. It was like a catwalk. So I did my apprenticeship there, but I wasn't successful.

The Brits always favor the underdog. There's an eccentricity to us, and I think you can see that through the fash- ion and the music and the way people look.

I got into hairdressing and moved from Dorset to London, where I got an apprenticeship at Vidal Sassoon. This was around '83 or '84. I was working on South Molton Street, which was then the epicenter of all the shops. It was like a catwalk. So I did my apprenticeship there, but I wasn't successful.

I didn't do great in school. I didn't have many options. I mean, I'd like to have gone to art college, but I didn't have the grades. I didn't have any qualifications. But I had some friends who were hairdressers, so I just thought, Well, I'll have a go at it.

Beauty shouldn't be taken too seriously. Life is stressful enough! Hair should be creative and crazy.

When you work with great people, you learn - about film, about clothing, about life, about sex.

Fashion was a very insider industry then - it was very closed. So I didn't really know what I wanted to do.