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.

Fashion is emotional, and the way women look at it is emotional, so it's very important to try to connect with a woman's idea of how she might feel.

Fashion now is just so confusing. It doesn't feel as easy. Fashion seems to be in a much more eclectic place.

I wasn't as confident and creative in the beginning as I am now, so it was all very safe. But I was building my work, and it took me a long time. For a good five or six years I was just kind of bobbing around, doing everything and anything.

You may say, 'That's naïve of you,' and maybe it is, but in my mind, I'm celebrating every kind of woman. That's what a creative person does.

Suddenly it was cool to have your hair lank . . . It was a whole different way of looking at things, and it shook up the whole industry.

When I think of the people I've worked with, all of them have great passion, and the passion is what keeps people inspired.