Hussein Chalayan Quotes

My interest in fashion came from my interest in the body as a central cultural figure, not from admiring other designers - but of course I love Mason Martin Margiela, and I love Sybilla.

I wish we could edit our lives, be more selective with whom we spend time and what we spend our money on. To appreciate more what we all have - we appreciate things more when we lose them.

Istanbul is one of the most incredible cities in the world, and a must - see as much as London, Paris, or New York. It's the past, present, and future, and a city where you never know what will happen from one minute to the next. It's also a melting pot of so many cultures from that region which is so often homogenized by the nation-state.

I think the experience of feeling isolated, of not fitting in, creates the urge to explore.

I wanted to be a pilot, but I was always drawing bodies. When I realised I wanted to pursue something creative, my parents pushed me towards architecture.

London scene consists of mostly foreigners. We see ourselves as British in many ways, but not English.

Technology is the only means through which you touch on new things.

I came to London when I was a year and a half for four years. Since then I have been back and forth. I do mostly feel like a Londoner: I enjoy the Angle-Saxon acceptance of difference and I feel it's more of an integrated society than most places. But this is in London, not the rest of the UK.

It's not always important to do a "show," but a live element always works better for me, unless I am making a film that goes beyond the clothes.

My furniture is banal and my house is pretty empty. The hardest thing to find is a sofa that is comfortable and looks good. The ones I like are never comfortable.

I have an interest in architecture, although more theoretically than anything else. I think architecture tries to understand what the body wants to occupy, not the body itself.