I’m a hopeless romantic. I buy things because I fall in love with them. I never buy anything just because it’s valuable. My husband used to say I look at a piece of fabric and listen to the threads. It tells me a story. It sings me a song. I have to get a physical reaction when I buy something. A coup de foudre – a bolt of lightning. It’s fun to get knocked out that way!

The woman should learn who she is and what she looks like and try to find the best points of dress accordingly. I also think that being appropriate has gone out of fashion. There are appropriate times to wear appropriate kinds of clothes.

The biggest mistake people are making when it comes to fashion is looking in the mirror and thinking you're somebody else. People sit and watch the runway and then some nice little plump lady in Squeedunk will see Angelina Jolie in a very glamorous dress from the runway and she thinks if she buys that dress she'll look like her. It's sad, but it's true.

There are so many empty headed people in the fashion business who take themselves way too seriously and I don't think I am at all like one of them. To me there are lots more important things in the world than just having the right shoes!

It's not easy to know who you are and it's very painful and takes a lot of time and that is why a lot of people don't want to put in the effort.

I'll spend more time getting dressed than I spent at the actual event.

You have to observe a few simple rules in dressing, which are really not rules; it's just being appropriate. If you're 70 and want to wear miniskirts, 70-year-old knees ain't pretty!