When they first arrive, really, my eyes bleed! It's only when they're about to leave that they become people you might want to know.

A lot of people believe that you don't need to know the history and that creates newness. I disagree: we should always be informed and then destroy it.

Of course, there's some you think, well I wouldn't let them in the door, but there's not many. It's very important to know that it's a mutual thing, that there is respect and a form of teamwork. With quite a few of them it can be traumatic, but there are moments in here when they do extraordinary things with their designs. There are things of beauty I get to see in this office.

I never really liked Italy. 'Lots of cement' is my long-standing quote.

You can't subvert knowledge until you have knowledge... At the same time, I respect a student coming at it from a totally different position and trying to move it forward, and not falling into the rattrap of work that came before.

It's a secret language, known to all different people, in different ways, that enables them to read a subliminal message without realising they're reading it. It affects people on many levels, and even people who think they're not into fashion, or reject fashion are then being informed just in the case of rejecting it. The fact that they had to react against it was a conscious decision.

When they first arrive, really, my eyes bleed! It's only when they're about to leave that they become people you might want to know.