It was time to come up here and retire with my wonderful husband, and my children and my grandchildren, and make that change. I'm not good at hanging on. When I make a decision to cut it off, I have to cut it off completely. I'm not good at, "Oh, I'll stick around and consult a little bit." I'm not good at that and I don't want to do that. I don't think you get anywhere doing that. I mean, I don't, although other people might. But that's not my personality. It's not my id. I have to make the break and be a good sport and adjust to it.

Why is it that when I did a weird dress in the past, people were like, 'Oh, it's niche,' and why when I do a pair of jeans that are super cool, it's much more accessible, but I enjoy doing it? I enjoy the mix of those two things. I realized that quite late, actually. I'm going to really try to express those two things at the same time, because this is me.

When my parents realized that what I liked was fashion, they gave me good advice. I remember my father telling me that I should try to do an internship. They never said, "This is a world we don't know; it might be something strange," or "That is not serious," or things like that. They always said, "Try. We'll help you. We'll send drawings to people if you want. We'll write letters for you." What I'm very thankful for is they never made me think that something was impossible. They were really, really supportive. They are still.

First, at a certain point, I wanted to have my own magazine, but I never could. Why? Because I am not commercial enough. The people who would have been able to give me my own magazine, they were not insulting me, but they would simply say, "It wouldn't work for you." And that was a big disappointment to me.

Fashion, in a way, has become like pop culture today. With all of the communications and the Internet and the designers doing lines with big brands, it's more popular than it's ever been, but everything is all mixed together. It's become like television or music.

I think creating the clothes is about creating historical images - and that's about more than fashion. It is about the fashion, the photography, what you are doing in the moment. It's what we call in French rechercher, or the search for that thing. So even though fashion is not scientific, I think being a designer is somewhat like being a scientist.

Fashion is a playground up until a certain age. But then you have to find your own signature and your own style.