What is the Balmain girl? It’s a woman who knows what she wants and is going to express it

What I'm doing now is having people with and around me to build what other designers built before - like Pierre Balmain with Josephine Baker, Audrey Hepburn, Dalida, Brigitte Bardot.

It's tricky because Instagram is not Grindr. I'm always trying to show my good side. I never complain. When I have a moment of sadness, I make sure no one ever sees. And while I'm so good at talking to friends or talking about my job, if you were to ask me to dinner - just the two of us, in a romantic way - I would be the worst. I'm so shy I would not talk.

I really respect the new generation, people who are maybe 12 or 13. I think it's really important to understand the future customer - their tastes and their dreams. What my generation is dreaming of is different from what my parents dreamt.

I think fashion is fashion: Sometimes you dress people that you don't know, and sometimes you dress people that you actually know.

Being part of what I call the "click" generation - where everything has to be fast and revolutionary and you just want more, and it's about likes and consuming - I want to bring new things to the table. A lot of designers say they're scared or overwhelmed because everything moves so quickly now. I think it would be scarier if it was too slow. I want to go fast.

I actually am locked away. I think I have 4.6 million Instagram followers, which is obviously a great way to communicate my work and my life. But it's also a form of protection, because I don't want everybody to see my process. What I want to share in the pictures I post is something dreamier than reality. I love solitude. I love escaping into my mind and sketching. Sometimes I travel alone. I'm the first one at the office in the morning, the last one closing the door. People don't expect that, because on Instagram I have a reputation as a party boy who takes selfies all day.