I think we like to romanticise about past eras, and for sure there have been great ones (like the 1820s maybe, or the 1530s) but I don't think London has ever been more culturally and sartorially rich as it is now.

Stay true to yourself because at the end of the day you can't lie to yourself.

Work really hard, think carefuly about how you spend every penny, and be absolutely true to your own vision of your clothes and your brand. It has to be personal.

Buy products of genuine lasting value from brands that take their manufacturing seriously. I have things that are 75 years old, like the dinner suit of my grandfather's that was made in 1933 by a tailor in Edinburgh. Clothes develop stories. You can remember where you've been through clothing that you've worn. I want products that are going to endure. I hate that we buy things that are disposable. We need to buy products with integrity.

In a funny way I think social media is making people less rather more experimental. People are too worried about looking good all the time. When I grew up you could get it all horribly wrong and it didn't matter, there was no record.

I loved the filthy, gorgeous rawness of Charles Jeffrey. You just wish you could be young enough and cool enough to be part of his gang. That's what fashion's all about.

There was a time when black and navy blue suits were pretty much everything you saw. That has completely changed. People are wearing big checks, checks with browns and blues and shades of gray, and the scale is very large, and some of them are very bold with heavy contrasts.