It's important for me to really play with the traditions and keep things simple and easy. Ultimately I believe in animal instincts - I think they often end up winning out.

People always ask me, "Oh, do you ever want to start your own thing?" And I don't, actually. I think what I enjoy most is the sort of co-production of things, where you bring something and somebody else brings something and a kind of alchemy happens.

I think my biggest muses in fashion are probably rock 'n' roll girlfriends, like Anita Pallenberg and Marianne Faithfull and Bianca Jagger - and then maybe Patti Smith a bit as well.

Things are moving quicker and quicker. The internet age has made everything so immediate that what you're doing can start to feel outdated. That's probably the single thing that will most affect the fashion system in the near future. Time is the biggest subject matter in fashion today.

For me, coming to a fashion house and bringing my love and respect to it - and, hopefully, earning the love and respect of the house - is the only way to do it. I think of it as my own house in that sense as well. So I like not working from a blank piece of paper. I like that there's something from the past, some kind of identity that I have to work with. There are these good ghosts around, these good energies that kind of reinforce what you do.

Working in the old fashion house is like how your parents raise you and give you this base, and you eventually grow up and have to say, "Well, you gave me this, but now I need to go my own way." So, more than finding a balance, it's about taking the good parts of what you've been given and bringing your own thing to it in order to take it all somewhere else - and hopefully, forward.

Florence is probably one of the most beautiful cities in Italy. It's very quiet as well - there's not much nightlife - so it definitely keeps me focused on the work.