When you think about Balenciaga muse and model Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon - I mean, you look at their mother Jane Birkin, and what they have grown up to be . . . They aren't invaded in fashion, and yet they love it.I mean, who is going to schlep these big skirts and trains and all these things? How wonderful it is to see the young in miniskirts!

A lot of women say to me, "Polly, why aren't there more clothes out there that we can wear?" And I don't agree with them! There are clothes out there that they can wear - it's just that they don't dare to wear them.

I think that some people have wonderful spots. I think that Karl Lagerfeld has a wonderful spot designing for Chanel. They really just let him go. I think John Galliano is a huge talent. Marc Jacobs is also a huge talent - and a very interesting one to me.

I cannot imagine what an influence a five-week trip to the Orient had on me. I mean, the culture, the absorption of the Japanese way of life, the Japanese way of thinking, the discipline. The entire thing was an extraordinary experience. So these were more than memorable things to me.

You cannot squelch what's happening at the moment - you cannot put a lid on it and squash it down.

I think Alexander McQueen was very, very special. When I went to his first show, I couldn't speak because I was so enthralled. I was saying to myself, "What am I looking at here? What's going on here?" Because, I'm really a loner. I've been a loner for a long time, because I guess I prefer that. For me to get the best out of myself, I have to trust my judgment. And so while watching an Alexander McQueen collection, I would feel isolated. Even though I was surrounded, I would still feel isolated by what I was looking at, if that makes sense.

I loved the masculine style of dressing of Katharine Hepburn, who came from the same town that I came from. I was fascinated by the way she wore trousers. So I think the romanticism of the movies also influenced my life and my interest in fashion greatly.