I do the final fitting because the client wants me there. They're not spoilt, they really understand that you're very busy, but they just want you to say what you think - for just ten minutes. They really want to know your opinion because it really is a service at the end of the day, a luxury service.

In prêt-à-porter now we understandably need to make the collection satisfy the big market more, so couture is extra special.

My definition of beauty is something between extremely ugly and extremely fantastic.

In the beginning, to be honest I was super-scared. I turned up and took a step back and said, 'I am here to learn,' and I feel the same today. I've got only to learn from these people because they have been doing couture for 30 or 40 years, so I keep learning every season.

I've got what I want, and I've got the luck to express myself and to be paid and to do what I do as a creative person.

I didn't know I was going to become a designer; I was going to become a successful person, but I really wanted to be free.

Couture was only for rich people. Givenchy was for rich people. A bag cost 5,000 euro; a coat cost 10,000 euro. In the beginning, I couldn't react. I was just working like a machine, because I wanted to make the house happy.