I remember that my sisters gave me this beautiful, like, empty book for Christmas. And I would draw all these beautiful women. Most of the time it was mermaids and a Minotaur: half human, half animal. I used to be obsessed with Minotaurs when I was a child.

No matter how much people in fashion think we're so cool and avant-garde, for most fashion people, creativity is quite taboo.

Seduction is about intelligence and wit. Someone who makes me laugh has every chance to seduce me.

When I was far away, when I prayed every night, I felt I was very near with my heart, with my brain, to my sisters and my mom.

These five years as a couturier have really changed my way of seeing fashion and my confidence with fashion. Couture is a dream.

I was the last one of nine kids - eight girls and me last - and my sisters were going out. They were teenagers. And as they were getting ready, I would sit on the bathtub and watch them put on makeup and transform themselves - you know, putting on clothes and giggling about the boys they were going to meet and everything. So for me, that was an amazing thing - the fact of transforming themselves.

My luck has always been how I've had a family of women around me, and I have women who are very close to me - for example, Mariacarla Boscono, Carine Roitfeld, Marina Abramovic. I have different women whom I adore and value.