Men and women are so alike that a woman must make an intellectual effort to differentiate herself. As soon as one understands who one is, one can disguise oneself any way one wants. As soon as one has found one's look, one's shape, one does not need to alter it too much, in fact I would say that one should not change it.

How can you live the high life if you do not wear the high heels?

My clothes are put together out of different basic elements so that a woman can express the way she wants to look, transform, metamorphosize herself not as the woman I decided but as she herself wants to be.

I was influenced by the hippie movement in San Francisco and by the feminist movement, which had arrived in Paris.

My shows are about the complete woman who swallows it all. It's a question of survival.

It is a very important matter, as a woman, to juggle everything... Your professional life, family, children etc.

I married a man who was in fashion. I began to work when my daughter Nathalie was about eight or 10 years old. Then one day I began to make a sweater, and eventually the sweater was on the front page of Elle magazine. And the day after I was the queen of knit in America.