I just use fashion as an excuse to talk about politics. Because I'm a fashion designer, it gives me a voice, which is really good.

How impossible it is for us to imagine ourselves victims of disaster. We suffer for the poor people who were thrown into the sea from their cruise ship off the coast of Tuscany, some losing their lives. Imagine a world of accelerating natural disasters, one after the other so that nobody can help anyone else.

I don't have space to enter into the examples or the history of this, so I'm left with having to make the bold statement that culture is extinct.

When I was a little girl you used to learn to sew all the holes in things, darning socks, but nobody mends things anymore.

It's better to look important than sexy.

We wanted to step off our island and add the color of the third world. We got gold cigarette paper and stuck it around our teeth. We really did look like pirates and dressed to look the part.

I do think if you aim for quality, it's not so much about consumerism. The idea is 'Buy less, choose well, make it last.'