Everything I do is a matter of heart

I try as much as possible to give you a great basic product and what comes out, I feel, is really amazing. Everything I do is a matter of heart, body and soul. I believe in comfort. If you don't feel comfortable in your clothes, it's hard to think of anything else. I have an obsession with details and pattern. I've always tried to push myself technically and to push myself visually. That's been part of the journey.

Fashion fosters cliches of beauty, but I want to tear them apart. I am no longer concerned with sensation and innovation, but with the perfection of my style. Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening. The important thing is to take your time and not get stressed. You have to stay true to your heritage; that's what your brand is about.

I think the idea of mixing luxury and mass-market fashion is very modern, very now - no one wears head-to-toe designer anymore. It is difficult to talk about fashion in the abstract, without a human body before my eyes, without drawings, without a choice of fabric - without a practical or visual reality. I've always thought of the T-shirt as the Alpha and Omega of the fashion alphabet. Jeans represent democracy in fashion. I truly believe that philanthropy and commerce can work together.

Never in my wildest dreams did I entertain the idea that I would become a fashion designer. I never like to think that I design for a particular person. I design for the woman I wanted to be, the woman I used to be, and - to some degree - the woman I'm still a little piece of. Confidence. If you have it, you can make anything look good. I sometimes feel that a pattern is almost a fashion statement in itself.