Director, Pedro Gil, joins 15 panelists selected to form the Mayor of London’s new Diversity in the Public Realm Commission that will work to improve diversity in the capital’s public realm, including statues, street names, memorials and building names.

The only way to do something in depth is to work hard. I like the irony in my work. I like the irony in my work. I love a black wedding dress. Men don’t want another man to look at their woman because they don’t know how to handle it.
I get ideas about what’s essential when packing my suitcase. I was the first person to have a punk rock hairstyle. I like the body. I like to design everything to do with the body. I am not interested in the past, except as the road to the future. I love the 2000s because everyone started to love haute couture.
It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic, by fashion. I didn’t want to be a fashion designer, and for a good half of my career I didn’t like it. I always wanted to do other things. Every day I’m thinking about change. Jeans represent democracy in fashion. I love things that age well – things that don’t date, that stand the test of time and that become living examples of the absolute best.
 
 

 
 
You can only go forward by making mistakes. I still appreciate individuality. Style is much more interesting than fashion, really. My job is to bring out in people what they wouldn’t dare do themselves. 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. I am especially grateful that I have been able to keep my own style over the decades, in spite of the many changes that have taken place in the world of fashion and in its business.
My shows are about the complete woman who swallows it all. It’s a question of survival. Fashion is about dressing according to what’s fashionable. Style is more about being yourself. I think the idea of mixing luxury and mass-market fashion is very modern, very now – no one wears head-to-toe designer anymore. What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today when human contacts go so fast. Fashion is instant language. Everything I do is a matter of heart, body and soul.
Being one step ahead of a fashion trend is not so important to me. What matters is to always forge ahead. What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today when human contacts go so fast. Fashion is instant language. Comfort is very important to me. I think people live better in big houses and in big clothes. I was the first person to have a punk rock hairstyle. Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.
I can design a collection in a day and I always do, cause I’ve always got a load of Italians on my back, moaning that it’s late. My customers are successful workingwomen. Jeans represent democracy in fashion. Grunge is a hippied romantic version of punk. I am never satisfied with myself and that is what keeps me going – I have no post-satisfaction.
Fashion is to please your eye. Shapes and proportions are for your intellect. Design and style should work toward making you look good and feel good without a lot of effort so you can get on with the things that matter. In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different. I don’t like trends. They tend to make everybody look the same. I remember walking the dog one day, I saw a car full of teenage girls, and one of them rolled down the window and yelled, ‘Marc Jacobs!’ in a French accent.
I never look at other people’s work. My mind has to be completely focused on my own illusions. That is the key of this collection, being yourself. Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way to live. Everything I do is a matter of heart, body and soul. I can design a collection in a day and I always do, cause I’ve always got a load of Italians on my back, moaning that it’s late. What I hate is nasty, ugly people.

The only way to do something in depth is to work hard. I like the irony in my work. I like the irony in my work. I hate a white dress. Men don’t want another man to look at their woman because they don’t know how to handle it.
I get ideas about what’s essential when packing my suitcase. I was the first person to have a punk rock hairstyle. I like the body. I like to design everything to do with the body. I am not interested in the past, except as the road to the future. I love the 2000s because everyone started to love haute couture.
It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic, by fashion. I didn’t want to be a fashion designer, and for a good half of my career I didn’t like it. I always wanted to do other things. Every day I’m thinking about change. Jeans represent democracy in fashion. I love things that age well – things that don’t date, that stand the test of time and that become living examples of the absolute best.

Men have got more of a discerning eye. They appreciate cut and details, things that aren’t so obvious. They like things that have cachet and gentlemanliness. That is the key of this collection, being yourself. Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way to live. I sometimes feel that a pattern is almost a fashion statement in itself. I do not have one theme for each season, I just try to make beautiful clothes all year round. People said making clothes inside out was not proper. I disagreed, because clothes that are inside out are as beautiful as a cathedral.
Fashion is about dressing according to what’s fashionable. Style is more about being yourself. Awkwardness gives me great comfort. I’ve never been cool, but I’ve felt cool. I’ve been in the cool place, but I wasn’t really cool – I was trying to pass for hip or cool. It’s the awkwardness that’s nice. I think I’d go mad if I didn’t have a place to escape to. If you cut a painter’s hands off, he’d still feel the urge to pick up a brush. I want to thank all the women who have worn my clothes, the famous and the unknown, who have been so faithful to me and given me so much joy.