British people still wear clothes. By clothes I mean actual clothes: jackets and shirts and ties and suits. The spirit of Beau Brummell is still visible. English men make an effort. We’ve lost that in the US. Everyone is more concerned with being comfortable.
Time and silence are the most luxurious things today.
I’m a natural-born boss, I have to say. I just like to be good at things. Even as a child, I was boss of my family.
I don’t believe in playing around much with suit cuts. I like a fairly classic shape that gives a man strong shoulders, a fitted waist, and long legs. Classic simplicity always works.
There are no right or wrong answers. There is only intuition.
You should put on the best version of yourself when you go out in the world because that is a show of respect to the other people around you.
When I was young, I wanted to be a movie star. But I realized that you have no control being an actor. So I went to architecture school in NYC, because I was crazy about buildings. Then I began to realize that I got more excited about Vogue coming out each month than I was about my projects.
Glamour is something more than what you put on your body. It has to do with the way you carry yourself and the impact you have on others.
If my parents had discouraged me, I would have turned out very differently. They raised me in an open-minded, liberal environment.
I’m a fashion designer. What I do is artistic, but I’m not an artist because everything I do is destined to be sold. That’s not to say that you can’t be an artist and a fashion designer. I think some designers are artists.
My real life’s not like the fantasy Tom Ford world – with naked girls pouring perfume everywhere. It’s more staying in and watching Friends on television.
When you find somebody good, keep them in your life.
Style is very different from fashion. Once you find something that works, keep it.
Keep your jacket buttoned. Always. It’s just really flattering – it will take pounds off you.
Only hire people you want to have dinner with.
People always ask me how I start a collection, and I tell them that I just look around. What am I tired of? What am I in the mood for? Real fashion change comes from real changes in real life. Everything else is just decoration.
You have to be passionate, you have to be engaged and you have to be contributing to the world.
It’s like everything in your life is wonderful, but you have so much wonderful – this is all going to sound horrible – but when you have so much wonderful, it isn’t wonderful because you don’t actually have time to enjoy it.
If you don’t need to quit drinking, you shouldn’t quit drinking. I used to really love to drink, and especially living in London, it’s just built for drinking...
Men don’t wear fashion any more except in Italy and London. Americans have lost that.