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I was never drawn just into fashion. I was drawn into it because I am really interested in serving women and providing women with solutions, trying to figure out what we need and why we need that and why we wear stuff, how it makes us feel. That was always my starting point, you know.
My mum and dad had creative jobs, but our family was a working family - so there wasn't an option of, 'Oh, when you're older, you're not going to have to work.'
I think the reality is that, for me, real fur is extraordinarily old fashioned. I think you look old. Even if you're 20, and you've got a real fur coat, you just look like an old, unaware, unconscious being on the planet. It's not relevant, it's not sexy, it's not fashionable, and it's not cool.
I think I always dreamt of having a brand that really was represented globally, that had a voice - that had a clear voice and a clear vision that made women feel great about themselves. That really spoke to women on a personal level. And that women could wear.
Pretending that the fashion industry isn't in part based on leather would be quite stupid of me, but at the same time, there is another way of doing things - even outside of leather. I don't use PVC either, for example, because it is harmful.
I was brought up in a way that was based purely on the senses. Everything in my upbringing was a reaction to growing up on an organic farm or to the emotions of animal cruelty, as well as the visuals of my mum's and my father's art - he was also an art collector.
When I say I don't do fur or leather, in my world it's a massive shock, but when it comes into the sporting arena, it goes without saying. It also influences what I do on the runway: I get really excited when I discover an environmentally-friendly print process that doesn't use water, and I'll try and mimic that in my ready-to-wear.
As a British fashion designer, it is an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be creative director of Team GB as the hosting nation of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
I'm obsessed with not chucking away food. I'm lucky enough to have a gardener, so we grow sweetcorn, tomatoes, beetroots, cabbages, pumpkins, lettuce. I'm trying to get into blanching it and freezing so I don't have to buy veg over the winter, but then you need loads of freezers, and that's not ideal.
I'm a woman designing for women, and there are so many layers to that. On the one hand, it brings an effortlessness, but it also means that I think and overthink every detail, whether it's physical or mental or even - in some sense - spiritual.
Designing kids clothes is something personal to me because I'm a mother. So to be able to see my kids wearing something I've designed is very fulfilling. With the kids' collection, we really try to focus on great quality with an accessible price point in styles that appeal to both parents and kids.
I guess my favourite Disney film was 'Snow White,' which has a really dark moment when the evil queen turns into a witch and makes the poison apple. It was terrifying in the same way 'Maleficent' is.
What you wear in the evening is important for women because it's so personal, and it's so complicated to get it right. I like trousers for evening, especially when they have that width and attitude to them.
It's important for us as a family to go and sit in the woods sometimes.
I never want to promote an ad that makes women feel bad about themselves, because when I was young, I never felt rich enough or fashionable enough or good enough. I felt talked down to by luxury fashion labels. There was a disconnect. They made me feel we weren't right for each other.
We always had our own vegetables growing up and now I'm doing it with my kids at our house in the country.
You have to be hopeful that people will be more educated in how they buy things, and hopefully more luxury brands will start to think that way on a longer-term basis.
I grew up on an organic farm in England. And I was a vegetarian from an early age - not just for health, not for the environment - just because I didn't believe in killing animals to eat them.
Losing my mum. That was a punch-me moment.
Ninety percent of the people who come to my stores have no idea I don't work with leather.
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