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How were you able to start your own label when you were so young? Me and my friends were looking for clothes we wanted, and we couldn’t find them so I started making them. Lee (Alexander McQueen) became friends with me when I was leaving college and then John Galliano bought a large part of my graduate collection. With that money I started doing my own label, and that became successful. I started doing all my production in Japan because I had a huge following in Japan, and it was much easier to make it there rather than import it to Japan which was so complicated. You learn on the job when you are an independent designer. You always had a vocation for men’s clothing, but now you also work in women’s fashion for Fendi. Is this something new? It’s really fun. Dior is working with an archive and Fendi is working with a family, so it’s two different ways of thinking and working. Fendi has been a great success commercially; to my surprise the first bag we did was a massive hit. Do you care a lot about the use of sustainable material in your fabrics? Yes, I grew up all over the world, I care about it. I do a lot of work with conservation groups around the world, to protect land and to protect endangered species, because I saw them and I don’t want them to be dead. When you were growing up most people wore suits. How did you compose your style? I’ve always had very expensive tastes, something that was a real problem for my family, and I like to work in these kinds of fine brands. I understand what the consumer wants, and I never think about me when I’m working. Even though I am wearing Dior trousers they are quite casual ones and sneakers, because I wear what I am comfortable working in. You love sneakers, don’t you? Yes, it’s terrible because I wore them all my life and when you put shoes on, they’re just so uncomfortable. Were you always able to afford them? No, not at all. Me and my friends would go and do our dishwashing jobs and work in shops, and share a pair of sneakers. The ones we liked were quite hard to get in England. We looked at the youth culture in America – this big, glamorous, exciting world that we didn’t really have in the UK – Nike, Jordans, all the basketball players.... Do you still love sneakers? Yes, but I don’t buy so many anymore. I have 400 or more, a whole wall of them, and I probably just choose to wear the nearest ones because I don’t like to think about it too much. What is different about Dior’s sneakers? Christian Dior created a new look. I’m sure, if he was alive, he would look at a sneaker and think this is a modern thing. He shocked the world when he started, he was revolutionary. He was really about women and youth, doing things which people don’t expect. How can you combine the sporty trends of today with Dior, a great name that people buy for luxury? I think people buy Dior because, number one, we always start a collection with the tailoring, and then we work around the tailoring. People want the quality and longevity of a product. People really treasure their stuff. If you spend a lot of money on clothing, you look after it. Would you say that clients today are as fussy about details as they were before? The team I have and the way that I work and the