Quote

I am keenly aware that I benefit from a wonderful tradition in the UK of designing and making.

It was such an idyllic time when I grew up in Hong Kong. It was a British colony and very much geared towards buying the best of Britain. My childhood does have a huge influence on how we design. There must be a little bit of that nostalgia - childhood is so special.

I've always been inspired by a lot of work coming out of the UK.

The emphasis and value on ideas and original thinking is an innate part of British culture, and in many ways, that describes the traditions of design.

The United Kingdom has traditionally been a very small market, and even though you had such a creative group of designers, they represented a risk to department stores.

It's not that our high school system was not designed well, but that it was designed in 1906 when the country was just out of the industrial era. There hasn't been a substantial systemic change the way we do high school since then.

British innovation in design, in the creative arts, in engineering and manufacturing is world class.

England used to be known for making beautiful things. Then we became the rag trade, known for our street fashions, which were picked up around the world. I want us to be recognized for quality. We have the hands to make the clothes. What we need is the motivation.

In the U.S. and Europe, there has been a lot of creative hobby innovation, and that's great.

Too many pupils at schools in the U.K. want to have careers as footballers or TV hosts, or models, because that's what they're constantly exposed to as the heroes of our time.