Quote

Dressing up is inevitably a substitute for good ideas. It is no coincidence that technically inept business types are known as 'suits'.

Suits are looked at more now as a business thing which is kind of a shame. If you're not wearing it just for work, you should try and trick it up a bit.

I'm probably not your typical business person in many ways. I don't wear a suit. I don't carry a briefcase. I don't wear a tie. I'm fairly casual. I haven't got a big office, and it's in a very ordinary part of town. I'd much prefer to downplay than impress.

Fashion is always seen as somewhat frivolous and self-indulgent. And I think people on the inside maybe don't see or understand how exciting and diverse a business it is.

When I say that I'm a businessperson and a dressmaker, it's the truth. I run a business, and I make dresses, I make blouses.

People who run a ready-to-wear company are businessmen rather than production or design people.

I'm not a fashion architect. I don't dress in Ralph Lauren and Gucci. When I buy a suit, I buy it at J. Press. I have a blue blazer that I wear 80 percent of the time.

I don't think it ever does any harm in any business to feel that there is someone there who cares about it. If you look at any business, fashion being the most obvious, the aura, or the reality of the designer, is part of what creates it. It's true in luxury goods stores and in good food stores. It leaves a palpable sense that someone cares.

I don't think I'm a very good businessman. I act too much with my heart.

Business is about being the best that you can be, and there are always glowing examples of people that we can all learn from.