Clothes is just something you put on to cover yourself... fashion is a way to communicate.
In the design process, there's a need to be culturally comprehensive.
My partner, Patrick, and I live in an old house in Belgium that was built in 1840 and is out in the countryside between Antwerp and Brussels.
I'm part of the fashion system, but I don't want to follow all the rules. I don't want to be contrarian - I just want to do my own things, which are most honest and correct to do.
Change is not always bad. Change can be good.
When I have to do something fast, I wear the most unflattering rubber pants over my pants and a big easy sweater. I can get on my knees in the garden in whatever condition, and when I'm done, I can take it off, get in the car, and drive to the office. It's the most practical thing.
The garden is my second profession. It's 22 hectares, which is a big garden. I really need it, going from the flower garden, the shrubs and the trees, the vegetable garden, all these things.
I think in the same way when I'm cooking, when I'm gardening, when I'm choosing fabrics. It's a way of living.
I make clothes people can wear; I don't make art.
My morning routine varies by how much time I have. In the winter, I like to take baths, but in the summer, I prefer a good shower with some soap and then maybe some moisturizer afterward. I use D.R. Harris and Geo. F. Trumper products, which we also stock at our shops in Paris and Antwerp.
The word 'fashion' I don't like because fashion is something that's over in six months. I'd like to find a word that's more timeless.
I like it when you have something happening by coincidence. Just something in a book is enough. But I prefer a fragment of an image so you are far more free to bring in elements of your own.
In the 1980s, I was quite well known for my knitwear, and a lot of inspiration came from carpets, where I found ways to use structures and colors and depth of colors.
I'm known for color and prints and embroideries.
I'm a very big fan of winter-flowering shrubs and bulbs. You have the smell, you have the color - it's really like a present from God when something like that is in flower in the middle of the snow.
I'm a fashion designer, not a shoe designer. I like to design clothes.
To create a collection, you need a narrative - an explanation to tell the team.
My office looks very empty compared with my house. The house is completely crammed full with things that Patrick and I love. It's very eclectic. There are things that have no value but which we like. We have a lot of Belgian painters; we have international painters. We have nice things; we have ugly things. I don't want that things are predictable.
I have a responsibility to the people who work for me, the manufacturers I work with. There is no point to clothes that don't sell.
Various different people have inspired me throughout my career. From Francis Bacon to Vassareli, Coco Chanel to Christian Dior, Cecil Beaton, musicians, architects... the list is endless.
