I'm really excited to see my vision for the 'British Vogue' team come to fruition.
My mother was a seamstress, so I always grew up with her making clothes. I knew how to construct outfits. I knew how to sketch. I knew how to customise. But I could never imagine it as a career.
I can't just go in and throw clothes at a picture. I still have to have some kind of an idea of a character, of who she is, where she's from. It's almost like playing a child's game. You have your dolls, and you create characters for them. Fashion indulged that in me.
When I started in the nineties, a sample size was a 4 and a 6.
I grew up reading 'British Vogue' - I am so honoured and humbled to be taking up the mantle of editor.
'British Vogue' is a great magazine with a legacy of creativity and innovation.
I don't think everything has to be new all the time. You don't have to have the latest designer all the time to look good. Just have things you're comfortable with, have key pieces that you can sort of reinvent over and over again, and always keep things that you really love for a while.
A lot of my friends, we all grew up sort of not very wealthy. And in England, whatever ends up being a negative, that's a positive.
The best photographers know how to light any color skin.
I think if you're really good at what you do, you can see outside the box.
I'm so fascinated by the influence of social media on fashion. I've seen so many artists on Instagram, up and comers you would have never known otherwise.
When I was really young, I had an afro and wore pressed jeans and argyle sweaters. In my teens, I moved on to ripped Levi's jeans, white T-shirts, and cowboy boots.
I've learned to put a big value on having a life outside of fashion, and I think that's what's saved me, because the fashion industry can suck you in.
Music, for me, is as important as fashion. The first visuals I remember are Elvis Presley, David Bowie, New Romantics, and different punk bands.
I don't think I'm in any way an icon, to be very honest.
I'm just propelled by insecurity; that's what really leads me to want to do better.
I realise I am stepping into the shoes of a hugely respected editor in the shape of Alexandra Shulman, someone who has chosen to leave at the top of their game with a legacy of 25 years of success.
I didn't grow up with money; I didn't come from a rich family. But what fashion gave me was an escape into a world of creativity: if I couldn't afford that Junior Gaultier jacket, then I'd get one from the market and customise it.
When you leave your house in the morning, however you dress is the way you want the world to see you.
I think fashion can tell a story about celebrating difference, can talk about how different people are, how diverse people are - and for me, that's where fashion really succeeds, when it tackles things to do with the world we live in.
