I believe in originality, primarily. However, it's important to know what there has been before to aim in that direction. Art history informs us. It informs our mind. I like to look at books, exhibitions, paintings, as a computer, subconsciously taking on information.
Shopping can be a nightmare - first finding something to wear and then finding something to go with it, it's so difficult when there's so much choice. It can feel like entering a battleground.
In Rome, I particularly love the history, churches, sculptures and architecture and the fact that you can walk along a tiny cobbled street and turn the corner to find the Trevi Fountain. London is evocative of other eras and full of history.
Not long ago, a hat was a conformist accessory. Then the 1960s came along, and young people didn't want to wear hats.
The classic hat image was during the Forties and Fifties, and Elizabeth Taylor was the epitome of that; she was the ultimate celebrity of excess and glamour, and she worked major sun hats.
When you meet someone, you meet their face. It's the most potent part of the body to embellish.
Hat-making is laborious and time-consuming. It's a very tactile medium, and you can develop the skills, but it's one of those things: you either have it, or you don't. I love bringing something to fruition with my hands that gives people pleasure.
I empathise with the fact that people want to look their best. A hat is all about how it makes you feel - it's so much better than a nip and tuck, and a lot less painful.
Hats are really for ultimate occasions, so when I make one, I try to do something different, something noticeable.
I remember in the early nineties people saying the hat was just for old women, but that's ridiculous.
Hats are for life's ultimate moments. They're worn at races, at weddings. Occasions many of us, who aren't royals and celebrities, only attend once or twice in a lifetime.
