Clothes that a wallflower would like, that's not my thing. I like people who look interesting.
— Giles Deacon
The customer who likes to be noticed is important to us.
I am really looking forward to walking past people on the street wearing my clothes and know I am designing for an everyday woman.
There's one thing I would like to do on the high street, and that's something different to what's been done before. So, who knows what that could be.
I sometimes sit and draw people on the bus, or some fantasy hybrid animal. You know, wherever the hand will lead.
I liked natural history. I liked the outdoors. And I found the sea quite interesting.
There are some great skinny girls, but it's about characters, isn't it? That's what I find attractive. People who've had interesting lives and tell you something that you don't know or are really good fun.
It can be refugees, it can be a pregnant mother, it can be a 15-year-old... homelessness can happen to everybody.
With all my clients I work with, they all have their absolute specialness about them.
My designs at Ungaro are a lot more sexual, in more of an obvious way: my personal designers are a little bit more sideways.
Just because something is less expensive shouldn't mean it is less well designed.
I go to L.A. three or four times a year. It's great for research.
The reason I wanted to work with New Look was that they wanted to stick with one designer and do lots of collections a year.
The natural world is a source of inspiration.
I like to have a swim in the morning, a great way to start the day.
My designs are slightly subversive in their way; it can be in the cut or the colour, but they're always obtainable: they're not so difficult that a 40-year-old woman wanting to go to a cocktail party looking foxy and a little bit different in something well-made would be alienated by them.
Animals. They're nice, aren't they? They're good things, animals.
Anyone looking for a black cashmere sweater isn't going to come to me.
People are always saying, 'You use irony,' and it's like, actually, we don't use irony: we use wit and playfulness and irreverence.
Why shouldn't we want everybody to have a piece of Giles in their wardrobe?
We design for a whole range of ages and body types, and we always have done. What's great about us is that the common thing that they all like is an accessible eccentricity of an accessible flamboyance, and I think the super thing about that, it isn't age-specific: you're not only dressing 25-year-olds; we're dressing women from 25 to 65+.
I've always drawn a lot. I like the idea of turning a 2-D sketch into a 3-D thing very quickly. And clothing is really good for that.
Students are up to their eyeballs in loans, and it's going to get even worse. It's going to be hideous, actually. Students are going to be saddled for life. It's going to put a lot of people off going to college, which is a shame.
At a certain period in time, the fashion industry was portraying this image of a totally unrealistic woman, women who are not allowed to be themselves.
A lot of people's circumstances can change very, very quickly, and people can move jobs, relationships can break down, something else could happen, and the next thing you know, you can't pay your rent, you can't get the support you require, and you're out on the street.
I've always liked historic jewellery that's got a kind of quirkiness or playfulness to it; I like that it's not too serious.
I always find the idea of Britishness a bit of a boring old concept, to be honest. That world of Britishness always comes off a bit twee and only about cream teas and that sort of things.
I'll spend a couple of days in Paris, a couple back in London, some time at the factory in Italy... I like travelling, but it can be a struggle to get home for weekends.
People are often a bit more adventurous with swimming costume prints; they like the idea of something a bit more jolly.
Cecil Beaton was Andy Warhol before Andy Warhol, really.
I try to exercise three to four times a week.
I think when wedding dresses are talked about, every woman has a different set of factors in her mind of what it could be because they've been thinking about it possibly for such a long time.
Fashion was spontaneous and about getting things done, which I really liked.
I really like doing good work and working with good people - that's the thing that drives me.
One day I'll do a Dorian Gray, and there will be a picture in the attic. I'll look like Helen Daniels from 'Neighbours' after her stroke.
People don't necessarily realise that there can be just as much work on a quiet jacket as an overblown gown.
I'm lucky that I've worked with the biggest divas in the world. We've had Miss Piggy and Minnie Mouse, so I've got to be careful who I say now, but obviously, I'd love to dress them again.
I don't really see the point in planning to show off-schedule. I think it's things like showing on-schedule that helps London be organised as it is.
My friends and I used to take two-hour trips to the record store in Newcastle, and we started buying copies of The Face and i-D. And then I went to art school, and as time progressed, I ended up where I am now.
People should just get over themselves.
With couture, you're going right to the consumer, and that's something we learned from doing trunk shows. You're meeting the client; you're finding out what they like and what they don't like. You've really got your customer there in front of you, so you know what works and what doesn't.
I've always been a big supporter of homeless charities across the board, ever since I first moved to London.
Let's be honest: not everybody can afford to buy £5,000 dresses, so the jewellery is a nice of way of getting the Giles product out into the world and introduce it to people not familiar with the label. QVC is a really good partner to help us do that.
I don't design for wallflowers.
Fashion designers seem the busiest people on the planet.
Even if you have a lot of money, you may not want to spend a lot of it on clothes.
I was never one for just sitting in front of the telly.
A healthy body really does make for a healthy mind.
I can never really comment on rumours.
Pretty much hated school. I never really found my footing. I just didn't like lessons.
