I think my love of form is especially informed by my background, whether this is creating a wonderful silhouette in a dress or finding the perfect shape for a bowl or the 'just so' angle of a table leg.
— John Rocha
If you ask me where do I belong, it would be somewhere in the Irish Sea almost - born in Hong Kong, Chinese mother, Portuguese father from Macao, lived in Europe most of my life.
I don't want to be an elitist designer. It's no fun just catering for a small group of people. It's against my principles.
I want to explore my design philosophy in different mediums, and I'm very interested in architecture.
I love my black shirts; I have usually 14 of them at any one time.
I always have a cigar when I catch a fish.
We cater for fashion-conscious people.
Talent always shouts at you.
When I left college, nobody expected much of me - and nor did I.
I like to create a simple space and surround myself with things that I like to look at.
There was the Cultural Revolution just over the border, and Hong Kong felt quite dodgy. My younger brother's wife actually swam from China to Hong Kong to escape. I realised in the '60s that I had to get out.
I believe that IT is the way forward. Every other industry utilises IT, and I feel that fashion needs to use it more extensively to move forward.
I want to challenge myself in new mediums; I want to leave myself open to different things.
I think natural fibers look better over time. The more you wear them, they look even better.
Design has always been at the heart of our business.
A woman can look incredibly sexy in a black suit.
Fashion remains closest to my heart. I get genuinely excited by my collections - I never wanted to be a businessman.
My heritage is a huge part of everything I do; it is, after all, part of what has made me who I am.
Chinese people have that superstitious fix - people always do feng shui when they are opening a shop; even the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank pays people to do feng shui for them.
My Chinese grandmother was a dressmaker, so I always enjoyed dressing up and looking cool.
I can tell you every element of every single look from each collection - one to 30 - without looking at a picture: my label is all done by me.
During fashion week, I dream about fashion; afterwards, I dream about fishing. After fashion week, I always go fishing to wind down.
Unfortunately, I used to play in goal, and I broke my hand. Two fingers. The ball hit me and bent my fingers back. I used to play every Sunday. I was quite competitive.
To create a beautiful thing with unlimited money is easy!
I will never see myself as a businessman. I'm a designer. I have to be true to what I believe.
I dress pop stars, and I dress my doctor. It's about attitude. I do what I love, and I'm lucky to do it. It's a long way from Hong Kong.
I never set out to do interior design; I just do what I do, and some people come along and want me to work with them.
My most precious possession is a 13.5-feet-long fishing rod, made by an American firm called Loomis.
Men like clothes they can wear to work and afterwards. They don't want things to be complicated.
I always promised myself that I wouldn't do catwalk shows until the day I died.
I want romance; I want people to be happy in their relationships.
My family was quite poor, and the NHS was recruiting people from abroad to do psychiatric nursing. It was the only hope I had to leave Hong Kong.
I'm interested in beauty more than anything else.
I am trained as a fashion designer and do not claim to be an expert architect or anything like that. I won't do something unless I know I can do it.
One thing I learned from all my years in business is you really have to work with the experts: you can launch something yourself, but unless you have the expertise and the marketing strategies and machinery behind you, you'll never be successful.
The day I feel my clothes are no longer relevant, I will be happy to step down.
It was a very, very happy childhood, but I always knew I wanted to see the world.
I still love Birkenstocks. I just think they are the most comfortable things; I even wear them in winter sometimes.
I can speak Cantonese, but I can't speak about fashion - I learnt all my fashion in Europe, so often, during interviews in Chinese I just don't know the right word - it can be very hard to explain things.
I used to play football, and then my wife bought me a fishing rod.
I think, as a designer, what you have to do is challenge yourself to do what you do, but better.
When I was young, we always went to our posh cousins at Christmas. My dad made sure we had new shoes and clean clothes - he was really proud - and that's why I felt different from everyone living around me. We had the first television on the estate, the first fridge.
It might be a selfish choice, but I find it quite difficult to design for individuals and prefer the distance of larger schemes. It's the same reason why, as a designer, I don't do wedding dresses.
My dream home would be a fishing lodge in New Zealand.
At primary school, we would pick up plastic petals on the way home to make flowers. Now you might call it child labour, but we did it for pocket money.
I went from fashion to glass in 1995, and I'm very interested in architecture.
I love fashion, but fashion is not my whole life.
We have achieved tremendous success in Ireland and internationally on the strength of our creativity and design skills.
I'm a British designer, and it's great to show on your own ground.
The most important part of my work on The Orion Building was the creation within the apartments of living space which inspires people and the way they live their lives, whether they have bought a one-bedroom apartment or the penthouse. This building is beautiful to see, sense, and experience.
