PHOEBE PHILO

I find mediocrity hard. I find that whole area difficult. I'm a very passionate person; I care very much about what I do. I believe I give it a lot, so it's gotta be good; otherwise, what's the point?

I was very, very eager to work. It's just the way I am.

My relationship with fashion is playful and very expressive of what I'm feeling at the time.

I decided to work on things that obsess women because women can't resist things like lace, sequins, animal prints and python.

I just have to be very, very organised.

Women should have choices, and women should feel good in what they wear.

I have a fantastic team, and it's much easier having children, because that creates a natural limit.

I wouldn't want to even try to begin to describe our customer, as I think she likes a certain amount of anonymity. I try to offer clothes that allow that. I myself do not like being defined so readily, so I imagine that she is similar?

My favourite eras for styles are still the 70s and 40s, and there will be a few iconic pieces to build the wardrobe around, like there were at Chloe, but I want there to be a feel of mix-and-match.

There is absolutely a gap in the market for thirty something women and, the more I look at it, the more I feel there needs to be a sense of ease and choice.

What I love is this idea of a wardrobe, the idea that we're establishing certain signatures and updating them, that a change in colour or fabric is enough.

It's been a bit tricky trying to establish a 'designer' profile and not a designer-cum-girl-around-town.

When I was deciding whether or not to take the job at Celine, I didn't really look at the history of the house. I had other offers to come back, but they weren't right, or they wouldn't let me stay in London, which was non-negotiable.

I'm happy to do interviews from time to time, but I don't find them that necessary - and that hasn't seemed to have affected people's understanding of our work.

I don't know whether that comes from having a family - having something very important at home that needed to be protected.

I had my daughter, and with that came a deep sense of responsibility; my time for work had become precious, and it had to have more meaning.

I don't believe in making fashion difficult.

I'm not interested in clothes that just convey a certain look or fashion. Clothes for me have always been a form of self-expression.

Things have to sell, of course, but if I don't want to put bags on the runway, we don't put bags on the runway. I have complete creative control.

I'm just not very interested in decoration.

I try not to intellectualise what I do.

Everyone wants new things all the time; shops require so much - there has to be consistency.

Time is my biggest luxury. Finding time to do things outside of fashion, which I think for a designer is incredibly important.

Until you go through with it yourself, you simply can't imagine it. But it is the transition of going back to work and the guilt of how much time you spend with your child that's hard. I worry about not getting back in time for bath-time. I am not a neurotic person at all, but every time the mobile rings, my stomach leaps.

My mother used to dress me in quite good-taste clothes, and I really wanted things that were sparkly and spangly and trashy and nasty. I don't know if I ever chose fashion; it was just there in me.