I think a bit of jewellery that cheers you up for the day isn't a bad thing.

I love historical references.

When I was younger, I wanted to be a marine biologist, among other things.

I had a great teacher who was really encouraging and said I should go to Central Saint Martins. So I worked my socks off, and I managed to get a place there. It was there that I developed a real love for design.

The effort you put into anything when you're a designer is 100% because it's all about what you get back out from it.

I've been a fella in the fashion industry for a very long time now, and the industry has been very good to me.

I do like designing clothes that are - not exactly lofty but intellectual in their sexiness.

I really like doing good work and working with good people - that's the thing that drives me.

Animals. They're nice, aren't they? They're good things, animals.

Fashion was spontaneous and about getting things done, which I really liked.

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.

I can never really comment on rumours.

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.

I like to have a swim in the morning, a great way to start the day.

A healthy body really does make for a healthy mind.

I try to exercise three to four times a week.

I was never one for just sitting in front of the telly.

Cecil Beaton was Andy Warhol before Andy Warhol, really.

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.

Even if you have a lot of money, you may not want to spend a lot of it on clothes.

People are often a bit more adventurous with swimming costume prints; they like the idea of something a bit more jolly.

I go to L.A. three or four times a year. It's great for research.

Fashion designers seem the busiest people on the planet.

Just because something is less expensive shouldn't mean it is less well designed.

I don't design for wallflowers.

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.

My designs at Ungaro are a lot more sexual, in more of an obvious way: my personal designers are a little bit more sideways.

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've always liked historic jewellery that's got a kind of quirkiness or playfulness to it; I like that it's not too serious.

With all my clients I work with, they all have their absolute specialness about them.

I've always been a big supporter of homeless charities across the board, ever since I first moved to London.

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.

It can be refugees, it can be a pregnant mother, it can be a 15-year-old... homelessness can happen to everybody.

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.

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.

People should just get over themselves.

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.

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.

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.

I sometimes sit and draw people on the bus, or some fantasy hybrid animal. You know, wherever the hand will lead.

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.

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'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.

Why shouldn't we want everybody to have a piece of Giles in their wardrobe?

I am really looking forward to walking past people on the street wearing my clothes and know I am designing for an everyday woman.

People are always saying, 'You use irony,' and it's like, actually, we don't use irony: we use wit and playfulness and irreverence.

The customer who likes to be noticed is important to us.

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.

Anyone looking for a black cashmere sweater isn't going to come to me.

Clothes that a wallflower would like, that's not my thing. I like people who look interesting.