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Sometimes you listen to a piece of music that inspires a collection. You listen to the music, which creates the mood, which creates the clothes.
I always design with the occasion in mind, so I particularly enjoy creating bespoke pieces; it's always an exciting challenge for me creatively.
I feel our brides are empowered women who know what they want and have a strong sense of their identity. Obviously, they love fashion and glamour.
I have always aspired to create beautiful designs that make women feel elegant and confident - for me, that is my greatest challenge and inspiration.
From the 1920s through to the 1970s, bridal was related to the fashion of the times. Then in the 1980s, it became more historical, decadent, and ornate.
I'm so fond of abstract design in the style of Vanderbilt and David Hicks and that whole 1970s era. They took the 1930s and gave it a bit of technicolour.
I love the way that girls turn up at our boutiques knowing all the names of the dresses, and that was happening before we launched our brand Pinterest board.
I realised as a teenager that I was destined for a creative life and found that fashion design was something I enjoyed and was a potentially successful career path.
With the bridal wear I love the fact that people show me their pictures about what I've done for their special day. It's lovely that I'm a part of someone's history.
I think it's very important to women what they want to watch. They're looking all the time to the red carpet to see what to wear, and it sets off all sorts of trends.
A dress is an emotional thing to make. You've got to fall in love with it and not just with the dress - the whole process of designing it has to be a good experience.
It's funny; in fashion, you can never relax and feel like it's all sorted. Every season, you have to give yourself a challenge and come up with something new and fresh.
If I can get someone to put on a dress, walk in a room, have them feel great, and have everybody think that they look lovely, too - that's my job, as far as evening wear goes.
There is such an emotional connection between the bride and her wedding dress, whereas in ready-to-wear you may just be focusing on color or prints for that particular season.
I don't like things that are uncomfortable - everything we do, however structured or detailed, needs to be made so that when someone wears it, they completely forget about it.
I play with those two eras a lot. The '70s did actually take quite a lot inspiration from the '30s. I love the '70s, the bold color. There's something very sophisticated about it now, looking back.
Sometimes, when we dress celebrities, there are always loads of Twitters and things like that. When I wake up, I think, 'Oh right, she wore it.' You kind of always know where it's going to be worn.
I have always loved to create pieces that are special, unique. It's very important to me that the dress means something to someone. I've no real interest in making something that's an everyday item.
I always see bridal as a cultural thing: you have to get under the skin to find out what is needed in that market. For instance, the Italians love plain dresses, and the Americans loved beaded ones.
Research the venue and location before outfit shopping, as it helps set the mood and style focus: a traditional wedding in the countryside offers a different set of sartorial rules to a tropical, beach vibe, for instance.
Old Hollywood icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Vivien Leigh, and Bette Davis are so inspiring; their style is romantic and feminine and their glamour mesmerizing. I love the idea of channeling that spirit on your wedding day.
With a wedding gown, I have to make sure that people fall in love with it and that the details are very specific and special. There has to be a big story behind it and a great deal of integrity when it comes to the design.
There is definitely a 'red carpet moment' to a bride's wedding day, but when designing for bridal, it is important to focus on the details that will captivate and capture the imagination of the bride - she has to fall in love with the gown.
Young girls - like friends of my daughter's - always ask if we do prom dresses, and we do dresses that would be lovely, but £2,000 isn't realistic for most girls. The Debenhams collection will hopefully be great for that sort of event because the price point is much lower.
Nobody is going to buy one of our dresses because it will do, or as something to hide away in their wardrobe and wear at some dimly undetermined point. They always have an event of some kind in mind. They want to walk in the room and for everybody to think how amazing they look. That's the job, really.
We've been seeing a lot of brides buying two dresses for their wedding, especially in America, and a lot of brides are talking about changing shoes halfway through. It is a very long day to be wearing one pair of shoes, however comfortable they are. It is about marrying that combination of style and comfort together.
It's very nerve-wracking dressing someone because you obviously do everything you can to get them to be interested in something you've done, and then you hear they're wearing it, and then, obviously, they're going to step out in it, and you want to know that it's all going to work and what everybody's going to say about it.
People keep getting married, even when times are tough. They want to keep celebrating. The special days appear to be the times where women are still happy to invest, both in terms of time and money. They want to be told that they look beautiful and be remembered for all the right reasons. They don't want to provoke much more reaction than that.