Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
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 made my final collection in college in London using Irish handwoven wool. That is how I discovered Ireland first; I just fell in love with it, really.
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.
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.
Many women in their 40s make the mistake of wearing clothes that are too tight. Skimpy dresses and tight trousers can make you look older, so get the best fit you can find.
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.
Fashion is like a four-legged table: you need a good designer, a very good business manager, a good manufacturer, and a very good distributor. Without all the legs, table collapses.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dubai is a vibrant city: Big cars, big buildings... it reminds me of my home town, Hong Kong. People are always on the move here, and there's a lot going on. There are some wonderful architecture and some not-so-wonderful.
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.
As you get older, your skin tone will change, and that means the colours that suit you best change, too. Take a trip to a department store and ask for advice, or simply hold colours close to your face in the mirror, as this should give you a good idea of what works.
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.
I turned my hand to costume design a few years ago when I created the outfits for 'This Is the Sea,' with Richard Harris and Samantha Morton. It's a very different discipline to being a fashion designer, though - you have to rein in your own vision and work to a tight brief.
Whatever I design, it has to please my eye. If I go to work on an office block, I'll draw the office that I want to walk into. If it's a piece of crystal, it must feel the way I want it to feel in my hand. If it's women's wear, it must be something I'd like to see my wife dressed in.
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.
I'm like a conductor. I come up with ideas, and I get all these people to make great music together. I have a team of really talented assistant designers. I have architects in my office. People I trained from the beginning in menswear, womenswear, and home. I have a great team who know what I want and feel and translate that into beautiful results.