There is something sinister, something quite biographical about what I do – but that part is for me. It’s my personal business. I think there is a lot of romance, melancholy. There’s a sadness to it, but there’s romance in sadness. I suppose I am a very melancholy person.

For a long time I was looking for my perfect equilibrium, my mojo. And now I think I’m getting there: I’ve found my customer, my silhouette, my cut.

Some couture collections have everything including the kitchen sink! Everything gets thrown on to make it look expensive. I find it grotesque when clothes hit you in the face and there’s no room for fault. But I don’t expect to turn things around all by myself. I’m not a saint.

If you’re an open book, there’s no allure.

Rap music’s been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn’t.

When I’m dead and gone, people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.

My relationships with producers or photographers – these are relationships that took years.

I like things to be modern and still have a bit of tradition.

I can design a collection in a day and I always do, cause I’ve always got a load of Italians on my back, moaning that it’s late.

The explosion of museum exhibitions is only a mirror image of what has happened to fashion itself this millennium. With the force of technology, instant images and global participation, fashion has developed from being a passion for a few to a fascination – and an entertainment – for everybody.