Designer

When I started in the nineties, a sample size was a 4 and a 6.

The more you style, the better you get. Don't give up. At a certain point, the magic happens.

My 'Vogue' is about being inclusive; it's about diversity. Showing different women, different body shapes, different races, class. To be tackling gender.

Diversity is very important for me.

I don't think everything has to be new all the time. You don't have to have the latest designer all the time to look good. Just have things you're comfortable with, have key pieces that you can sort of reinvent over and over again, and always keep things that you really love for a while.

'British Vogue' is a great magazine with a legacy of creativity and innovation.

I love the optimistic American style that Gap celebrates and the simplicity of the basic white T-shirt that allows you to be yourself.

By people getting together and celebrating this idea of togetherness, great things can happen.

I want 'Vogue' to feel like a shop that you're not scared to walk into, one that's quite welcoming.

I was very honoured to be awarded an OBE in 2016 for my services to diversity in the fashion industry.

I learned that fashion was about more than fancy images. That there was a business side as well.

The white T-shirt is like a blank canvas - eternally versatile.

When I was growing up, David Bowie was my idol. I grew up in inner-city London, and he was from Brixton, which is even more urban.

My mother was a seamstress, so I always grew up with her making clothes. I knew how to construct outfits. I knew how to sketch. I knew how to customise. But I could never imagine it as a career.

You could say slowly but surely, the world is changing in a good way - equality in all forms is more and more part of the global conversation, and people are celebrating diversity and individuality.

I'm very proud of the world that's embracing all these different ideas of what it is to be diverse, in 2017.

I think fashion can tell a story about celebrating difference, can talk about how different people are, how diverse people are - and for me, that's where fashion really succeeds, when it tackles things to do with the world we live in.

My mother and father just taught me the basics: to be really kind, to really listen to people. I have never been one to put on airs and graces.

I'm really excited to see my vision for the 'British Vogue' team come to fruition.

When you leave your house in the morning, however you dress is the way you want the world to see you.