Top 19 Quotes & Sayings by Hussein Chalayan

I can be working on a collection and a film at the same time. It can take a lot out of me, but the processes come from the same source. From a brief I set myself I can make a film, I can make a collection, I can make an installation.

If I had to define my philosophy, it would be about exploration, a journey, a story-telling.

I was lucky I went to school in London because the tutors could see what to do. I knew I wanted to do something different. Why would I want to do what other people were already doing, because they would always do it better? I always wanted to work around the body. So throughout my college years, my work was quite free.

Being a part of exhibitions is not a burden; it's another way for an independent label such as mine to reach a larger audience by exposing them to my whole body of work.

London gives birth to amazing talent but is rubbish at helping maintain it.

I am an idealist, which can be tiring.

I was drawn to biology and history and, of course, art. And I loved languages. The biggest problem I had is that I wasn't taught about the connections between all these things. I think that would have given life a lot more meaning and it would be a lot more enjoyable.

I think of fashion as an art form as well as an industrial product - and something that has to be sold well and has to be of high quality.

I wanted to be a pilot, but I was always drawing bodies. When I realised I wanted to pursue something creative, my parents pushed me towards architecture.

My interest in fashion came from my interest in the body as a central cultural figure, not from admiring other designers - but of course I love Mason Martin Margiela, and I love Sybilla.

London scene consists of mostly foreigners. We see ourselves as British in many ways, but not English.

I have an interest in architecture, although more theoretically than anything else. I think architecture tries to understand what the body wants to occupy, not the body itself.

Istanbul is one of the most incredible cities in the world, and a must - see as much as London, Paris, or New York. It's the past, present, and future, and a city where you never know what will happen from one minute to the next. It's also a melting pot of so many cultures from that region which is so often homogenized by the nation-state.

Technology is the only means through which you touch on new things.

I came to London when I was a year and a half for four years. Since then I have been back and forth. I do mostly feel like a Londoner: I enjoy the Angle-Saxon acceptance of difference and I feel it's more of an integrated society than most places. But this is in London, not the rest of the UK.

I wish we could edit our lives, be more selective with whom we spend time and what we spend our money on. To appreciate more what we all have - we appreciate things more when we lose them.

I think the experience of feeling isolated, of not fitting in, creates the urge to explore.

It's not always important to do a "show," but a live element always works better for me, unless I am making a film that goes beyond the clothes.

My furniture is banal and my house is pretty empty. The hardest thing to find is a sofa that is comfortable and looks good. The ones I like are never comfortable.