I had always wanted to expand to beauty, but I knew I wanted to be able to translate my design aesthetic in an authentic way.
One of the great things about design is that it's truly international. No one in the design industry would say, "This country is mine," or "I will make it look this way because it's for an American market and that way for a Chinese market." If you look at all of the Apple products, they are the same everywhere . . . I mean, I can't deny that I love traveling. It's a very healthy thing to be able to appreciate other cultures - or at least witness them firsthand. And all of that goes into helping someone be a good designer, because it's an international business.
Once I tried to make a standardization of staircases. Probably that is one of the oldest of the standardizations. Of course, we design new staircase steps every day in connection with all our houses, but a standardized step depends on the height of the buildings and on all kinds of things.
Every home, office, club, yacht, landscape, or piece of furniture I may design will be different from the other. What will be consistent, however, is my own personal sense of style through it all.
They used to tease me at the 'Oprah' show, 'Are you really going to do another white Shaker kitchen, with white subway tile and stainless steel appliances?' And my answer is, 'I can vary it a bit, but I'm never going to err from classic materials.'
The other big factor in building trust quickly is site design quality. Mint.com has one of the best graphic designers ever (Jason Putorti) - he cares about every pixel, all the fonts, all the transparencies and effects. And that shows instantly. People do make judgments of trust on appearance - in the real world and online.
We won't do something different for different's sake. Designers cave in to marketing, to the corporate agenda, which is sort of, 'Oh, it looks like the last one; can't we make it look different?' Well no, there's no reason to.
I am more convinced than ever. Conceptual integrity is central to product quality.
What got me really excited about Tylko is the fact that it bridges the gap between tradition and technology. It expands the designer's ability to create a language, to create ideas, to create a set of proportions, a set of details, and to apply those across a really wide range of applications.
There will be no propriety in the spectacle of an elegant interior approached by a low mean entrance.
The reason I wanted to work with New Look was that they wanted to stick with one designer and do lots of collections a year.
I have a huge amount of respect for all Japanese designers because I think there is consistency and respect to craft.
My brands all are unique in terms of their spirits, but they have the same Armani stamp. There is a level of taste which runs through every single product. Sitting side by side, they are perhaps more stimulating than they would be just on their own. It gives a new idea, a new proposal, a new perspective.
There's a theory, and I think the theory is right, that in order to make a change you've got to make the whole language of the page harmonious. Well, that's a lot easier with a computer.
A lot of people spend all this time painting their house, picking out rugs, and then they put fluorescent lighting in there. It totally ruins the mood.
Clean lines have always been important to me, both in terms of interiors as well as fashion. For interiors, I am more interested in textures and surface treatments than bold color or print - the vein on a wood or the shine on a lacquer, for example. I know immediately when something isn't working - usually it's a question of consistency - and I make instantaneous decisions on how to remedy the situation.
I only saw one collection of Victoria Beckham, and I thought it was very much like Pierre Cardin or Marcel Rochas dresses. She's thought about it, and she knows what she wants. And people buy it, so that means she works. She has this incredible will power to do something that she likes to do. And I love that. I respect that.
To me, when you decorate your home with just one store, it looks like that - it looks like a catalog.
When drawings of the main buildings I have designed in the last five years are juxtaposed, the fact that they all involve the pursuit of certain configurations is obvious to anyone.
Throughout the country, I see the same design problems and solutions over and over.
