“I don't want to be an elitist designer. It's no fun just catering for ...” — John Rocha Quote

I don't want to be an elitist designer. It's no fun just catering for a small group of people. It's against my principles.

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.

My family was quite poor, and the NHS was recruiting people from abroad to do psychiatric nursing. It was the only hope I had to leave Hong Kong.

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 can tell you every element of every single look from each collection - one to 30 - without looking at a picture: my label is all done by me.

The risk of relying on a handful of customers is not just financial. Your product also is at risk when you're at the mercy of a few big spenders. When any one customer pays you significantly more than the others, your product inevitably ends up catering mostly to that customer's specific needs.

As long as I don't have to go back to the catering hall and wait tables anymore, I'm very happy.

A large user base helps shield us from things we can't control. You can spend years catering to a major corporation, for example, only to see your contact there move on.

I had never been to Texas. I'd been through Texas, but I'm so glad to be back in a place that's not L.A. or New York. To talk about Dallas, to talk about there being sweet tea on the catering table, it's rich and saturated in American-ness.