“A woman is as young as her knees.”

“As the daughter of two teachers with first-class degrees, I'd always seen myself as a duffer by comparison.”

“As well as being a creative genius, Vidal Sassoon was a formative figure of the Sixties. Along with the Pill and the mini-skirt, his influence was truly liberating.”

“Britain has always had more art schools per capita than any other country.”

“Coco Chanel hated me. I can understand why.”

“Fashion is a tool... to compete in life outside the home. People like you better, without knowing why, because people always react well to a person they like the looks of.”

“Fashion is not frivolous. It is a part of being alive today.”

“For one thing, I am still working as an adviser on fashion, design and colour and stuff.”

“Good taste is death; vulgarity is life.”

“Having money is rather like being a blond. It is more fun but not vital.”

“I absolutely adore cows. They're the most fascinating, gentle and beautiful animals. Their eyes are so amazing. I have ten that live on the land around my house. I love to talk to them. There are few things better than falling asleep in a field and being woken up by an inquisitive cow.”

“I always designed clothes from a very young age because I didn't like the way they were. They were paralyzing; they were stilted.”

“I can't imagine not working, really. I just think work's more fun than fun.”

“I designed the miniskirt that caused so much havoc in the Sixties - the miniskirt that was such fun but has travelled well to today.”

“I didn't get fat even when I was pregnant. You have to work very hard at staying slim, and it's a bore. But it's worth it.”

“I don't have birthdays.”

“I dressed like Leslie Caron as a teenager: soft school pleats, Peter Pan collars.”

“I have an awful lot of energy.”

“I have been on a diet since 1962.”

“I liked masculine fabrics: Prince of Wales checks, city pinstripes, and flannels - worn with black tights, flattish shoes.”

“I liked my skirts short because I wanted to run and catch the bus to get to work.”

“I long for my garden to be complete. Working in it is one of my joys, but it will never be finished because it's forever changing with the seasons.”

“I love restaurants, and I love cooking.”

“I remember one day, when things were going frightfully well, I went to buy myself a really smashing car. I asked them to show me a Porsche with an automatic gearbox, and the salesman called over all the other salesmen, and they stood around absolutely roaring with laughter.”

“I saw no reason why childhood shouldn't last forever. So I created clothes that worked and moved and allowed people to run, to jump, to leap, to retain their precious freedom.”

“I still like the King's Road. It is very alive; it is a hustle of things from different countries and so on. It is lovely.”

“I think to myself, 'You lucky woman - how did you have all this fun?'”

“I'm greedy, but I've always watched what I eat because I want to look good. I gave up butter, cream and sugar years ago.”

“In America, they never make anything without first having a market survey to ask the public what they want. People only ask for things they already know about, so you don't get anything new that way. That's why American fashion is stuck.”

“In the first half of the 20th century, fashion was simply not a very English thing to do.”

“I've always loved painting and drawing. I wish I'd developed it more and exhibited.”

“Jean Shrimpton was the most beautiful of all the models I have known. To walk down the King's Road, Chelsea, with Shrimpton was like walking through the rye. Strong men just keeled over right and left as she strode up the street.”

“Let me give you an idea of Fifties Britain. The war had ended ten years before, and most people had returned to their gardens and allotments hoping life would revert to how it was before the hostilities.”

“London style is individual.”

“Many of my friends are chefs, and I learnt to cook watching them.”

“Most of my memories of the Sixties are ones of optimism, high spirits and confidence.”

“Of course I remember everything I've ever worn.”

“Of course, I remember when everybody was thin. It wasn't until I went to America in the Sixties that I saw anyone who wasn't skinny thin.”

“One day, a new fabric appeared on the scene. PVC was shiny, waterproof, and unlike anything I'd ever seen before.”

“One thing I longed to do was to design a complete look, from head to toe, so I started a make-up line in 1966.”

“Only ugliness is obscene.”

“People call things 'vulgar' when they are new to them. When they have become old, they become 'good taste.'”

“People only see permissiveness in the sense of having more.”

“Risk it; go for it. Life always gives you another chance, another go at it. It's very important to take enormous risks.”

“The fashionable woman is sexy, witty, and dry-cleaned.”

“The fashionable woman wears clothes. The clothes don't wear her.”

“The Lord's Prayer is the most perfect piece of poetry. I always feel at peace and moved when I recite it.”

“The miniskirt caused an extraordinarily powerful reaction. There were the people who hated it.”

“The real creators of miniskirt are the girls, the same that you seen in the streets.”

“The whole 1960s thing was a ten-year running party, which was lovely. It started at the end of the 1950s and sort of faded a bit when it became muddled with flower power. It was marvelous.”

“Vidal Sassoon changed hair forever.”

“When I opened my first shop, city gents were still carrying tightly furled umbrellas and wearing bowler hats. It was into this world that I launched my new ideas about fashion.”