John Rocha Quotes
I'm like a conductor. I come up with ideas, and I get all these people to make great music together. I have a team of really talented assistant designers. I have architects in my office. People I trained from the beginning in menswear, womenswear, and home. I have a great team who know what I want and feel and translate that into beautiful results.
Quotes to Explore
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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.
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I think, as a designer, what you have to do is challenge yourself to do what you do, but better.
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I can speak Cantonese, but I can't speak about fashion - I learnt all my fashion in Europe, so often, during interviews in Chinese I just don't know the right word - it can be very hard to explain things.
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I always challenge myself to do something better, and people in the industry appreciate that.
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I'm a British designer, and it's great to show on your own ground.
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My homes are similar in style because the same design principles run through all areas of my work.
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We have achieved tremendous success in Ireland and internationally on the strength of our creativity and design skills.
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I have no idea why, but I find that men make more of an impact on me in films than women - even very beautiful ones.
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My dream home would be a fishing lodge in New Zealand.
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Fashion remains closest to my heart. I get genuinely excited by my collections - I never wanted to be a businessman.
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My life is about family and friends as well as work.
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When I was young, we always went to our posh cousins at Christmas. My dad made sure we had new shoes and clean clothes - he was really proud - and that's why I felt different from everyone living around me. We had the first television on the estate, the first fridge.
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I believe that IT is the way forward. Every other industry utilises IT, and I feel that fashion needs to use it more extensively to move forward.
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I dress pop stars, and I dress my doctor. It's about attitude. I do what I love, and I'm lucky to do it. It's a long way from Hong Kong.
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Design has always been at the heart of our business.
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I turned my hand to costume design a few years ago when I created the outfits for 'This Is the Sea,' with Richard Harris and Samantha Morton. It's a very different discipline to being a fashion designer, though - you have to rein in your own vision and work to a tight brief.
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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.
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Dubai is a vibrant city: Big cars, big buildings... it reminds me of my home town, Hong Kong. People are always on the move here, and there's a lot going on. There are some wonderful architecture and some not-so-wonderful.
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To create a beautiful thing with unlimited money is easy!
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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.
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When I left college, nobody expected much of me - and nor did I.
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I still love Birkenstocks. I just think they are the most comfortable things; I even wear them in winter sometimes.
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It might be a selfish choice, but I find it quite difficult to design for individuals and prefer the distance of larger schemes. It's the same reason why, as a designer, I don't do wedding dresses.
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As you get older, your skin tone will change, and that means the colours that suit you best change, too. Take a trip to a department store and ask for advice, or simply hold colours close to your face in the mirror, as this should give you a good idea of what works.