'I live two lives. Most of the time I am based in Cornwall [in southwest England] with my partner and three kids but I also have a flat in London. I do two days a week in the city then spend the rest of my time in Cornwall.
A typical day in Cornwall starts at 5.30am because I wake up with my baby. I wake the rest of the kids at 7am.
I get them to school then come back home for an hour, sit down and go through my e-mails and make calls. Then I go out [horse] riding - it's my latest obsession. I ride for a few hours then pick up the kids from school around lunchtime. Back at the house I probably make a few more calls but the rest of my afternoon is spent with the kids.
I can choose to do a lot of things during the day but the afternoon is always about the kids. We tend to have an early dinner - I don't cook though, I already have too much to do during the day - and I put them to bed quite early. The rest of the evening is usually when I do most of my work and research. I rarely read or watch television because it's the only time I can find to do work. I am usually in bed by about 10.30pm because I am so exhausted by then.
My London life is quite different. I get the train in, usually in the morning, which is a bit of a slog because it takes four hours. My flat is in Primrose Hill but I go straight to our office in Shoreditch, East London. It's a cool area because all the [Central] St Martins [College of Art and Design] crew such as Giles [Deacon] and [Alexander] McQueen are nearby. In fact, most of my mates have offices in the same building, so we visit each other all day long. It's like a little collective.
When I get in I go through everything with the design team and speak to them about my new ideas and other things pertaining to the collection. It's a small team - I have two other girls working with me on ready-to-wear and one girl working on bags. It's hard to say how long it takes to make a collection. I want my collection to be wearable and accessible, so it takes time to research the right fabrics that are also affordable. It's no longer about making the collection the night before; it's more about how long it takes you to get what you need. It's still very personal.
Many people don't know I am a half-trained fashion designer - I left St Martins before I finished my degree. As a teenager I loved fashion and all I wanted to do was study at St Martins and be in London. St Martins actually was a scary and very frightening place. I was there at the same time as the stars: McQueen, Hussein Chalayan and all the hard male designers. Then there was me and my group of friends, like Phoebe Philo and Stella McCartney - the girls. And it wasn't really about the girls. So I took a different path and decided to go into writing.