Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your career in fashion design?

A: Well, I think I've designed about 80 collections. We've actually kept the prototypes that we did for the runway. In the archives, we have almost 10,000 pieces, and we're talking about 10,000 looks with all the jewelry, all the handbags and all the shoes that go with them. Yes, it's enormous, as an archive. I love jewelry, and as you can tell from the exhibition, I'm very fond of earrings. I always think that earrings are very interesting. As my clothes are very richly embellished around the neckline most of the time, I feel that I do not need necklaces. I always go for earrings and I love them quite big — I call them my huge, ginormous earrings, and they are inspired by different parts of the world. I just find them really fascinating. I'm always very inspired. Every single season I do a couple pairs of earrings for my collection.

Q: You call yourself multicultural. Why is that?

A: I was born in Singapore and Singapore, like Salem, was a port city. I was brought up with people of different cultural backgrounds, different religions, speaking different languages. For us, it's just a norm. We have Muslims with Hindus, Buddhists with Christians, all living together. It's a very interesting society because we don't really differentiate. We tolerate each other and we were brought up like that. It just comes very naturally to me. There's a lot of mix and diversity in my collection, East meets West and all that, but this is just our daily life.

Q: How do art history and Asian decorative art and design influence your work?

A: My parents are mad collectors, so they collect anything from glass to porcelain, to paintings, furniture. I'm a bit like that. In fact, when I was much younger, before I went to university to pursue my fashion studies, I actually was thinking that I might want to become a curator in a museum. I was brought up looking at beautiful things and my dad would bring me into the auction houses in England, in America or even in Hong Kong when I was a kid. I've always got this great interest in fine art and in decorative art, especially Asian decorative art, which has always been my great passion. I'm also very interested in architecture, midcentury modern ceramics, sculptures and paintings. It's very diversified and it's really my passion.

We've got two homes: one in Dublin, which is our summer residence, and the one in Paris. I built decor around my collections. The Dublin home is basically filled with 17th- and 18th-century antiques. And the home Paris is, I call it the repertoire of the 20th and 21st century. It's very layered and very rich in terms of ideas. When I'm trying to find ideas and inspirations, I go into my different rooms. I open up a closet and I look at the antique textiles I've collected. I look at the paintings. I look at some sculpture that I have and I always get some inspiration. It's interesting, so rather than saying that shopping in a closet, I'm shopping within my cabinet, my own living rooms and shopping in my bedroom for ideas. I never think too much about, ‘oh, I'm going to do this collection based on this specific period or this specific theme.’ It goes in all different directions.

Q: If you look at your clothing, you see a lot of delicate butterfly and flower motifs. What is your relationship to nature and how does that show up in your clothing?

A: I love nature and I love flowers. I love floral arrangements. I was brought up with my mother going to ikebana classes every week (a type of Japanese floral arranging). I know that every Friday when I get home, there will be a bouquet of ikebana either in our living room or in our dining room. I find peace in nature. When I'm down or when I'm depressed or when I need some inspiration, I always would walk in a forest or walk in a park and look at the beauty of nature and get inspiration, and be happy.

In this collection, you see a lot of coral motifs, a lot of butterflies, flowers, which is my great passion. It's a recurring motif in my collection. They come in all forms: printed, brocade, embroidered, and it's actually a recurring theme in my work.