Stephen Jones OBE: five things I know about style

1 My glamorous older sister took me to Biba in Kensington Church Street when I was 10. I remember spotting a pair of shoes with Mickey Mouse all over them. The scales fell from my eyes. I hadn't realised that fashion existed before that. 2 Individual style comes from being an individual. I bought the first Roxy Music album in 1972. The world that Bryan Ferry had created was extraordinary - it was why I bought blue suede platforms and insisted on wearing them at boarding school. 3 My style rules are: drag on the over-40s is never particularly becoming; pure white is too harsh and best avoided; and save black for special occasions - I used to wear it a lot, but I save it now as it's such an extraordinary and persuasive colour. 4 My parents gave me my most treasured possessions: my sense of colour and line from my mother, and my sense of physics and three dimensions from my father. I'm now aware that those genes are the most vital gifts anyone could have given me. 5 Isabella Blow was one of the greatest hat wearers of our time. She cared deeply about her work, but she was also a visual feast. A Stephen Jones retrospective opens at MoMu Fashion Museum, Antwerp, on 8 September. See stephenjonesmillinery.com