Since 1985 when I sold my first product - a vintage brooch that I had copied in pewter, to the society jewellers Cobra and Bellamy, I have held fast to some core principles.
People often remark, whilst skirting round the difficult word 'retro' on the conspicuous presence of heritage and tradition in my work. There is a reason for this, a reason why I am often to be found mooching around at auctions and in antique shops - or thrift shops if you prefer.
When Mies van Der Rohe designed his cantilever chair in 1927 there were two billion people in the world. Now there are something over seven billion. Design occupies an interesting point mid-way between aesthetics for aesthetics' sake and pure utility. I guess all of us seven billion people need something to sit on, but the designer's problem in addressing the question of how to add art to the purely functional has become that much harder in a world where the sheer exigency of needing, stuff, for everyone begins to erode an important preface to choice and consumption - discernment.
In the old days, as it were, utility and beauty could be more easily aligned. More time available to conceive things with sufficient regard paid to how long it might all take, then design and construct in such a way that the integrity of the design and its construction were of a piece. Harmony of form and function - what every serious designer should aim for. Human ingenuity will overcome most obstacles but the problem of how to supply the world with the objects it needs without compromising on taste looks like a tough one.
Taste is important. Without it we will end up surrounded by flat pack furniture, 'hospital corridor' art and Euro-box cars, designed by committee, regulated by commission and screwed together by robots. If indeed we are not already there.
As many who know me know I have a bit of a problem with the contemporary idea of 'luxury'. And it really boils down to this: design is not a luxury. If design is a luxury then there are a lot of things, by definition the majority of things, out there that are largely 'design-free'. While this may be somewhat true it still doesn't mean we should tuck aesthetics in design away in some corner marked 'exclusive', with a price tag to go with it. I still believe we can have the best design for the best price. That we can create objects with integrity and quality that do not require the customer to re-mortgage the house in pursuit of a nebulous 'added value' that should never be added in the first place but should rather, be part and parcel of the whole concept.
Therefore I pay tribute to significant moments in the history of design, in art and in the decorative arts to see if I can find a way to take my brand's core values forward into an increasingly complicated, saturated world. It's a way of looking ahead, not back. It's a way of trying to answer the problem of the demands of consumption over quality, a way to integrate, not separate.
There are compromises, there are always compromises. I think the limitations make us dig deeper into ingenuity, make us search for a way. I run my business lean; there's no slack, no fat, precisely because most of the resources and most of the effort have to be available for design - for products of integrity at great prices. If I had an unlimited budget would I create the ultimate holdall, the defining cufflink, the last word in shirt? I doubt it. It would probably just be the last word in 'designer'.
译文：
从1985年我卖掉了我的第一个产品 - 我在锡器中复制的复古胸针，直到遇见社会珠宝商Cobra和Bellamy，我坚持一些核心原则。
人们经常说，在我的作品中避开了“复古”这个艰难的词，突出了传统和遗产的存在。这是有原因的，这就是为什么我常常被发现在拍卖场和古董店 - 或者如果你喜欢的旧货店里。
当Mies van Der Rohe在1927年设计他的悬臂椅时，世界上有20亿人。现在有超过70亿的东西。为了美学和纯粹的实用性，设计在美学中占据了一个有趣的点。我想我们所有人都有70亿人需要的一些东西，但设计师在解决如何将艺术添加到纯功能的问题上时变得更加困难，在这个世界里，每个人都需要的东西都非常紧迫，开始侵蚀选择和消费的重要开端 - 辨别力。
在过去，实用和美丽可以更容易对齐。有更多的时间来充分考虑事情可能需要多长时间，然后设计和构造，使设计的完整性和它的构造融为一体。形式和功能的和谐 - 是每个认真的设计师应该追求的目标。人类的聪明才智将克服大多数障碍，但是如何在不损害口味的情况下向世界提供所需物品的问题看起来很艰难。
味道很重要。如果没有它，我们将最终被平板式家具，“医院走廊”艺术和欧式车厢所包围，由委员会设计，由委员会监管并由机器人拧紧。如果我们确实不在那里。
许多认识我的人都知道我对“奢侈品”这一当代观念存在一些问题。它真的归结为：设计不是奢侈品。如果设计是一种奢侈品，那么有很多东西，根据定义，大多数东西都是“无设计”的。虽然这可能有点真实，但它并不意味着我们应该将设计中的美学设置在标有“独家”的某个角落，并带有价格标签。我仍然相信我们可以以最优惠的价格获得最佳设计。我们可以创建具有完整性和质量的对象，这些对象不需要客户重新抵押房屋，以追求一种模糊的“附加价值”，这种价值绝不应该放在首位，而应该成为整体的一部分，这是一种概念。
因此，我对设计，艺术和装饰艺术史上的重要时刻表示敬意，看看我能否找到一种方法将我的品牌核心价值观推向一个日益复杂，饱和的世界。这是一种向前看，而不是向后看的方式。这是一种尝试回答消费对质量要求的问题的方法，这是一种整合而非分离的方式。
有妥协，总有妥协。我认为这些限制使我们更深入地挖掘智慧，让我们寻找一种方式。我的业务精益求精; 没有松懈，没有脂肪，正是因为大部分资源和大部分努力都必须用于设计 - 对于价格合理的完整产品。如果我有无限的预算，我会创造最终的手提包，定义的袖扣，乃至衬衫的最后一个词？我对此表示怀疑。它可能只是“设计师”中的最后一个词。
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