The clothes that fire up my emotions are colorful and 'different' pieces. My eye still picks out gilded-cloque glamour from among Burberry's streamlined trench coats or a hand-printed coat from Dries Van Noten.

I am grateful to have spent 25 years at the 'International Herald Tribune' - a newspaper where I had unstinting support in being able to express myself freely and honestly.

At the 'Times,' all journalists on every subject followed the same rules and were supposed to meet the same standards, so I never really thought about fashion writing as being in a bubble.

I don't really believe in elegance. Ever since I first came to France many years ago to do the Chambre Syndicale course, I always felt I was somehow lacking, first of all being British - obviously a disaster! But I was also puzzled with this idea that you have to tie your Hermes scarf just right, or you can only wear black.

I got to get the right people in the right job. Because a lot of costs can be taken out in the context of your administration without the legislature. For example, using technology to do more with less. Using technology to fight fraud. Reorganizing and streamlining can be done within the context of the administration.

I made a movie in Germany called 'The Chambermaid' - it was very, very small. I think it cost €70,000 to make. I even put some money in and raised some money for it. It was real German arthouse... It goes, somehow, out there on the Internet, and it goes on iTunes."

I do like to get away from technology. I still read a lot. Having said that, most of my reading is on computers or a Kindle or an iPad.

Technology has made it a lot easier to be productive. It's incredibly helpful to be able to get little bits of information quickly.