Roland Mouret won't have a muse

Designer Roland Mouret refuses to have a muse as he is inspired by a whole variety of women.

Roland Mouret refuses to have a muse.

The fashion designer - whose celebrity fans include Victoria Beckham, Cameron Diaz and Duchess Catherine - says he is inspired by a whole variety of women and won't give preferential treatment to just one.

He told vogue.co.uk: "I design for any woman. I don't like muses, if you have a muse you put someone on a pedestal. I prefer seeing women as they are, I design for women who enjoy being women."

However, one woman Roland does admire is Wallis Simpson - the American divorcee who caused King Edward to abdicate the British throne in 1936 to marry her.

He said: "As a fashion designer, how can you not be interested in her. It was so interesting to me to learn about her life. What you see on the outside isn't always what you see on the inside. She was one of the first women in history to fight against the establishment, to grow in society. She was one of the first to really use her tools as a woman to fight for something - even if it did end up being for nothing.

"Physically, she was very skinny - it was the person that was really attractive - her charisma; how beautiful and sad her life was. She was sexy in a painful way; a painful sexiness. The clothes she wore were austere, but sensual. It was the movement of her body that made her attractive - she was like a perfume, or the way a veil moves - like a ghost almost.

"We use clothes to erase our mistakes and to highlight what we like."