AceShowbiz - Isabel Marant avoids making her designs "too polished." The 56-year-old designer wants her garments to be "sexy" but with "a bit more discretion" and she aims for them to look "cool."

"When something is too perfect, I need to disorganise it, otherwise it's too polished. When I show a sexy dress, I will cover it with a men's jacket to make it cooler and not say, 'Look at me, I'm sexy.' I don't like this. I want to be sexy, but with a bit more discretion, not just be sexy to be sexy," she told America's ELLE magazine.

Isabel's design career has spanned over 30 years and she feels like an elite athlete. She explained, "I feel like a high-level athlete. You train and train and train."

The Frenchwoman's interest in fashion developed because she felt like an ugly duckling growing up. She said, "[My younger brother] was super pretty, when I was not pretty at all. Now, I'm much prettier than my brother. I have my revenge. [Clothes became] a way to express myself, to say, 'I'm here, I exist. I've got ideas. I'm strong.' "

And Isabel loves the craft behind design. She said, "Even if we call fashion an industry, you always have a person behind the sewing machine, and it's still, in a way, handmade."