The big difference between couture and ready-to-wear is not design. It is the fabrics, the handwork, and the fittings. The act of creation is the same.
— Yves Saint Laurent
I had noticed men were much more confident in their clothes. So I sought through trouser suits, trench coats, tuxedos, and pea coats to give women the same confidence.
I told myself repeatedly, 'One day you will be famous.'
I tell myself that I created the wardrobe of the contemporary woman, that I participated in the transformation of my times.
My favorite thing is a black sweater and skirt, which you can wear all the time by changing the accessories.
I live in solitude. I have need of solitude to do the next day's work. I can't be to parties where the noise tires me. I can't speak on the telephone. I must have complete calm.
I'm constantly looking for perfection.
If men wanted to look good in a skirt, they would need the body of an African. And the colour. A skirt with white, skinny legs. Horrible!
I am no longer concerned with sensation and innovation, but with the perfection of my style.
I adore America. It's an extraordinary country. A new country.
It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic, by fashion.
We must never confuse elegance with snobbery.
I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.
I'm very sure of myself - what I do and what I like.
Good clothing is a passport to happiness.
Seeing Cubism paintings at the Beaubourg makes me very happy and, also, old films.
My classmates could see I was not similar. So they made me their scapegoat. They hit me or locked me in the toilets. During the break, I would take refuge in the chapel, or I would arrange to stay alone in the classroom.
When I look at the five thousand garments and then all this music hall work, I ask myself how I could have done it all. I was a phenomenon!
When I was young in the 1960s, all the world watched the youth. Everywhere was the sensation of wanting to break the chains but to do something beautiful. It is my privilege to have beauty always near me.
Poiret made clothes for individual customers, but I wouldn't like to make a dress just for its own sake.
I try to only be in agreeable circumstances.
I wanted women to have the same basic wardrobe as a man. Blazer, trousers, and suit. They're so functional. I believed women wanted this and was right.
I'd really like to be in closer contact with life. I'm a little too distant, I guess. I like to place myself outside.
I'm so secluded. Very alone.
Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it.
Isn't elegance forgetting what one is wearing?
I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.
A visit to Marrakesh was a great shock to me. This city taught me color.
I am very happy to design haute couture. It's a love story between couture and me.
I want to give haute couture a kind of wink, a sense of humour - to introduce the whole sense of freedom one sees in the street into high fashion; to give couture the same provocative and arrogant look as punk - but, of course, with luxury and dignity and style.
I just tried to be an artist in my own metier.
Basic clothes are for all women, to last for decades and decades. They are the future and will never change. I am persuaded of that.
I do not decide that skirts shall be short or long. The shape of the dress itself often dictates the length.
I'm not deceived by people, because I don't pay attention to people.
I hate fashion. I don't have any fun doing it. A show terrifies me.
I couldn't love a woman who inspired me to be totally disinterested. If I fell in love with a woman for an artistic reason, or from the point of view of my work, I think it would rob her of something.
I want to thank all the women who have worn my clothes, the famous and the unknown, who have been so faithful to me and given me so much joy.
A good model can advance fashion by ten years.
Dressing is a way of life.
Fashions fade, style is eternal.
