20th-century Fashion Designer Quotes

Rihanna

Victoria Beckham

Yves Saint-Laurent

Karl Lagerfeld

Christian Dior

Alexander McQueen

Pharrell Williams

The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: 'Look what I killed. Aren't I the best?'

Katharine Hamnett

Jack, stop telling people you're Ozzy Osbourne's son to get into places, you're a fucking loser!

Sometimes fashion moves from the moment to the moment to the moment. But where is the integrity in design?

All a designer can do is to anticipate a mood before people realize that they are bored. It is simply a matter of getting bored first

I think that Saint Laurent was probably the master of enhancing the feminine form. I mean, OK, it was sometimes a bit androgynous, but I do think he knew about femininity. I think he liked women... whereas there are others who quite clearly didn't.

Yesterday people were permitted to change things. They will be permitted to advocate changing them tomorrow. It is only dangerous to think of changing anything today.

Elizabeth Hawes

Work hard and you will make it; at the end, it's all about your design philosophy.

I am addicted to the habit of winning. If I am going to compete, I want to win, no point in being there for the walk.

A bikini is not a bikini unless it can be pulled through a wedding ring.

Most male painters have historically admired the female form. It's got a lot going for it.

Stella McCartney

I made a mistake with these stores; I didn't do it myself and it's wrong. So I've had to let people go and there's nothing I hate more than having to get rid of kids. It breaks their hearts. But you know what? It affects sales. Should garment workers at my factory suffer because we fuck up the casting? What I'm looking for is style—that's not something you can teach a person. You have it or you don't. Let's say one girl has an acne problem but good style, while another one is beautiful but has no style. I'm picking acne!

I've questioned issues of gender and sexuality since I was a teenager, and I did some experimenting.

When I don't have any ideas, I pick up fabric and start working with it and something happens.

The clothes in themselves do not make a statement. The woman makes the statement and the dress helps.

I'm 40 now. When I'm dead, hopefully this house will still be going.

Alexander McQueen

Design is not for philosophy – it's for life.

I would like to be remembered as the person who created a modern elegance.

Every artist should live by these words: Never feel bad about successfully selling your creations. Never feel bad about creating art you can't sell.

Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof. Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth.

Pharrell Williams

As far as I'm concerned playing 'Dress Up' begins at the age of five, and never truly ends.

If you're not sure what to wear, if you don't know how everyone else is going to be, then just be at your most beautiful.

Diane von Fürstenberg

In order to create an image almost similar to that of a pencil case standing up and walking, I try to eliminate all excess by cutting. I have the feeling that this process (of "cutting off") is linked in some way to "elegance". Elegance and so-called "eliminating excess", or the beauty that remains after excess has beeen eliminated...

Men also have to be seductive – and with men it is more difficult because it's not in their education.

Jean-Paul Gaultier

Rock and roll doesn't necessarily mean a band. It doesn't mean a singer, and it doesn't mean a lyric, really... It's that question of trying to be immortal.

Malcolm McLaren

I don't believe in fashion dictatorship, and I find that anybody who follows the dictates of fashion is a bit lost. I'm excited by style, not so much by fashion.