The way you dress is an expression of your personality.
Alessandro Michele
Beauty has no boundaries, no rules, no colors. Beauty is like a religion. You can include everything inside it.
The way you dress is really the way you feel, the way you live, what you read, your choices. That's what I want to put into Gucci.
There is something special about the beauty in the unclear, the ambiguity, the in-between that you can't totally recognise.
Vintage is my vocabulary... like the notes of a musician.
I love taking prints, embroidery, appliques - precious things that seem to be from another time - and using them to create a contemporary, new story.
My way to think about creation is like the end of the world. I love confusion. So music and image, picture, fabrics, people, person, talk: That's my way to work. And food. And perfumes. I love perfumes. And flowers and plants, and dresses and vintage.
Clothes are endless possibilities for meaning because with every change or different association, you are a different person.
I adore pink; it's very powerful. It makes you feel sweet and sexy, also if you are a man.
Fashion should be genderless; how people perceive the idea of beauty can vary from one to another.
For me, my way to think about everything in fashion is a very baroque way.
There is something in Shanghai that is very exciting and alive - the idea of a city with two different souls, one from today and another from a long time ago, is amazing.
Fashion is not about product; it's about an interesting idea that you can't resist buying into.
Gender and sex are about rules which we have invented, but we are animals; we belong to nature.
Snoopy was a philosopher in a way.
I love to mix everything together. It's really my way to see beauty.
I'm obsessed with trompe l'oeil - the idea of something that is existing and is not existing.
If you have rules, you let creativity sleep.
My idea for Gucci was crazy, but that's the only idea I had. I was sure I'd be fired after the first show.
I like it when I see people dressed on the street, and it looks like Gucci, but it's not. It means you are doing something right.
Trees and flowers are so important. The idea of blooming is the idea of becoming something different.
When I started to work at Gucci, I tried literally to destroy everything.
I understand that people want to see just the posh side of fashion, but fashion is a lot of work.
With a brand like Gucci, you have to give something that belongs to beautiful Italian culture in terms of craftsmanship and materials.
It has been a marvellous experience and a great gift collaborating with Madonna. Now that I have had the chance to see her working, I truly understand why she is so grand! I believe she is a true artist, and I am crazy about her.
I love couture, but the other side of me loves the street, and I think the mix of these two can create something new.
My father was a shaman. He told me that time doesn't exist. He didn't use a clock. He didn't know when my birthday was.
The future is not so interesting for me because the future doesn't exist. I am really focused on the contemporary.
I have a big passion for flowers and nature.
For me, nothing is old. I don't know why. If a dress is beautiful, and it's very personal, I think it can live forever.
I have something inside of me that every day tells me that nature and beauty is the soul, the meaning, of our life. And I also love Hollywood and cinema.
Luxury means that you show the way you dress with eccentricity.
For me, fashion is something that makes you feel alive, that expresses something of you: if you are sad, if you are happy.
The more you are different, the more interesting. The more you are not like me, the more I want to get to know more about you.
In fashion, people are very focused on the future, but I really love to talk about the present.
I had two different kind of parents. My mother was obsessive with movie stars and cinema and Hollywood because she worked in movies. And my father was obsessed with beauty everywhere - in art, in nature, animals.
There should be no boundaries, no hierarchy, no violence. Men and women are equal.
Fashion is the most beautiful illusion you can have.
Creativity is not about the fame.
I think if you work with different kinds of codes, attitudes, in the end you have a language. It's like within a person. You are not always the same.
I think we need to dream.
I've always been intrigued and fascinated by Gaga. She is a chameleon; she has the capability to fully express her individuality and her eclectic personality by simply being herself.
I am brazen. For me, creating means regurgitating, distorting, and assembling everything that has passed through me and continues to do so.
My mum was obsessed with dress... so, in my house, there was always the obsession about aesthetics. She was obsessed with the idea that a beautiful movie is the one where you're so involved you won't go to the toilet during it, or you'll fall asleep with your make-up on after.
I grew up with a father who didn't wear a watch, and this has permanently marked my relationship with time.
I become mad when I work. It's like a fever that grows; I don't need to choose just one thing.
The idea that I'm 45 doesn't mean that I have no creativity. I'm like a student: it's the same - it's not a war!
I just try to see what happens when you put your feet on the accelerator.
You have to be open to dreaming. It's a complicated language, but I'm obsessed with it.
I'm a collector of everything.
