Delete the negative; accentuate the positive!
Donna Karan
Evening is a time of real experimentation. You never want to look the same way.
Everything in life... has to have balance.
Age and size are only numbers. It's the attitude you bring to clothes that make the difference.
Design is a constant challenge to balance comfort with luxe, the practical with the desirable.
I love building spaces: architecture, furniture, all of it, probably more than fashion. The development procedure is more tactile. It's about space and form and it's something you can share with other people.
I live for what I haven't done.
I design from instinct. It's the only way I know how to live. What feels good. What feels right. What is needed. Give me a problem and I will approach it creatively, from my gut.
I've always been about the power of a woman - accentuating the positive, deleting the negative, whether you're talking her body, her voice or her leadership.
Design and style should work toward making you look good and feel good without a lot of effort so you can get on with the things that matter.
If I weren't doing what I'm doing today... I'd be traveling around the world on the back of a motorcycle.
Women should always take care of themselves first. It makes you more equipped to take care of others.
I truly believe that philanthropy and commerce can work together.
Originally, back in 1992, DKNY started because I couldn't find a pair of jeans. I also wanted to dress my teenage daughter Gabby. So it was the perfect street wardrobe: jeans, anoraks, jumpsuits, boyfriend jackets, sweaters, skirts and dresses. Then DKNY grew into an entire lifestyle concept, including tailored clothes you wear to work.
I give Reiki, which is energy, but I don't tell too many people that.
I'm really quite simple.
To me, design and style should work toward making you look good and feel good without a lot of effort - so you can get on with the things that matter.
I'd rather promote New York than anything else in this world because New York to me means the world.
I think I was a nomad in another life.
I start my day with a mind, body, soul practice - yoga, Pilates or meditation.
Basically, I was a hippie and still am a flower child.
You don't have that much choice in your life, which is one of the big lessons I've learned. I was going to be a designer whether I wanted to be a designer or not.
I feel very strongly about dresses on every level - a dress feels like underpinning.
We've come a long way. Power dressing now is designed to let the woman inside us come through.
When I first started designing, all women were dressed like men, and I said, 'Hey, guys, let's be women, put the two together - it's not either/or. Let's celebrate our bodies. Our bodies are different.'
Scheduling me is not easy, as most people know, because once I start, I don't stop.
I wouldn't be who I am without my husband, who handled the business end of Donna Karan so I could be creative.
Everything I do is a matter of heart, body and soul.
If it's a regular day, I won't wear any makeup, just leave my hair down and head out to the car.
I always thought what you wore underneath was as important as what you wear on top.
I love skiing, I love the sun, I love my children, I love my grandchildren, I love my family and friends... and whatever I haven't done.
My daughter Gabby very kindly once said that she thinks I was a better mother because I was doing a job I loved. I now think guilt is a universal part of being a mother. I used to think it was Jewish-mother guilt but now I think it is working-mother guilt.
I really feel that we need to scale back and get to what is important on so many levels.
I believe in comfort. If you don't feel comfortable in your clothes, it's hard to think of anything else.
When I started Donna Karan, people weren't really accepting the idea of the working woman.
It's really easy to get colors right. It's really hard to get black - and neutrals - right. Black is certainly a color but it's also an illusion.
I'm a nature bug.
My mother was a working woman, and I was alone a lot. So I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom.
It used to be only yoga, but now I do Pilates as well; I feel like I need the balance.
I'm truly, truly boring! I don't change. If people know me, I have not changed.
Business, numbers, negotiations, all that stuff I wouldn't go near.
I always thought I should have been a better mother.
Everything comes out of what works for me.
