With only one bag, you can change your outfit completely.
Sonia Rykiel
How can you live the high life if you do not wear high heels? I don't understand why women wear these ballet pumps. They are only good if you walk like a ballet dancer, and only ballet dancers do that.
The key to my collections is sensuality.
Being one step ahead of a fashion trend is not so important to me. What matters is to always forge ahead.
I hate the word 'feminine!' I mean, there is a woman and a man, and when I say 'woman,' it suggests all that is radiant, tender, fascinating, gentle, demoniac, exaggerated! 'Feminine' makes me think of somebody who is spindly and over-sweet - I don't like that!
It's not true that clothes look better on skinny girls; what counts is the attitude.
I wanted women wearing my sweaters to give the impression they were naked. The aim wasn't to impose outfits but to stay as close as possible to women's bodies and their freedom of movement.
I have no regrets in life, and you know what? If I could, I'd go back and do it all again.
I don't know how to knit.
I came from an intellectual Parisian family. My father was a watchmaker; my mother was a housewife. We discussed politics, art, sculpture - never fashion.
I was fascinated by stripes from the start. On clothing, they follow a woman's movements.
For me, luxury isn't just the real thing. It's also fake. Swarovski crystals or real diamonds? It's a game.
Artifice is art.
Fashion should be a kind of bouillon de culture.
I was a tomboy, always fairly eccentric, and convinced I'd grow up to be an actress.
I invented a sweater so small, so close to the body, that Women's Wear Daily nicknamed it 'The Poor Boy Sweater' and consecrated me queen of knitwear.
As soon as the show is over, I always think, 'How will the woman I design for go forward?' It's so important to start quickly because I can't let her get away.
I don't think that clothes have anything to do with the personality. That comes from the woman herself.
As soon as I am up, I brush my hair. I eat breakfast first: tea and brown bread, and sometimes a fresh fruit juice like orange or grapefruit. I write notes on the previous day in my notebook, then I shower.
Everyone knows that life is very expensive and you can change, you can turn, you can play with clothes with a lot of accessories.
To me, the biggest revolution of the 20th century was the pill.
A dress will never make a woman sexy, fatale, magnificent, mysterious. It's a way of walking, of standing, or existing, the way you give your hand or your regard. That's what makes the dress.
I love chocolate. Black chocolate with marshmallow inside, caramel inside. If I could only have two foods, I'd take some fantastic chocolate. And some terrible chocolate. I love the Clark Bar.
You can have a conversation with your eyes.
The pill was the liberation of the spirit of women.
French women famously take care over their appearance, but this wasn't instilled in me as I grew up. I was taught that beauty comes from different places, from the inside and from the outside.
People said making clothes inside out was not proper. I disagreed, because clothes that are inside out are as beautiful as a cathedral.
I'm not brave, I'm not fantastic. I'm like any other woman. I'm unhappy. I'm difficult. I'm sad. Am I strong, too? Maybe, but not always. There are days when I don't want to see anyone. The most important thing you learn? You can live with it.
I always believe in pants. You can play with your legs, your attitude, with pants. It's much more funny. It's much more sophisticated. It's much more arrogant, like a man with feminine attitude. I love pants.
The natures of men and women are very mixed, and for me, the most fascinating type of woman is the one who is a little masculine, has a little of the man in her, and the sort of man who is fabulous is the one who is a little woman, too. It's impossible not to mix them!
My shows are about the complete woman who swallows it all. It's a question of survival.
A woman and a dress, very often, fight against each other because they are not at the same place. Sometimes you see the woman moving the belt around. She is making the robe her own. She needs that. Otherwise, the dress doesn't exist.
Since I didn't know anything, I did everything I wanted.
I don't read e-mails because I hate them.
The Rykiel woman? She doesn't have time to stop time. She's too busy running. In her hands she's carrying a tote, a baby, a book, a camera.
Paris was a melting pot.
At hotels, you are an actress. Absolutely. You can do what you want. Go where you want. I love my home too. But I love to arrive in a hotel. They have books, chocolate, food. I put things in the little refrigerator.
My breakfast is very important.
My mother knitted a lot, but I never did; it was no fun.
My color is black. And black, if it's worn right, is a scandal.
I care a lot about my looks, although I'm not too adventurous. Every day I dress the same way in a kind of 'uniform' of black, although in varying fabrics - it's always black.
I never played a part in the feminist movement - it touches me, but I am not a militant.
I think in the darkest moments, we need a break.
It's useless to send models out on the runway to cry.
You have to be luxurious nude. It's difficult to move in the nude in front of a mirror. It's much easier to move when you're dressed. But if you can walk around in the nude easily in front of your man, if you can be luxurious in the nude, then you've really got it.
First I made a dress because I was pregnant and I wanted to be the most beautiful pregnant woman. Then I made a sweater because I wanted to have one that wasn't like anyone else's.
I am what I am. Before I was not so proud to make fashion. My family thought fashion wasn't very interesting. So I hid that.
What pushes me forward is everything I have learned: political, social, cultural. I put all that into the clothes.
To be modern is to be aware of what is going on.
I was supposed to be a mother like my mother, who didn't work.
