Fashions fade, style is eternal.
Yves Saint Laurent
Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it.
Good clothing is a passport to happiness.
Dressing is a way of life.
I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.
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.
A visit to Marrakesh was a great shock to me. This city taught me color.
We must never confuse elegance with snobbery.
Isn't elegance forgetting what one is wearing?
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.
My favorite thing is a black sweater and skirt, which you can wear all the time by changing the accessories.
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.
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 just tried to be an artist in my own metier.
I told myself repeatedly, 'One day you will be famous.'
I'm not deceived by people, because I don't pay attention to people.
I am no longer concerned with sensation and innovation, but with the perfection of my style.
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'm very sure of myself - what I do and what I like.
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 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 am very happy to design haute couture. It's a love story between couture and me.
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.
I do not decide that skirts shall be short or long. The shape of the dress itself often dictates the length.
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.
I'm so secluded. Very alone.
A good model can advance fashion by ten years.
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'm constantly looking for perfection.
Seeing Cubism paintings at the Beaubourg makes me very happy and, also, old films.
I hate fashion. I don't have any fun doing it. A show terrifies me.
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!
It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic, by fashion.
I try to only be in agreeable circumstances.
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.
I adore America. It's an extraordinary country. A new country.
I tell myself that I created the wardrobe of the contemporary woman, that I participated in the transformation of my times.
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!
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.
Poiret made clothes for individual customers, but I wouldn't like to make a dress just for its own sake.
