Quotes by Stephen Bayley - Page 1

You are what you pretend to be.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
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It is sometimes easier to have furniture made than to find things.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Easier
Furniture
Sometimes
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Taste is more to do with manners than appearances. Taste is both myth and reality; it is not a style.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Manners
Myth
Reality
Style
Taste
Appearances
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I have no particular interest in antiquities or antiques, but I like things to meet a certain aesthetic.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Aesthetic
Antiques
Certain
Interest
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My wife and I both love cooking - I am an advanced male - so we argue about who gets to rustle up dinner.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Cooking
Dinner
Males
Wife
Advanced
Male
Argue
Love Wife I Am
Rustle
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You must never aspire to 'finish' a house, you can merely hope to start it, and from then on it's an evolutionary process.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Aspire
House
Process
Evolutionary
Finish
Merely
Start
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If you were born in Britain after World War II, you see a continuous atmosphere of decline, moral and economic and political.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
War
Atmosphere
Britain
Decline
Political
World War Ii
War World Political
War Political World
Continuous
World War
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I wouldn't mind someone lobbing hand grenades at me, but having to reset the timer on the video recorder puts me into a blood-spitting frenzy.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Blood
Frenzy
Hands
Mind
Timer
Video
Grenades
Puts
Recorder
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The assumption must be that those who can see value only in tradition, or versions of it, deny man's ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Men
Assumption
Circumstances
Deny
Tradition
Versions
Adapt
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That's one of the things about getting older isn't it? You suddenly realise that you are what you set out to be. And there are no role models any more.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Getting Older
Models
Role Models
Roles
Realise
Suddenly
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It is the fragrant lack of practicality that makes high-heeled shoes so fascinating: in terms of static mechanics they induce a sort of insecurity which some find titillating.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Insecurity
Mechanic
Shoes
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Interior design is a travesty of the architectural process and a frightening condemnation of the credulity, helplessness and gullibility of the most formidable consumers - the rich.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Design
Process
Rich
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I have a character failing. I am quite incapable of identifying with anything whole-heartedly. Whatever I am doing, I am always planning to do something else. I would rather travel than arrive.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Character
Failing
Identifying
Incapable
Planning
Arrive
Something Else
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While there is a great value in things that are old, it seems that the overwhelming challenge in Britain in the late 20th century is to make every effort to see value in the contemporary and in the future.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Britain
Century
Challenges
Contemporary
Effort
Great Value
Late
Overwhelming
Seems
Challenge
Value
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Watteau is no less an artist for having painted a fascia board while Sainsbury's is no less effective a business for producing advertisements which entertain and educate instead of condescending and exploiting.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Artist
Boards
Condescending
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I have put [the word] "discoveries" in inverted commas because scientific results, perhaps as much at least as artistic achievements, are a product of contemporary taste, driven by momentary appetites rather than eternal verities.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Achievement
Discovery
Taste
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As the twentieth century ends, commerce and culture are coming closer together. The distinction between life and art has been eroded by fifty years of enhanced communications, ever-improving reproduction technologies and increasing wealth.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Art
Communication
Technology
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I just don't understand how you can not be concerned about your appearance. From time to time I'm vilified as the person who cares about the look of a teapot - and it's not that I believe my taste is superior, I just can not believe that other people don't care.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Appearance
Concerned
Don't Care
Taste
Who Cares
Time Believe Your
Cares
From Time To Time
Time Look Believe
Superior
Teapot
Vilified
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I just don't understand how you can not be concerned about your appearance. From time to time I'm vilified as the person who cares about the look of a teapot - and it's not that I believe my taste is superior , I just can not believe that other people don't care.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Believe
People
Who Cares
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In an age robbed of religious symbols, going to the shops replaces going to the church. We have a free choice, but at a price. We can win experience, but never achieve innocence. Marx knew that the epic activities of the modern world involve not lance and sword but dry goods.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Achieve
Dry
Epic
Free Choice
Goods
Innocence
Modern World
Shops
Experience Age World
Activities
Involve
Marx
Price
Robbed
Sword
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Fashion is primitive in its insistence on exhibitionism, which withers in isolation. The catwalk fashion show with its incandescent hype is its apotheosis. A ritualized gathering of connoiseurs and the spoilt at a spotlit parade of snazzy pulchritude, it is an industrialized version of the pagan festivals of renewal. At the end of each seasonal display, a priesthood is enjoined to carry news of the omens to the masses.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Fashion
Gathering
Hype
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Fashion is the most intense expression of the phenomenon of neomania, which has grown ever since the birth of capitalism. Neomania assumes that purchasing the new is the same as acquiring value... If the purchase of a new garment coincides with the wearing out of an old one, then obviously there is no fashion. If a garment is worn beyond the moment of its natural replacement, there is pauperization. Fashion flourishes on surplus, when someone buys more than he or she needs.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Expression
Fashion
Needs
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Everyone has taste, yet it is more of a taboo subject than sex or money. The reason for this is simple: claims about your attitudes to or achievements in the carnal and financial arenas can be disputed only by your lover and your financial advisers, whereas by making statements about your taste you expose body and soul to terrible scrutiny. Taste is a merciless betrayer of social and cultural attitudes. Thus, while anybody will tell you as much (and perhaps more than) you want to know about their triumphs in bed and at the bank, it is taste that gets people's nerves tingling.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Attitude
Sex
Simple
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It is the fragrant lack of practicality that makes high-heeled shoes so fascinating: in terms of static mechanics they induce a sort of insecurity which some find titillating. If a woman wears a high-heeled shoe it changes the apparent musculature of the leg so that you get an effect of twanging sinew, of tension needing to be released. Her bottom sticks out like an offering. At the same time, the lofty perch is an expression of vulnerability, she is effectively hobbled and unable to escape. There is something arousing about this declaration that she is prepared to sacrifice function for form.
Stephen Bayley / Critic
Fashion
Offering
Sacrifice
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Stephen Bayley Quotes - Page 1

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