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When I started at Ricci, I did street wear for very cool, young girls, but the price point was for the fourth floor of Bergdorf Goodman next to Carolina Herrera. My cool girls cannot afford it.
Being born in '31 was during the Depression and in my earlier youth World War II took place - so it was not the best of times, and yet I don't recall ever having experiences that were a burden.
What someone wears is an expression of oneself. When you're just comfortable with what you're wearing, you don't have new thoughts. I want people to feel something and think about who they are.
After all these years of creating my collections, I still doubt my decision even until the last minute before the fashion show, I keep questioning myself and wondering if I did the right thing.
Second-guess [myself]? Yes, I do. I question everything I do every step of the way. Once I make the decision I'm almost blinded by believing in it, and then I usually hate everything I've done.
I'm very aware that when my friends and I sit around over dinner these days, the conversation invariably turns to how crass the world has become. Tweeting? It's one of the silliest things ever.
I've worked in many companies, and I think that, number one, if you are going to have a great environment, you produce great work... If people are happy, that's what's important. Life is short.
I brought color to bridal. There was one whole season of blush. If you think about the bareness, the illusion (fabric), the corsets that I did in bridal, they were trends in ready-to-wear, too.
I started at the very highest level so the upper end is something I know very well. I know it instinctively. But all the years I was designing, it frustrated me that I could reach so few women.
I work on fittings, mostly. You know, I sketch less and less in my work. I sketch for the show sometimes, but then it becomes more conceptual. But when I don't sketch, it becomes more pragmatic.
The Ed Hardy man is confident with a strong sense of personal style. He is not afraid to be seen and take risks. He enjoys comfort and flexible style, yet he wants to stand apart from the crowd.
The worst thing is to be a designer and create work that isn't honest. You have to be honest. Otherwise, you'll always be a reaction to what other people do and you'll always be one step behind.
A lot of my collections are informed by nostalgia. I think that's because I loved clothes early on. I remember, at maybe age five, being concerned about what I wore, right down to the underwear.
I hate amateurs. I hate unprofessional people. There are enough people who can do jobs decently that there's no reason that people who cannot do them decently [should] pretend to be great at it.
I like newspapers. Maybe the iPad is very modern and everything, and I'm not against it, but I like the physical contact. And the physical contact of metal and glass is not as sensuous as paper.
If I was a woman, I would be dressed in the same thing for a month and just change my hat and gloves. Maybe my shoes too; yes, I see what you mean but, really, it's jewels that change an outfit.
I love the entire ritual of getting dressed. When we do a fashion show, we try to send out a message; we couldn't do that without the hair and makeup. The whole is equal to the sum of its parts.
If I were to find something that is going to be more important to me than fashion - that would be work and love - then I probably would let go. That's a possibility. But fashion is an addiction.
A healthy mind and body are essential. No excesses. Proper food. The body is like a Rolls-Royce. With care, it could last 200 years. It's a dynamo; the more you use it, the more you recharge it.
I never had a massive desire to buy clothes. I liked to customise the clothes I already had or was given when I was younger. If I didn't like them that much, I made them how I wanted them to be.
I came here because I wanted to live the American dream that I had heard of. And I'm a perfect example. I came to New York; I knew no one. I've made a career, a life, so I still believe in that.
In the nineties, it was common to see people who expressed themselves through one designer - the Jil Sander woman, the Martin Margiela woman. You saw her on the street, and you knew who she was.
I had a very nice life. I was a very good kid. I had nice friends. I played in the school yard. I was nice to my parents; they were nice to me. They were loving parents - they were always there.
I always just wanted to have enough to carry on. I never had ambitions to take over the world or be a global enterprise. But I wanted to have a strong business in order to do the main objective.
I am super-Italian, not even European - Italian. And this is very precise. It's like houses. Over time they stabilize themselves in the terrain. I am still at the first step of a long staircase.
Just because one is spiritual doesn't mean that one doesn't like crocodile, cashmere. We live in a material world. We still experience these things. It doesn't mean to completely disregard them.
I was stigmatized by being a bridal designer for a long time. I am amazed I have been able to move beyond it. I had really all but given up trying, but I did it because it was my lifelong dream.
Many, many times I find that whatever is looking good on the screen doesn't always look or feel good on the body. So who do we design for - do we design for the screen, or do we design for women?
I was never a big networker, but I was a spin doctor, all those shock shows, that's how I got my first backers. But fashion's a scary industry to be in, especially if you've not grown up with it.
Fashion is silly. Perhaps I should say fashion in general is silly. But then everything is, in general. If you talk about music in general, it's silly; about magazines, in general, they're silly.
I was getting a lot of editorial, as in lots of pages in 'Vogue,' but it's far more important to get your dresses on the back of a famous person. Charlotte Rampling in Bruce Oldfield. That sells.
I say to my industrialist friends, when you have guests from out of town, I don't care how important they are, you should feed them the essence of Italian culture: spaghetti, bread and olive oil.
With all the yoga and meditation that I do, when the chaos happens it happens. But I'm not as affected as a lot of people - I don't react as much. I just let things drip off my back a little bit.
Now the industry is looking at the change in a very real way - to find ways of talking to the consumer much faster. Everything we have is changing with communication - from fashion to newspapers.
Perfume puts the finishing touch to elegance - a detail that subtly underscores the look, an invisible extra that completes a man and a woman's personality. Without it there is something missing.
I've tried to find a new elegance. It's not easy because people want to be shocked. They want explosive fashion. But explosions don't last, they disappear immediately and leave nothing but ashes.
You work around a body and adapt the clothes to your own customer, and this is the interesting part. This is why the haute couture exists: because in ready-to-wear, you have not too much fitting.
I guess I accidentally became a part of history. Honestly, when you're young and you're a designer, you have a goal, but that is not the kind of goal that you even think it's possible to achieve.
I have so much to be thankful and grateful for, and I just think about my fans, who did put me to where I am. I can promise you this: my appointment at Moschino did not come from anyone but them.
I do love fashion. I certainly wouldn't suffer all the stress that comes with it if I didn't really love it. I always talk about the team of people I work with every day. They share that passion.
The content could be done anyplace, but the real invention is the architecture. The architecture is the only work that really defines a new way of doing things. I think this point is fundamental.
For a long time, my uniform consisted of a trench coat, wide flared jeans, and little bottines - I copied a pair that my mother had in this theater place. I had, like, 10 pairs of the same shoes.
It's not me that's obsessed with my weight, it's everyone else. I know that I'm healthy, so I don't really feel the need to answer to anyone. I've never substituted a meal for a salad in my life.
Historical costumes from the 18th and 19th centuries look so complicated, but when you see the patterns, it's very systematic. I've always been impressed by how the patterns economize the fabric.
It was a challenge for me to see how I could deal with that at Jil, and I had a lot of doubt about it. I wondered if maybe it was just better to do your own thing in the long run, like an artist.
It's the kind of clothes that mothers and daughters can wear, in terms of concept... It's not about age. It's about taste, and it's about lifestyle. I believe women of all ages can wear anything.
My grandmother was probably the first person who I thought was beautiful. She was incredibly stylish, she had big hair, big cars. I was probably 3 years old, but she was like a cartoon character.
My evening really begins when I take a long, hot bath. I light a candle, and I turn on the news and try to catch up. It's when I can breathe from the day to the night, and that means a lot to me.
If I wasn't a designer I would love to be a doctor. That is my fantasy, my dream. A doctor will give you a tablet if you have a headache and I will give you a dress and we both make you feel good.
The worst thing that can happen is if you're stuck within a bubble and you think that is what life is all about. It's great to see other people and hear from people of different ages and opinions.