MARCEL WANDERS

Why would you spend your life and your time doing something that's insignificant?

When I was a student, my first luxury purchase was a drafting table. It may not seem like a major purchase, but for me, it was the most important thing I could think of to spend my money on.

I love Milano. Historically, the city is the biggest intellectual design thinking container. It is the cradle of design as well as the hometown of the mothers of its important heroes.

Every project has its own logic and parameters. In some objects, functionality is primary, and in others, it is rather inconsequential.

When you look at the work you do every day, you do see things. But if you look at the work you did for 25 years, suddenly you start to get a more complete picture.

I can't be boring. If people like my designs, then meet me and find out that I'm boring, they won't want my stuff.

People like their handbag more than their sofa, and I hate it.

I have 60 people working for me in my studio. That's luxury if you ask me. I just dream. Tell those people that I want a certain thing. Those people will then invest days, and sometimes months, in bringing that idea to life. What more could you ask for? That's luxury for me.

I collect memories. I look for opportunities to try new things, go to new places, and meet new people all the time.

I wear mascara sometimes, a little lip gloss.

Nobody's interested in something that could've been done before.

I want to create a world with objects and surroundings that are human, more romantic, and less sterile.

The things I own are sacred.

An object should elicit desire, and often it happens not because people need it but because they love it.

I like swimming. I like the beach. I like fast cars. I like speedboats.

I'm not the type of person who feels bad about things before. I choose what to do at the moment, and I have a very good reason for it; otherwise, I don't do it. If later my feelings change, I should celebrate now by being more wise, not feel bad about before.

There are many design companies, but there are few designers who organize their own business and open it up to other designers.

Designers have been uncreative and very arrogant. They need to listen to people. People have always wanted more exciting, interesting design, but we designers didn't see it.

Great design is so many things all at the same time. It is emotional, functional, and responsive. It creates an unwritten dialogue, a connection, between itself and those who experience it. It is open to interpretation yet created for a specific purpose. It creates meaning and value.

Being open to the unexpected allows me to bring so much to my craft.

Humor has the tendency to be funny once. If I tell you a joke, we're going to have a big laugh. But the second time I tell the joke, it's going to be a bit strange, and the third time you're going to ask if there's something wrong with me. So I am very cautious with jokes, but there is a lightness in my work.

I like to find areas where design has not yet gone.

I have been a designer all my life, and design, for me, is to share love and trust and show the future in a beautiful way. I have worked on this principle all my life.

I like transparency. I love to have views throughout the house.

I am quite familiar with Dubai and its design scene. I have been a regular visitor for more than 10 years. It is hard to name an area where hospitality, friendship, culture, ambition, and beauty are so highly regarded.