Paul F. Tompkins Quotes

I wear whatever makes me comfortable on stage, so that I feel confident. Some days it's a plaid skirt with a button-up and other days it's jeans with a hockey jersey and platforms.

What I wear is everything - from how I carry my hair to what I'm wearing on my feet. I have to feel comfortable on stage, so I like to wear things that have room. My mood changes a lot, so sometimes I wear 6-inch heels, and other times I'll perform in bare feet.

When the Strokes first started playing gigs, instead of getting into a costume for the shows, we talked about how we should dress every day, in real life, like we're playing onstage. I don't really care about clothes, but it's about wearing something that gives you social confidence. Or maybe helps you pick up chicks.

My sense of style is influenced by how I feel. I want to express myself because they see you before they hear you. You want to come on stage, and what you look like should represent the song you are playing or the set you are about to play or the message in your music.

When I'm on stage, I generally wear what I would wear every other day, but I think my hair is probably bigger on stage - it seems to be my accessory!

I appreciate art in any form. So it applies to clothes as well. On stage, I think people prefer me in Indian outfits... in fact, it goes with the kind of songs I sing as well. Indianness in the form of a sari, or a chaniya choli or jeans with something interesting, matches my style of singing.

Some people choose their style at the age of 14, but I changed mine all the time.

I know at one point I had bright red hair and I had bracelets from my wrist up to my elbow and I was wearing size 50 pants. I wouldn't wear that today, but I'm not embarrassed about wearing it back then any more.

I was wearing black clothes almost from the beginning. I feel comfortable in black. I felt like black looked good onstage, that it was attractive, so I started wearing it all the time.

What you wear onstage is a reflection of your artistry.

Clothing started as an armor for me. It was one of the ways that I protected myself from the world. It evolved into a form of creative expression.

When I create a song, I immediately think about what I'm going to wear when I perform that song. I think about the music video treatment and about how I'm going to look on stage when I perform the record. The connection is so obvious that it's a single package. An outfit, to me, is almost a tool to express the music.

I went through this phase of Spandex, high heels, and fur coats when I was my late teens and early twenties; before then, I lived in overalls and baggy T-shirts.

Everyone has their own tastes. Some people want to feel like it's Queen onstage, including the dress-up thing, but that's not my style. I do know some people love that and wish I would do it, but I have no interest in that.

When I first started Lion Babe, I wore a lot of denim to perform in because I had a limited closet. A lot of the time, I was in cutoff shorts - either dark or light denim - and then I would pair them with whatever top I had.

Before the start of each new series, I go shopping for my 'Bake Off' wardrobe. I've got increasingly confident with my look and now wear much more colour than I did at the start.

In order to look special wearing the chancy unique; it must be worn with your persona, and if the two don't blend, then the look becomes pear-shaped.

You've got to have style, it helps you get out of bed in the morning.

I used to joke that one of the reasons there was a lack of classical work on my CV was because I couldn't operate in those kinds of trousers. Which is a joke, but it's actually also true - if I want to appear in public I want to look my best. If I'm onstage I like to do contemporary work, largely because of the trousers, because of the clothes. I like a decent, what we used to call a lounge suit. Then I can start to motor.

I think that fashion is very important for me and I think that it's a wonderful means of self-expression.

I don't consider myself a fashion victim. I consider fashion a victim of me.

Whether it's fashion or it's home, it's all about style. The clothes we wear send a message about how we are perceived, and our home does the same thing.

For me the most interesting thing about Leigh Bowery was the way he used his body as a style statement. He was a big guy, but, because he was tall and had long legs, he looked in proportion - even sexy - despite being overweight by conventional standards.

I view my hair and clothes as functional art.

It always seemed to me that men wore their beards, like they wear their neckties, for show.