designer inspiration Quotes

I love New York. It's given me so much as a designer. When I moved here, I wanted to tap into the glamour of the city immediately. More than anywhere else, New York offers itself up - you arrive and get a rush in a flash. It's dazzling. Everywhere you look, there is decoration, from a pair of jewel-encrusted shoes in the window in Bergdorf Goodman to the Chrysler Building. And New York is incredibly democratic. Everyone is packed into this tiny space. You are confronted with all manner of people, and I love that.

Rooney Mara is someone I'd like to dress; we've not worked with her before and she certainly has very interesting personal style.

My style has definitely grown since moving to New York and working on 'Gossip Girl.' I'm more aware of a lot of designers and I'm more aware of fashion.

I saw young women in the street dressing in a way that I thought was influencing the designers. Fashion was being influenced by all sorts of different people, and culture and also across the street. So I saw more as a trickle up, than a trickle down influence. When I came to Vogue, that's what I wanted it to reflect.

Halston was one of the hardest-working designers I have come across. The way he cut, moulded, manipulated and draped fabric was inspiring. I was submerged into the Halston subculture alongside Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, Elizabeth Taylor and Truman Capote. They shaped who I have become as a designer.

That was an organic relationship. He reached out to me, and I was like, 'Oh my God, I cannot believe somebody like Laquan Smith wants to put his clothes on me.' He comes from a small place, and he has big dreams, and what I like about him the most is that his clothes curve with your body.

You can see the next big trends in fashion on the red carpet and see what colors, silhouettes are hot right now. You might see Taylor Swift wearing Gucci, and most of us can't afford that Gucci dress, but you can look at the beading and be inspired by it for, say, your prom or a friend's wedding.

I was Versace's muse, I was Valentino's muse, I was Alaia's muse, Lancetti's muse, Calvin Klein's, Halston's. I could go on and on.

I have fashion designers that I definitely respect. After working for a few years in the industry, you want to branch out and do your own thing and I think that's something that has always been important to me is strengthening the brand and just sticking to "this is who we are, this is our identity, this is who we're going to be". I definitely respect other designers but I don't necessarily have one that I look up to.

If you're a designer, there's got to be some films that you've seen that have inspired you creatively. There's no escaping that.

Since it's no longer my singular source of income, I've withdrawn from fashion spaces a bit. However, I still have a deep love for fashion and want to continue to work with designers and houses that inspire me - like Rick Owens, whose show I would no doubt walk in again if the opportunity arose.

She [Kim Kardashian] was always my muse, now she's become other designers' muses.

Are not couturiers the poets who, from year to year, from strophe to strophe, write the anthem of the feminine body?

Well, I'm still experimenting, trying to figure out my style. I'm trying lots of things from many designers including Christian Siriano.

I try to make Play Cloths really representative of me and my designers they look at my evolution as an artist and in fashion and they [zero] in to different details. I come into the office some days and they're like, 'What are those?" [I say,] "[These] are Philip Lim...[I'll] have on Philip Lim sweats and they go and put their spin on it.

I like Rihanna's style a lot. I like how she pulls off this cool tomboy style. I get inspired by other models; I think their off-duty style is cool. I get inspired by new designers that I see on Instagram. It just depends. I get inspired by the '90s a lot, and I look back on old things.

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. Design is about point of view, and there should be some sort of woman or lifestyle or attitude in one's head as a designer. So my being able to reach the masses was something that meant a great deal to me - especially for women who could never wear Vera Wang.

When I look at pictures from when I was younger, I think, "Holy crap, what the hell was I wearing?" I've made it a real mission to fully understand what fashion is all about. I love going to these shows because I love seeing creativity. So when I get to meet these fashion designers, I'm kind of like, "Where did you get the idea to make this? What were you thinking?" Some of that stuff is so crazy and loud.