Many designers are gay men making clothes for women. Sometimes I think fashion is more of a conversation between men than it is for women.
Film has always been a really good tool for me to communicate emotion about why I create a collection. I'm probably one of the first designers to make short films.
When you hear designers complaining about the challenge of their profession, you have to say: don't get carried away-it's only dresses.
There are two kinds of designers: ones who are very happy locked in their office surrounded by their coterie. The last thing they need to do is to go to a trunk show; they'd go running for the hills. I not only enjoy it, I think, how do you design things that are applicable to life - unless you live it?
When I create a collection, I approach it with a cinematic point of view-I am not designing clothes, I'm creating a world.
As a designer I like to work with fabrics that don't bleed. That's why I avoid all animal skins.
I’ve always been very detail orientated, but I have gone from embellishment to nudity - from designing for a woman that likes to be dressed to designing for a woman that likes to be undressed.
Ugly is very popular this year...I had a feeling these clothes were deigned by someone who didn't like women.
I don't see Dior as something that could become mine. I see it as a dialogue with the women who wear it. I want to stay connected to them rather than to an abstract brand.
My role is to find strategic insights as to where design can have the most business impact. A designer can bring a viewpoint of not just aesthetics, but economics and usage.
I'm a designer, and I think if you work in fashion, you have to give people fantasy.
I love to be in New York. And I think anybody who's a designer, who says they're doing an urban collection, thinks about the streets of New York. I cannot do an urban collection thinking of Bangkok. Or Mexico. To me, it's totally instant, totally connected with what attracts me these days. But this resurgence of a modern, cool way of being dressed is something that stimulates me and is totally right for me. Even now I don't like to show something that is some futuristic utopia.
I've always loved fashion and, of course, enjoyed my experiences walking on runways, but I love watching the shows as well! Now I understand more why it's such a big deal for the industry and why people work so hard before and during fashion weeks. It's interesting to see the same things from a different angle.
This is what I like about being a designer: You can't really get it until you see it.
I think designers are starting to realize that we're all in the same industry. We're making clothes - we aren't saving the world. I'm not saying that designers aren't artists, but at the end of the day, we make clothes.
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.
I believe that it's very important to get to know people with whom you can have a substantive dialogue about design and its development. In addition, read everything about fashion that you can get your hands on. A palpable point of view is what makes a designer, so you need to be confident about yours.
The biggest challenge and the thing I find most enjoyable about being a designer is taking everything in and assimilating it for your perspective, hopefully making it relevant and interesting to people.
I don't make clothes for the critics.
When a designer creates, he looks at the world around him.
To me, the most emotional thing is to see regular people wearing our clothes. Yes, sometimes I see our clothes on somebody, and I think, 'No!', but you can't stop someone in the street and say, 'Please go home and change.'
I'm an American designer. It's important to riff on that. I remember, when my mom and I first came to the States, she was so shocked that everyone was so dressed down in sandals and shorts. It's not quite like that in Asia. To give that a superluxurious makeover? For me to make street wear? It's sort of chic to do it.
I make clothes people can wear; I don't make art.
It's really rare that you find a designer who's willing to dress people who maybe present more masculine in their womenswear.
For people who know McQueen, there is always an underlying message. It's usually only the intellectual ones who understand what's going on in what I do.
